NEW! APPLICATION FORM DOWNLOAD & FAQs

Summer School has connotations of one being a marginal student, either in terms of delinquency or failure (making up remedial coursework), or on the other end of the spectrum, a particularly keen or gifted student, getting ahead through accelerated studies. These divergent marginal connotations and conditions establish an outsider framework through which Plug In invites participants to reflect on alternative and radical conditions for art and art education.

Plug In ICA presents a summer program for practicing artists at various stages of their careers that will provide professional development opportunities, while undertaking a wide-ranging reflection on the development of art and artists, and the institutions that ostensibly facilitate these goals.

Under the title Summer School Plug In will share its gallery space and proposes an agenda of vital interest to contemporary art: an exploration of the structures and environments for art and its creation.  Plug In will transform itself into a hybrid “art school” for the duration of this program, creating something that is studio, laboratory, playground, gallery, workshop, performance, residency and seminar.

Artists are invited to apply for an opportunity to participate in this four-week Summer School. While loosely structured, with lots of room for individual exploration, participating artists will collaborate in various activities disembarking from the theme of Art School, and exploring the universe of artistic creation, exploration and production in all its forms: historically, contemporaneously and imaginary. A schedule of activities will be established in collaboration with participating artists ranging from readings and discussions to presentations, talks, screenings, and exhibitions. Artists will be provided with a modest space to work in an open area and shared environment alongside other artists at 286 McDermot in Winnipeg.

This “curriculum” or series of activities and their results will be adapted by Plug In to aid in the development of future and ongoing programs, including the establishment a new hybrid institute that offers an alternative institutional model somewhere between a residency and an art school-a radical opportunity created by and for artists where international and local artists will meet, work together, and share their work with wider communities.

A team of specialist consultants (“faculty”) will be assembled to catalyze the program and provide professional development opportunities for participating artists through talks, discussion and studio visits.

Program fee: $125.00 + applicable taxes for four weeks. All other costs including accommodation, meals and materials are the responsibility of the artist participants. Participants will be chosen by a selection committee based on artistic merit. Spaces are limited, so not all applicants will be accepted. The program is subject to change.

Applications are due (postmarked) by May 1, 2009. Sorry, e-mail applications will not be accepted.

Applications should be submitted to Plug In ICA with the title Summer School on the application. Download our application form at the bottom of this page.

Visiting Faculty for Summer School 2009

Sara Raza

Sara Raza is a London based independent curator, writer and co-editor of ArtAsiaPacific magazine (West and Central Asia), and curator of the forthcoming Tashkent Biennial 5 2009. A former curator of public programmes at Tate Modern (2006-08) Sara chaired, taught and programmed 100 education events on contemporary art practice, with a focus on international art, performance and architecture. In 2008 she was a selected curator for ShContemporary, Shanghai “Best of Discovery: Middle East & Central Asia.” Previously she worked as an editor in Berlin at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Asia Society and artnet.com in New York and the co-curator of the 1st Bishkek International in Kyrgyzstan (2005) and was the recipient of the South London Gallery/ Arts Council one-year curatorial award 2004-5.

Sara is a member of Performance Studies International (PSI) and has presented papers on performance and experimental theatre internationally at ZKM (Germany), Brown University (USA), San Jose State University (USA), Queen Marys University (UK) and Bishkek Historical Museum (Kyrgyzstan) among others.  She has also written on contemporary art for numerous publications including: ArtReview, Artkrush, ArteEast, Bidoun, Contemporary, NParadoxa (special documenta 12 edition), Tavoos Iran and Umlec and penned catalogue essays for FRAC Lorraine, 51st Venice Biennial, Sweeney Gallery, University of California (Riverside), Helsinki Photography Festival, CasaAsia and Informal Architectures (Plug in ICA/Black Dog). Sara is a Goldsmiths College, University of London, post-graduate with MA in Art History and Theory (20th Century) where she wrote her thesis on Iranian theatre and cinema and also holds a BA (hons) in English Literature and History of Art also from Goldsmiths. She is currently organizing an alternative art school, a compact and lively series of talks and artist presentations designed to offer an alternative art curriculum to coincide with Art Dubai and Sharjah Biennial.

Yann Chateigné Tytelman

Yann Chateigné Tytelman is a critic, curator, teacher, and publisher based in Bordeaux, France. He currently works as Head of programs at CAPC museum of contemporary art in Bordeaux. Previously, he has held positions at Centre Pompidou and the French Ministry of Culture Visual Arts department (Paris). He has taught contemporary art and theory at Ecole du Louvre and University Paris 8, and has lectured extensively in museums, art centers and universities on visual and live arts, cinema, litterature, graphic design, architecture, popular culture, and politics. He recently curated IAO Psychedelic Explorations in France (CAPC, Bordeaux), A Theater without Theater (MACBA, Barcelona and Museum Berardo, Lisbon) and Ultramoderne (Luxembourg European Capital of Culture, 2007). He is currently preparing The Fifth Dimension for the next Artissima, and Insiders, a research exhibition based on the multiple relationships between contemporary art and folklore. He has published several texts in books, catalogues and magazines, such as Les Cahiers du Musée National d’Art Moderne, and Beaux-Arts Magazine. He is the founder of (Paris), a publishing house dedicated to artists books, reviews and multiples. He recently curated CAPC’s and Bordeau School of Art’s web magazine Rosa B’s last issue, dealing with Pop’s current oblique strategies.

Donna Lynas

Donna Lynas has been the Director of Wysing Arts Centre (Cambridge, UK) since 2005, and was instrumental in delivering the organization’s £1.7 million capital development project, opened by Matthew Collings in January 2008. She previously held the position of Curator at the South London Gallery, curating a large number of exhibitions and projects plus including artists such as Christian Boltanski, Jöelle Tuerlinckx, Keith Tyson, Julian Schnabel and Barbara Kruger. In 1999 she established the gallery’s influential SLG Live Art programme, which at its most ambitious presented a durational performance of One Million Years by On Kawara, involving a series of 16 people performing a live work in a glass box in Trafalgar Square continuously for 7 days and nights. From 1995 - 1999, Lynas was Touring Exhibitions Organiser and then Curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford.

Lotte Juul Petersen

Lotte Juul Petersen joined Wysing Arts Centre (Cambridge, UK) in July 2008 to develop the curatorial and artistic programme in collaboration with Donna Lynas. With a background in art history and cultural studies, she recently participated in an international curatorial platform arranged by FRAME Finnish Fund for Art Exchange. Her curatorial practice has developed in collaboration with Jacob Fabricius at CPH Kunsthal and at Malmö Konsthall, Sweden. From 2007-08 she developed the residency and artistic programs at the Factory of Art and Design, Copenhagen. She has worked with and commissioned works by artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Adrian Piper, Simon Starling, Superflex, Ann Lislegaard, Pia Rönicke, Johanna Billing & Luca Frei and many more. She has also published texts in N.Paradoxa International feminist art journal, REVOLVER Archiv für aktuelle Kunst, and SUM Magazine for Contemporary Art. She has partipated in residencies in Istanbul, Helsinki, Berlin and Cuba, and recently curated Urban Pedestals in (Copenhagen & Helsinki, 2007-08).

File Downloads

• PIICA_Summer_School_Application.pdf (167.46 KB)
• PIICA_Summer_School_FAQs.pdf (145.39 KB)