Art and Dialogue Workshop in Paris

Last week I attended an arts education training workshop in Paris called“Art and Dialogue: Engaging People With and Through Contemporary Art” supported by the lovely people at Grundtvig. While the ‘new’ model for arts interpretation introduced by the course was somewhat limited and didactic, the workshop was a wonderful opportunity to meet arts  professionals from around the world, share experiences and knowledge, and discuss key issues affecting the creation and interpretation of contemporary art such as  cultural exchange in a globalised society and methods of interpretation. We undertook field trips to different parts of Paris to compare different audiences and identify the ways they are represented -or not represented – in institutions, and what alternative strategies they have undergone to express themselves. Unfortunately, like all workshops, there were no quick and easy answers for many of the questions I had posed such as ‘what role do major events such as the Venice Biennale and other festivals have for creating new – or reinforcing old – concepts of national or cultural identity?’, ‘is it still relevant today to have national cultural representation?’ and ‘what is the best way to work with new audiences from different cultural backgrounds within these types of settings?’. While many of my questions were unanswered, the surrounding exploration of these ideas gave us all much food for thought to take back to our diverse array of individual practices and already, a number of international networks have been established between the participants so watch this space.

I’ve made a little album below that documents not what happened in the class room, but what we found when we went out and about exploring the different gallery scenes in Paris.