The Glasgow School of Art

Can we reimagine the active relationships between arts, culture, design and society for our time? As a recent exhibition in Berlin shows, the impulse to radicalise that relation and rethink art education had a long pedigree in the twentieth century. The Bauhaus is traditionally viewed as creating alternative pedagogies in relation to art. To what extent was that actually true, and to what extent can we still see it that way. What new pedagogical strategies are needed and how do we create them adapted to the institutions and practices of contemporary life? BAUHAUS DAY brings Grant Watson (co-curator of Bauhaus Imaginista, Berlin) to GSA and CCA, and through discussion and a series of studio workshops we examine these questions.

The Glasgow School of Art remains – like the Bauhaus was – a school of practitioners. Mature practitioners nurture budding practitioners thorough cooperative and mutual engagement in the studio in exchange of skills working on material. What sort of models might this provide for alternative pedagogies in the contemporary world? Can the studio be an exemplar via its engagement in peer-to peer learning, deschooling and paragogy for undoing, avoiding and pushing beyond the damaging hierarchy-ridden structures society has inherited from history?

With a full experience of practice and an eye backwards to the achievements of Bauhaus and forward to the future, studio staff give workshops all afternoon. 

Registering for Bauhaus Day via Eventbrite will give you a ticket for the introductory lecture, and the option to book on the optional workshops and closing lecture.

Introductory Lecture

12.30-1.30pm Grant Watson – Alternative Pedagogies – learning from the Bauhaus
How did they transform the teaching of art in the Bauhaus? This is something that is of international concern, and the radical and alternative pedagogies of the Bauhaus was a major part of the three year international research project which Grant Watson carried out to curate the Bauhaus Imaginista programme in Berlin. He will focus his introductory talk on the radical practices of the Bauhaus and a discussion will follow.

Workshops

2-4pm Typography with Jo Petty
3-5pm Colour with Robert Mantho
2-5pm Working in Stone with Thom Simmons
2-5pm Stained Glass with Eilidh Keith

Workshops are free, but limited to 15 people per workshop, and you will be sent details on how to reserve your place, if you wish, after registration.

Lecture

6pm GRANT WATSON: BAUHAUS IMAGINISTA

What did it mean to do away with the old academic styles of teaching by rote, to dump the distinction between art and craft and to engage in experimental and artistic research on material in the age of mass production of goods? Grant Watson of RCA and co-curator of Bauhaus Imaginista in Berlin, will speak on how the Bauhaus invoked a host of alternative pedagogies in art education, and how we can view that history critically now. 

This event is presented by 'Flourish' at The Glasgow School of Art in partnership with SCAN, as part of Curatorial Studio, a project devised by curator Kirsteen Macdonald and developed with SCAN, supported by Creative Scotland.

GRANT WATSON: BAUHAUS IMAGINISTA is free but ticketed, via SCAN 

Flourish is an initiative to raise the spirit of The Mack steered by Professor Irene McAra-McWilliams and Professor Johnny Rodger.