Artists’ lessons for institutions explored at symposium

The Reading School of Art at the University of Reading recently hosted the symposium ‘What Can We Learn from Artists?’, organised by Professor Susanne Clausen as part of the research and public programme of Reading International.

Bringing together artists, curators and researchers from across Europe and the UK, the symposium explored how artistic practice generates knowledge in times of social, political, and institutional uncertainty, and how cultural institutions might learn from artistic and curatorial methods of working, hosting, and collaboration.
Speakers included Alona Karavai (Asortymentna Kimnata, Ivano Frankivsk, Ukraine), Lea Schleiffenbaum (New Patrons, Berlin, Germany), Jessie Robertson (Modern Art Oxford), Cecilie Berndt and Pamela Grombacher (Juxtapose, Aarhus, Denmark), and Paul O’Neill, (PUBLICS, Helsinki, Finland) 

Organiser Professor Susanne Clausen said: “This symposium brought together artists and researchers working at the edges of language, institutions, and lived experience. It demonstrated how artistic practice offers vital tools for thinking through crisis, memory, and collective responsibility, and for reimagining how institutions might learn from artists.”

New viewpoints on the role of artists in a changing world 

Key discussions addressed the changing role of artists in contexts of crisis, new vocabularies emerging within cultural infrastructures, and alternative institutional models. Cultural manager and curator Alona Karavai spoke on the emergence of new narratives and vocabularies within art infrastructure shaped by war; art historian and curator Lee Schleiffenbaum presented an art commissioning model grounded in project-specific democracy; and curator and writer Paul O’Neill introduced the concept of ‘parahosting’ as a flexible institutional model that redistributes power by allowing hosts and “paraguests” to continually renegotiate the conditions of participation.

Reading International (R.I.) is a contemporary visuals art organisation founded by Professor Clausen and operated by Reading School of Art academics and practitioners with funding from the University, Arts Council of England and Reading Borough Council. R.I. commissions exhibitions, talks, film screenings and public artwork, as well as other engagement opportunities with both local community groups and international arts organisations. More information can be found on the Reading International website.