Forever Academy is an event at which artists can meet each other and exchange ideas. Responding to current challenges - the growing cost of university fees along with the financial crises – the Academy will ask how can artists move forward with their practice? Forever Academy will explore the idea that artists can create their own life-long curriculum outside of the art school.
Forever Academy acknowledges that artists can have a very real role in change through intervention, discussion and image-making in a political, environmental and social context. Inspired by Black Mountain College, Free International University, Artist Placement Group and other artist-led DIY projects that enable artists to really focus on how they can work within our current society.
For this first Forever Academy, working with Hiwa K, we invited artists whose work focuses on dialogue and participation or stems from a necessity to work responsively, exploring the relationship between the role of the artist and ideas of transformation and change.
Hiwa K in conversation with Alicia Miller
Hiwa K's talk kicked off Term 1 of Forever Academy - this was open to anyone to attend, after which the first Forever Academy session began.
Take a look at the video of Hiwa K in conversation:
Hiwa K at Forever Academy filmed and edited by Tim Stokes
About Hiwa K
Hiwa K is an artist and musician from Iraq who lives in Germany as a political refugee. He began his artistic practice as a painter in the eighties, inspired by an informal education with intellectuals, musicians and performers. In 1998 he abandoned painting and started playing flamenco guitar.
Returning to visual art in 2005, he developed a practice that complements the ethos of Forever Academy. The collaborative nature of his projects make Hiwa an excellent example of current practice working in a cross cultural and political context through gesture, performance and the event.
Selected projects and exhibitions include:
- Manifesta 7
- Chicago Boys: we were singing while they were dreaming…, Serpentine Gallery's Edgware Road Project
- Estrangement with Polish Curator Aneta Szylak in London, Gent and Gdansk
Forever Academy: The Future
Term 1 is just the beginning of Forever Academy. Future terms of Forever Academy will host speakers across disciplines including anthropology, ecology and economics, informing discussion and reflecting the positioning of artistic practice within the wider field.
All participating artists will feature as Alumni on the Forever Academy website and will have the opportunity to participate in future discussions and events.
For more information and to be added to the Forever Academy mailing list, about future events, please email Fern and Owen - foreveracademy@gmail.com
Questioning the Academy
To coincide with the first term of new DIY Art School Forever Academy, Helen Kaplinsky and Maurice Carlin pose a series of questions about the role of the academy in the contemporary art world. Add your questions, or indeed offer some answers at the bottom of the article.
axisweb.org/webzine/academies
Term 1 of Forever Academy is facilitated by artists Fern Thomas and Owen Griffiths, in partnership with Axis and supported by the Arts Council of Wales
