Starting from school: contemporary art projects involving educational institutions

ENThe article discusses the ways of integrating contemporary art and educational institutions (from children’s art schools to universities), asking what an artist can add to existent educational contexts besides teaching as such, and vice versa, what she and her art projects benefit from them. From a brief discussion on the educational turn in arts and both positive and negative approaches towards it among art critics, artists and educators, the article proceeds to analyse several case studies: the art practice by Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas, Kristina Inčiūraitė’s projects with children’s art schools, and the Alytus Art School as a phenomenon. All these cases tend to be easily dismissed from the scope of the educational turn, as they use existing educational environments as their starting point and resource, instead of appropriating educational formats into the gallery context; so the article investigates what resources and challenges a permanent educational environment offers to artists in compare to temporary school, workshop, etc.