Art School (Dismissed) celebrates artists who extend their creative practices into the realm of education. It takes place in downtown Toronto’s historic Shaw Street Public School, built in 1914, which feels frozen in time and forgotten since its decommissioning in 2000. The exhibition explores the rich interface between teaching and learning with wide ranging projects that are complex, witty, irreverent, nostalgic, haunting, and sweet. The school’s breezy classrooms and wide hallways serve as the context for new works in the fields of site specific installation, sculpture, video and new media, drawing, painting, performance, as well as many hybrid forms that blend and cross boundaries. Spread throughout the three-day exhibition is a condensed and abundant program of dance, music and performance. As both makers and teachers, the artists in Art School (Dismissed) are uniquely situated to explore and question notions of authority, history, memory, and the dissemination of knowledge. Childhood and play have inspired many of their works.

Faculty have been drawn from OCAD, University of Toronto, York University, Sheridan / UTM, The University of Guelph, U of T Scarborough, Centennial College, George Brown College, Humber College and other educational institutions, such as the TDSB, The Toronto School of Art, and gallery / musical ensemble education programs.  The dynamic gathering of individuals participating in Art School (Dismissed) can be seen as a portrait of the current art-educational landscape. It is an opportunity to reflect on some of the most important voices influencing young artists in the region. The artist-as-educator identity is one that often intersects the economic necessity for artists to have a “job” with a deep passion for discourse and inquiry. Art School (Dismissed) pays homage to artist-educators, who are typically mid career and established artists juggling their exhibition and performance schedules with the demands of teaching. As such, the exhibition can also be read as a counterpoint comment on society’s fashion-influenced infatuation with young artists.

Historically, knowledge in the arts has been acquired through apprenticeships and mentors. Education in general, and art education in particular, has gradually become institutionalized through academies and art schools. Within this context – or even despite it – mentorship continues as meaningful dimension in the development of artists. Each of the “Fine Arts” teachers in Art School (Dismissed) has been invited to select an exceptional student for inclusion in Teacher’s Pet, an emerging artist component of the show.

A celebration of artists who educate, Art School (Dismissed) finds a perfect setting in the Shaw Street Public School. The neglected building is a potent backdrop and palette for inspired new works in many disciplines, demonstrating the fertile connections that exist within teaching, learning, and creating.