MUSEUM PEDAGOGY AND PROSELYTISM

For years, I've been turning down institutional requests disguised as "theater education programs" or "museum pedagogy workshops." These methods, with their demagogic smiles, infantilize and playfully manipulate audiences of children, adults, seniors, or marginalized groups. "Taste-shaping" becomes propaganda and manipulation, especially when institutions mold artists into producing similar works that fit their own agenda. Convincing people that this is "the" art, or this is how it "should" be interpreted, is akin to telling someone what to think, what qualifies as art, what to applaud, and when. These sessions don't aim to foster critical thinking; instead, they promote indoctrination and dogmatic worship.

Most museum pedagogy and theater education programs can be seen as mere sales strategies—a means to expand the institution's target audience and promote the artists it represents. But in terms of pedagogy and education, they're utterly irrelevant—don't be fooled!

In fact, neither theater education programs nor museum pedagogy would be necessary if artists created art directly for their audience, rather than relying on intermediaries like curators, critics, and art historians who interpret and explain artworks in cryptic language. These intermediaries are like translators decoding jargon and unraveling academic puzzles. But why?

I believe that, eventually, artists will create directly for their audience rather than for intermediaries. They won't aim to please a narrow circle but to reach broader audiences. They won't seek to prove themselves but to connect. They won't close off but open up. They'll share and give.

To achieve this, I think we need a radical transformation in academic art education. Artists must be socialized in a platform where they learn to break free from conventions. They shouldn't aim to fit into art history but to break out of it. They shouldn't seek continuity and assimilation but rupture. They shouldn't look back to the past, rely on existing rhetoric, follow trends, or boast about following someone else's path. Instead of writing a new chapter in the book, they should come up with something entirely new. Therefore, what we need today is an art education that doesn't produce cannon fodder but independent and critical artists who create freely, experiment boldly, and aren't afraid to explore new territories.

The School of Disobedience is exactly that.