1. MANIFESTO
With the ongoing call for us as Institutions of Higher Learning to re-imagine and re-position ourselves, the question that most, if not all institutions should be asking is “WHAT ARE WE DOING? WHAT are we doing? • • •
Developing the identity of a Pan-African University whose geographical location is central to affirming a position within the larger global South decolonial programme. Growing towards an Afrocentric curriculum that will include our own histories and carry a social justice agenda. We are physically located in Johannesburg, a contemporary African City that is also home to multiple Pan-African and global identities.
what ARE we doing? • • •
Expanding a field of art, where the role of an artist is questioned and contested, and at the same time, understood as being an embodied experience. Producing knowledge and cultural producers that are not limited to the University. Teaching through creative practices, and as a form of research.
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The specialisation of staff includes but is not limited to painting, photography, printmaking, performance, video, installation, sculpture, drawing, and curatorial practices. Linked to the WAM and broader Braamfontein area, with a network of galleries and project spaces, including our own: The Point of Order (TPO).
what are we DOING? • • •
Inhabiting theory as practice and practice as theory. Imagining ways of responding to and interpreting the world through creative practice. Accommodating a variety of positions, including the active role of students in decision making, planning, and curriculum design.
The manifesto is a living document, an ongoing questioning of our program, our practices, processes, thinking, ideas. It is a document to be engaged on an ongoing basis by students and staff so that it is responsive to the needs and ambitions of the division in the historical, political and social contexts we find ourselves in.
what are WE doing? •
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A group of specialized artists, thinkers, cultural workers, and researchers with experience in artistic practices across a variety of disciplines; ranging from traditional art mediums to the ephemeral. We offer a range of teaching methodologies; ways of thinking that allow students a series of conceptual tools and modes of expression.
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