The class focuses on Art and Social Practice, a term used to describe site-specific, participatory, interdisciplinary, and publicly accessible art projects and practices. Harrell Fletcher, the founder and co-director of the MFA programme in Art and Social Practice at Portland State University, will explain and address a variety of topics related to Art and Social Practice, from the perspective of his own and other related work.
The first day analyses the differences between Art and Social Practice and more traditional studio/gallery models; the second day focuses on site, situation, context specificity, and the idea of artists-in-residence as models for working within specific communities; the third day looks at collaboration, participation, and interaction; the fourth day explores the relationship between art institutions and participatory art works, and the final day will be about the role of education in Art and Social Practice.
Tickets are available as single day sessions
Day 1 - 2pm, 26th June, Hayward Gallery Room 2
Day 2 - 2pm, 27th June, Hayward Gallery Room 2
Day 3 - 2pm, 28th June, Hayward Gallery Room 2
Day 4 - 2pm, 29th June, Hayward Gallery Room 2
Day 5 - 2pm, 30th June, Hayward Gallery Room 1
Approximate duration of each session - 3 hours
Harrell Fletcher (b. 1967, Santa Maria, California, USA)
Harrell Fletcher's unorthodox, socially-driven art grows out of his belief that 'creativity is going on in anyone who's alive, oftentimes in ways that are completely unacknowledged.'
His projects, which are often collaborative, typically pay close attention to the overlooked and often examine the ways in which people represent themselves, 'like when a teenager puts posters up in their room, or the way someone puts together a family photo album.'
Some of his best-known projects include the participatory website Learning to Love You More, which he created with artist and filmmaker Miranda July; The American War (2005), his partial, photographic restaging of Vietnam's 'War Remnants Museum'; and The People's Biennial (2010) which he co-curated at five different galleries in the US as a way of representing people and places that are peripheral to mainstream art.
Fletcher founded the Arts and Social Practice department at Portland State University. His teaching focuses on encouraging students be curious, to ask meaningful questions and to listen carefully to the answers.