(Tools)
Who Gets In?
Rethinking Admission – Confronting Segregation
(2022)
Many critical voices have very bluntly asked if the Westernized university today is inherently racist and sexist. Our work looks into the concrete challenges of widening participation today and specifically focuses on the various admission policies currently in place.
Admission policies are obviously pivotal in deciding who gets in and who’s left out. The topic is vast and entangled in questions of economic resource, public opinion, outreach priorities, cultural policy, national law, curriculum design and institutional profiling.
Looking at higher arts education institutions in Europe today, it is probably fair to say that they tend not to reflect societal demographics in terms of things like ethnicity, gender, age, ability, and class.
This has been recognized and researched as a persistent problem in general, and as a sign that many educations, and education in the field of art in particular, are daily operating with and sustaining exclusionary mechanisms.
We chose the title “confronting segregation” because there seems to be a correlation between systematic exclusion when it comes to accessing art schools and segregation in general. “Segregation” is commonly understood as laws, customs, or practices under which different races, groups etc., are restricted to specific or separate public facilities, neighbourhoods, schools, organizations, etc. The way in which many institutions, intentionally or not, daily exclude different constituencies could be seen as having a segregating effect in society. Therefore, working towards opening up these institutions to better reflect society could be viewed as a form, or component of general desegregation.
This research has been carried out as part of the Teaching To Transgress Toolbox-project, that is a no-credit collective research and study programme on critical pedagogy using artistic tools based on peer-learning and collective research. A study programme structured in different workshops developed transnationally by three European art schools, erg in Brussels, HDK/Valand in Göteborg and ISBA in Besançon. It is funded by Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Grant.
The work is written by Andreas Engman & Eva Weinmayr—Additional contributions: Ram Krishna Ranjan. Members of working group: Rose Brander, Andreas Engman, Inga Kolbrun Söring, Eva Weinmayr & Lucy Wilson.
Below follows some brief excerpts from the presentation. You can acces the entire body of work on TTTT’s digital platform using the link here!
Teaching To Transgress Toolbox