It is a one-day symposium dedicated to the work of artist educators. This seems to be an exciting moment with creative practitioners rethinking arts curriculums, and forging either their own independent pockets to experiment with ways of engaging with young learners, or creating open spaces, opportunities and resources within and beyond institutions and their rigid pedagogical structures. This gathering of artist-educators will bring together artistic practices that lie at the intersection of experimental pedagogy, community engagement and re-visioning of ideas of access, resources and tools in/for developed by artists for arts education; and practices that are creatively filling in for the infrastructural, social and ecological gaps that alienate specific communities and groups from access to education and learning.

With specific case-studies we invite speakers to share their specific projects, tools, methods and resources developed by them, discuss aspects of implementation, deviances, failures and successes of their select projects, their own learnings and unlearnings. In the symposium we hope to collectively reflect on aspects that emerge and filter from artist’s own practice into their teaching methods. And seek to actively engage with the critical shifts in the potential of arts when taught by practicing artists themselves, and what that does to the “pedagogy” of arts. Speakers will address the role and power of facilitation, the economy of sources and resources in spaces and contexts of abundance and scarcity. Each panelist will discuss a particular case-study, what carry-overs it has, what final form and shape it took, does the exhibition or other presentation forms end the dialogue or re-ignite it? What form of carry-over looks like from one educator to another?

And as a method of discussion, the symposium will take the form of lexicon building. Thus, all invited speakers offer this assembly of artist-educators one or more words as part of their presentations, words that are central to your pedagogical practice, and making and thinking art meaningful and inspiring.

This symposium is conceptualized as part of the programming around the exhibition ‘Very Small Feelings’ co-curated by Akansha Rastogi and Diana Campbell. The exhibition brings into focus practices of many contemporary artists and modernist masters who have been working with young learners. Working with different educators and artist educators, museum has been conceptualizing and organizing educational modules and programs for different age-groups, in alternative forms outside of school and college formal educational system. With this symposium we aim to discursively dwell on the role of artist educators in mediating and communicating the museum and its contents to various communities, groups and individuals, and transforming the museum as a space of collective growth and re-learning of known and unexplored ideas. We hope this becomes the beginning of annual gathering of artist-educators at the museum.

*The title ‘One and Three Ideas’ is inspired from the Terry Smith’s essay ‘One and Three Ideas: Conceptualism Before, During, and After Conceptual Art’ (2011) which is titled after Joseph Kosuth’s work ‘One and Three Chairs’ (1965).