Leaving Olafur Eliasson's "The Parliament of Reality" at Bard
In the final workshop of our three-part series at Bard College, titled “Teaching and Learning with Contemporary Art,” we were lucky enough to have Olafur Eliasson speak with us about making art and his new installation, The Parliament of Reality, created in collaboration with the Center for Curatorial Studies and the Bard Hessel Museum. Both inside the classroom where we initially met and then outside standing on the installation itself, teachers had a chance to start the final session with Mr. Eliasson’s thoughts about art and ideas, as well as take part in a dialogue about the considerations that go into creating installations like this one or the Waterfalls project in New York City last year.
The second half of the workshop focused on working with big ideas (rather than techniques) to drive units and lessons in the art classroom. After viewing works by Do-Ho Suh both on film and in the museum, and taking the opportunity to see how his stories and ideas about representation drive his work, we then had a chance to talk about how the workshop series itself could influence future curriculum planning. Our first workshop in March focused on teaching with objects and film. The second last month featured a session on media-based learning with CCS’s Ann Butler. It was now time to begin thinking about planning this summer and allowing our time together to influence the way we might go about things otherwise in September. We made a deal to come together at a fall preview screening for Art:21 Season 5 and at that time share our curriculum maps and plans for the new school year. In the meantime, the Education and Public Programs team here at Art21 is reflecting on our work at CCS Bard to influence a new project coming up this summer in New York City called Art21 Educators.
More to come!
