A Genuine Mystery: Inspiration and shared belief in collaborative art and education contexts
Symposium / Saturday 13 October / Talbot Rice Gallery / 10am - 5pm
‘There has to be a common problem and it has to be a genuine mystery.’ Tim Rollins
The symposium will take the collaborative working practice of Tim Rollins and K.O.S and his statement about
group motivation as a point of departure. The symposium will explore ideas about art and pedagogy;
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How do you balance the learning agenda with quality art production and process?
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What are the ethics of the social encounter in socially engaged art practice?
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Within the collective production context how is authorship negotiated? (Is it relevant?)
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What role does inspiration and shared belief play in a learning environment?
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Can models of collaborative production and learning thrive in mainstream education systems?
The symposium will be chaired by Susan T Grant an artist and independent arts manager who specialises in
collaborative artworks in the public realm. Symposium contributors include Declan McGonagle, Director
National College of Art and Design Dublin, Marsha Bradfield Critical Practice, Katie Bruce Producer/Curator at
the Gallery of Modern Art Glasgow and Associate Artist Rachel Mimiec, Professor Neil Mulholland Shift/Work,
John Reardon ArtSchool/UK; Rachel Thibbotumunuwe, Hilary Nicoll and Johnny Gailey Artworks Scotland &
Talbot Rice Gallery partnership.
The symposium has been made possible with support from the University of Edinburgh’s Principal’s Fund and
is a partnership with engage Scotland.
engage Scotland is part of engage, the professional gallery education association promoting access to,
enjoyment and understanding of the visual arts in the UK and internationally. engage Scotland’s programme is
supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.
A Genuine Mystery: Inspiration and shared belief in collaborative art and education contexts
Symposium Programme
9.30
Registration and Tea & Coffee
10 – 10.20
Welcome and introduction from the symposium chair Susan T Grant
Susan T Grant is an artist and independent arts manager based in Edinburgh, specialising in collaborative
artworks in the public realm.
10.20 – 11.20 Declan McGonagle - Out of the Fields and Into the Forest - Recoding the Art process
In 1987, McGonagle became the only curator to be shortlisted for the Turner Prize due to his work at the
Orchard Gallery in Derry, which included a project with Tim Rollins and K.O.S. He is currently Director of
National College of Art & Design (NCAD) in Dublin. Based on his experience, over several decades, as a
curator in Derry (Orchard Gallery), in London (ICA) and in Dublin (Irish Museum of Modern Art), in other
independent projects and now, as Director of the NCAD in Dublin, Declan McGonagle will explore how the
'total' art process can be reconsidered and recoded as inclusive of issues of distribution, experience and
participation, as well as production. He will refer to specific projects and challenges in specific settings in all
three contexts, which he believes reveal principles which are relevant for many other contexts and are present
in the work and practice of Tim Rollins and K.O.S.
11.20 – 12
The Black Spot: A Metaphor of Survival
Rachel Thibbotumunuwe, Assistant Curator (Equality & Diversity), Talbot Rice Gallery, Hilary Nicoll, Freelance
Project Manager, Art Works Scotland at Creative Scotland and Johnny Gailey, Artist and Freelance Educator
will present their work together in relation to The Black Spot. Tim Rollins and K.O.S. members Angel Abreu,
Rick Savinon and Eric Fernandez led a one-day seminar for artists and educators working in participatory
settings. Rollins and K.O.S. introduced their practice from its roots in the South Bronx to recent projects and
artworks including new works completed on site in Talbot Rice Gallery with young people from across the
Lothian Region. The trio will lead us through highlights of the seminar and subsequent activity including short
films, ongoing dialogues between delegates and a digest of the principal concerns that arose.
12 - 12.20
Marsha Bradfield - DEFINITELY NOT THE OPERA - Act 1
This multi-threaded exchange will combine a presentation on peer-to-peer strategies of knowledge production
evolved through Critical Practice Research Cluster (Chelsea College of Art and Design) with a hands-on
opportunity to explore this approach to creating culture. Since 2004, Critical Practice has networked artists,
designers, academics and others and pursued critical practice within culture by taking the cluster's very
constitution and organization as legitimate areas for critical inquiry. Critical Practice has a longstanding interest
in goods, spaces, services and knowledge in common, and a track record for producing original participatory
platforms (events and publications) that explore the disagreeable, contentious, exhilarating, messy, live,
improvisatory, provisional and interpersonally-charged nature of co-authorship. Drawing on some of the
cluster's recent projects, Marsha will probe the value of its peer-to-peer strategies of knowledge production,
foregrounding in particular the bleed between formal and informal education in Critical Practice's participatory
platforms.
12.20 – 1.20
Lunch
1.20 – 2
Marsha Bradfield - DEFINITELY NOT THE OPERA - Act 2
This session aims to activate the spatio-temporal margins of the conference by carving out a semi-structured
opportunity for dynamic reflection. Attendees will be invited to participate in an experiment in peer-to-peer
exchange to investigate the value of producing knowledge through this cultural practice.
2 – 2.30
Katie Bruce and Rachel Mimiec - Mutual Curiosity: reflections on a playful relationship
Katie Bruce Producer/Curator at the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art and Associate Artist Rachel Mimiec will
reflect on projects and programmes since May 2011 connected with Rachel’s tenure at GoMA including
Playable Spaces programme with offsite projects at Yorkhill Hospital and Red Road Family Centre in addition
to a key role in the development of ATELIER PUBLIC.
2.30 – 3
Professor Neil Mulholland - Shift/Work
Together Professor Neil Mulholland, Director of Masters in Contemporary Art Practice & Theory at eca and
Dan Brown ESW Programme Co-ordinator will present their collaborative project Shift/Work. Shift/Work has
arisen from a number of learning experiments conducted in Edinburgh College of Art and Edinburgh Sculpture
Workshop. Shift/Work supports social actors who are learners within communities of practice. Key to this is an
open engagement with practice (work) as a means of both generating and transferring new knowledge (shift).
Shift/Work is a collective ontology for practice, creating new process-led pedagogy, critically reflecting upon
the learning processes involved, and disseminating research on a share-and-share-alike basis.
3 – 3.30
T&C
3.30 – 4.30
John Reardon – Pleasure, Intensity and Learning
Reardon's contribution will consist of a series of short presentations around different aspects of his collective
work including ARTSCHOOL/UK, setting up an MA Art & Politics course at Goldsmiths, his book of interviews
ch-ch-ch-changes Artists talk about teaching, the recent Minor Adjustments/Ghost project in Seoul etc. These
‘chapters’ as they are known, will number 6 in total and will each last for approximately 10 minutes.
4.30 – 5
Plenary and Close
After the symposium there is a chance to visit the new Bill Scott Sculpture Centre in Newhaven and view the
outcomes of the most recent Shift/Work at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. 6-8pm
Access to ESW info – No.7 bus etc
A Genuine Mystery: Inspiration and shared belief in collaborative art and education contexts
Symposium Contributors Biographies
Susan T Grant is an artist and independent arts manager based in Edinburgh. She is currently finishing a twoyear residency delivering collaborative projects with Midlothian communities, in partnership with Midlothian
Council and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. This follows an Arts Tasmania International Artists Residency,
Australia and a Triangle Arts Workshop on the island of Hoy, Orkney. She has also undertaken a number of
public art commissions including design schemes for Grampian Hospital Arts Trust, Aberdeen. Susan initiated
and curated the education and collaborative projects programme at Peacock visual arts, Aberdeen until 2004.
Since then she has been independently curating collaborative art projects for a range of organisations,
including a series of temporary public art commissions for community-led public art initiative Big Things on the
Beach and a festival education programme for Amnesty International and the Royal Scottish Academy.
Professor Declan McGonagle has been Director of the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, since
2008. Prior to that he directed Interface Research Centre at University of Ulster, [ 2004 – 2008], dealing with
issues of art, design context and contested space. He set up and directed the Civil Arts Inquiry at City Arts
Centre, Dublin, [2001 – 2004], and was the founding Director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, [1991 –
2001] following periods as Director of the Orchard Gallery in Derry and Director of Exhibitions at the ICA in
London in the period 1978 – 1990. He has been Chair and then a Board member of the Liverpool Biennial
[2001 – 2009], and directed New Necessity, the First Tyne International in Gateshead/Newcastle in 1990/1. He
has served on several State advisory bodies in Ireland and was shortlisted for the Tate Gallery’s Turner Prize
[1987] as well as serving on the jury, [1993] also the juries for the Jerwood Painting Prize, London [2001] and
the first Artes Mundi Artists Award, Cardiff, [2002]. He was Ireland Commissioner for the 1993 Venice Biennale
and the 1994 Sao Paulo Biennale and served as a member of the broadcasting Council of Northern Ireland
and the Healing Through Remembering Project in Belfast. He is a Contributing Editor of Artfroum, New York
and a member of the International Advisory Panel of Engage, London, also a Board member of the
Derry/Londonderry City of Culture 2013, having chaired the interim Board. He writes, lectures and publishes
regularly on art, museum/gallery policy issues, and curates exhibitions with a focus on the relationship
between art/artist and society.
Rachel Thibbotumunuwe works as Assistant Curator (Equality and Diversity) at the Talbot Rice Gallery, The
University of Edinburgh. For the 2012 Edinburgh Art Festival exhibition, Tim Rollins and K.O.S.: The Black
Spot, Rachel worked with partner ArtWorks Scotland to develop a Seminar for artists, teachers and curators; a
range of legacy films; and in collaboration with the artists, an intensive Art and Knowledge Workshop for 24
young people from across the Lothian region.
Prior to this appointment in 2011, Rachel has worked in a variety of roles to develop equalities, education and
participation in the visual arts at Peacock Visual Arts, Stills, The Lemon Tree, The Lighthouse and Street Level
Photoworks. She was a Specialist Advisor for Scottish Arts Council Equalities department from 2009-10.
Rachel is a practicing artist and graduated from the department of Fine Art Photography, Glasgow School of
Art in 1998.
Hilary Nicoll is Project Manager of ArtWorks Scotland, one of 5 research projects across the UK that are
exploring professional development and infrastructure needs of artists working in participatory settings. This is
a 3 year project funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Creative Scotland.
Trained as an artist at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, she has a special interest in artists practice in
the public realm and in education contexts. Between 2003-2012 she was Director of Scottish Sculpture
Workshop, prior to which she worked at the Arts Council of England as a Visual Arts Officer at the national
office in London from 1996 to 2002, and before that for Glasgow City Council as a Visual Arts Officer. She has
worked in various advisory capacities for Scottish Arts Council, Gray’s School of Art, and MAP magazine
among others, and is currently a Trustee of the Patrick Allan Fraser of Hospitalfield Trust.
Johnny Gailey is a freelance Cultural Worker based in Edinburgh. He has worked in community arts and
gallery education in Scotland since 2000. He was the Education and Exhibitions Officer at An Tuireann Arts
Centre on the Isle of Skye, before moving to Edinburgh.
From 2005 until 2011, he ran The Fruitmarket Gallery’s programme of activities for children and young people.
Between 2009 and 2011, he project-managed the Lottery-funded Air Iomlaid (On Exchange) educational
project, working with over 100 primary pupils at depth, which resulted in an acclaimed exhibition at The
Fruitmarket Gallery (Edinburgh) and was nominated for the Clore Learning Award 2011.
Johnny has written for publications and contributed to national debates and sectoral development via advisory
work. He is a member of the engage Scotland Development Group, and sits on the Glasgow Sculpture
Studios' Programme Advisory Group. In 2011, Johnny programmed the engage International conference, held
in Margate, Kent, UK, bringing together practioners, artists and academics from across the world to discuss
participation.
Currently, his time is divided between the studio: developing projects, researching and writing; the darkroom,
printing an exhibition of photography and across the country: working with a range of partners on participation
in the arts.
Marsha Bradfield - I'm an artist, educator, curator, writer and researcher. Across these practices, I'm
developing a praxis of dialogic art. I define this as art brought into being through dialogues between people as
they engage with information, objects and/or each other. I co-author events, publications, installations, etc.,
that explore the complex interactions through which dialogues unfold. Dialogic art foregrounds authorship as
dispersed and contingent, spread across paradigms, practices, processes, products and practitioners. This art
holds fast to an expanded sense of cultural production as irreducible to any singular node in the myriad
networks that determine the conditions of its possibility. In addition to being a long-standing member of Critical
Practice, I am currently working in collaboration with ArtLeaks, Precarious Workers Brigade and Contemporary
Marxism Group.
Katie Bruce is a Producer/Curator at the Gallery of Modern Art, (GoMA) Glasgow. She was the Social
Inclusion Coordinator at the GoMA, Sept 2002 – February 2012, where she worked on the biennial social
justice programmes. Recent work has responded to discussions on health, play and the right to play. This
began with the programme and exhibition Blueprint for a Bogey (2011)
www.blueprintforabogey.wordpress.com developing into current work with GoMA’s Associate Artist Rachel
Mimiec as part of Playable Spaces. www.playablespaces.wordpress.com
Rachel Mimiec is an artist with a parallel artistic practice, working on self-directed solo initiatives and
collaborative community projects. She is based in Glasgow and has worked for over twenty years in diverse
communities contexts, including education and museums environments, creating spaces that explore and
support creativity. In the role of Associate Artist at GoMA she has continued to develop this practice working
closely with Katie Bruce on projects such as ‘Atelier Public’ and ‘Artlift’ in Yorkhill Children’s Hospital.
Professor Neil Mulholland is an art historian, art critic and educator. His research focuses on contemporary
art practice and theory with particular emphasis on collaborative practice-based learning (Shift/Work),
neomedievalism (Confraternity of Neoflagellants) artwriting and ambient cultures. His focus is on the legacies
of cultural practices, theories and their institutions emerging since the early-1970s. His work consists of a
range of historical, critical and fictional approaches to writing as well as independent curatorial and art practice.
Neil studied at the University of Glasgow where he graduated with an MA (Hons) in History of Art (1995) and
completed his PhD on Art Britain in the Late 1970s (1998), later published as The Cultural Devolution
(Ashgate, 2003). From 1995, Neil lectured at the University of Glasgow and at Glasgow School of Art. He
became Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at the University for the Creative Arts in 1998 and, in
2000, joined Edinburgh College of Art. He was appointed Reader in Contemporary Art in 2004 and Director of
the Centre for Visual & Cultural Studies and Postgraduate Co-ordinator in Art & Design in 2005. In 2010 Neil
became Head of Postgraduate Programmes and an Associate Head of the new School of Art. Neil is a regular
correspondent for many international art publications such as Art Review, frieze, Flash Art, MAP and Texte zur
Kunst and has also written for literary and political magazines, the popular press, television, commissioned
monographs and artwriting publications. As an educator, Neil's approach is informed by the legacies of
conceptualism and the radicalisation of knowledge that followed in its wake. He considers teaching as the
practice of speculative scepticism - not proceeding from the position of knowing what art is; rather, being
motivated by speculation on what it might be. His aim is to enable students to understand the practices of
making, writing, theorising and organisation as mutually constitutive.
John Reardon’s work unfolds collaboratively and generatively through a kind of ‘barn raising’, or ‘community
building’, each project producing outcomes, publicity, and further projects that vary from one to the other in
form and content but which often use a common collaborative and context-specific approach around an idea, a
proposal, an event despite how speculative or at times absurd this may be…