ghost art school was created to haunt art schools.
ghost art school does not know what it is yet – it is developing out of need. It was started as a positive action response to the neoliberal and managerial rot currently paralysing art education. It cannot know what it is yet, but having launched, it is taking some shape. This shape is always open to change. So far:
ghost art school is NOT an art school.
ghost art school is NOT an alternative art school.
ghost art school operates in parallel to art schools… it runs alongside art schools as a critical tool and means of creating positive actions for those who feel they have lost agency and have been let down by their institutions, whether, students staff, graduates or those not given the opportunity to study. It is parallel and paranormal.
ghost art school is open to anyone.
ghost art school has no teachers, only learners.
ghost art school is shaped by its members.
ghost art school does not cost anything.
ghost art school is not funded, and is therefore independent.
ghost art school seeks to provide new and meaningful strategies to develop relevant artwork, through positive action. It does this by offering alternative models that challenge the increasing limitations of market-led institutions.
ghost art school will develop, test and publish these practical strategies for anyone to use.
ghost art school holds institutions to account. It is a means of being heard, when there is a refusal to listen - feedback in both senses. It is a means of watching back at those who use watching as a control mechanism. It is a reverse panopticon.
ghost art school seeks to avoid hierarchies. It does not have traditional leadership, but does have a caretaker. This is a janitorial position.
ghost art school is based on principles of idealism and naivety as strengths, coupled with pragmatism and action. It runs entirely on belief.
ghost art school finds strengths in weaknesses, and makes positives out of bad situations.
ghost art school promotes agency and independence. Anything you develop independently of the institution, you take with you - anything you rely on the institution for you loose when you leave.
ghost art school will last as long as it can and needs to. It has no interest in becoming the thing it is fighting. It will probably stop when Art Schools are freed up to do their job properly again.
You do not need institutions - they need you.
