Garage brings together interested and daring pedagogues, educators, and experts in the field of education processes to sit and discuss their current projects and inspiration sources.
Based on the ideals elaborated during the Enlightenment, the modern-day education system is living through a crisis. Using Ken Robinson’s words from his book The Element, education today needs transformation rather than reformation. It has to radically shift focus from “infusing” students with standardized knowledge to identifying their aptitudes and talents; it should teach how to implement information and communication in order to keep up to date with the rapidly changing today. And, just as any other revolution, this transformation is first carried via disjointed initiatives, often unaware of each other, such as public and education museum programs, small private schools, or independent projects conceived by audacious teachers and acute producers. This kind of revolutionaries will gather at Garage marking the conclusion of the exhibition project Bureau des transmissions.
Garage’s education team is gathering speakers who previously collaborated with the Museum taking part in discussions and debates, wishing to dream collectively about arguably the most humane practice—that of knowledge production. We neither divide the participants into representatives of commercial and nonprofit sectors, nor classify their experience in terms of age groups or areas of knowledge. We are interested in looking at the relevant flexible and experimental models brought together, as well as fostering the exchange of cutting-edge methods and “care practices” that help teachers prevent emotional burnout and overcome the often occurring feeling of an impasse. Each speaker has five minutes to articulate, without introductions and preludes, their statement, problem or story of how they find motivation to go on with what they are doing, or, alternatively, to describe a current project that has importance for the entire community or demands professional evaluation and feedback. This kind of direct engagement is intended at doing away with the commonly used presentation mode, where arrogant demonstration of achievements often overshadows the problem. It also opens up the possibility to discover a new accumulative force. Due to similar reasons, the Brainstorm will be documented graphically throughout its duration.
Author of the idea and moderator: Anastasia Mityushina, Garage Public Program curator
