The Independent School of Art
http://www.independentschoolofart.org/
The Independent School of Art is a nomadic experimental art school. Without institutional affiliations, degrees, or public funding, the school exists solely through the labor and efforts of it's participants, and thus fosters a proactive approach to college-level arts education, a real-world model where students are challenged to determine and create their own artistic realities. The school's barter-based tuition system makes explicit and direct the social contract between students and teachers and honors their collective labor as a vital form of cultural production. By existing without a site and locating nomadically, the school prioritizes social over physical architecture, and challenges students and teachers alike to imagine how their practice might intersect and respond to a larger set of physical situations and cultural possibilities. Since the ISA is not driven by tuition payments, employee payrolls, facility maintenance, fundraising quotas, degree granting and accreditation requirements it can be fluid and experimental, changing each semester to reflect the ambitions, personalities, and abilities of those in its community.
The Independent School of Art includes students of all ages, levels of experience, and disciplines in a one-room schoolhouse environment of shared learning and mentorship. The ISA prioritizes an action-based approach to arts education and cultural discourse and complements it's curricular offerings with student and faculty designed exhibitions, lectures, grants and publications. These multi-disciplinary public actions are a central part of the school's pedagogy, and serve a vital function by engaging the students in the direct creation of public culture.
founded by artist Jon Rubin http://www.jonrubin.net