Installation view, Education Lab: ‘Open Art School,’ Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 2024. Photo: Tchad Findlay
Education Lab Returns to Somerset: ‘Open Art School’
A space for experimentation and imagination, coinciding with the exhibition ‘Phyllida Barlow. unscripted’
Hauser & Wirth Somerset celebrates the opening of our Education Lab, ‘Open Art School,’ a partnership with Bath Spa University from Saturday 25 May 2024 until Sunday 5 January 2025.
Taking Phyllida Barlow’s life-long engagement with arts education and notably her ethos of there being ‘no right or wrong way’ to be creative, the Education Lab draws on the latest thinking within creative pedagogy and experimental learning. ‘Open Art School’ provides an interactive space for new ideas, explorations and working methods, inviting a multitude of voices and communities to engage through making.
Hauser & Wirth Learning invited a cohort of artists and academics from Bath Spa University to co-design the Education Lab, bringing their research and expertise in art pedagogy to realise an open, accessible and imaginative creative environment. Participating members are Dr Penny Hay (Artist Researcher & Professor of Imagination), Dr Robert Luzar (Artist & Senior Lecturer, MA Fine Art), Kelsey Cruz-Martin (Artist & Bath Art Depot Director) and Dr Ben Parry (Artist & Reader in Fine Art).
Since the opening of ‘Phyllida Barlow. unscripted’ in May 2024, we have welcomed 1,889 learners from local schools, colleges and universities over a total of 64 visits. These learning visits activated our Education Lab, encouraged exploration of the exhibition and fostered connection with Phyllida Barlow’s work.
‘School Without Walls,’ Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 2024. Photo: Clare Walsh
‘School Without Walls,’ Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 2024. Photo: Clare Walsh
‘Our team at Bath Spa University are very excited to be curating the Education Lab ‘Open Art School’ with the Learning team at Hauser & Wirth. Inspired by Phyllida Barlow’s creative approach to arts education, we have co-curated an experiential space for dialogue and thinking through making, emphasizing the importance of imagination, creativity and creative pedagogy. ‘Open Art School’ is experimental and inclusive. As Phyllida would say, ‘everyone has imagination, and everyone is welcome.’—Dr Penny Hay
Education Lab: ‘Open Art School’ opening celebrations, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 2024. Photo: Sim Canetty-Clarke
Education Lab: ‘Open Art School’ opening celebrations, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 2024. Photo: Sim Canetty-Clarke
Visitors were invited to explore the creative prompts found throughout the space and take part in their activation, considering what their wants and needs are from arts education today and into the future. The Education Lab hosted a program of 9 learning events for the duration of the exhibition, which were attended by a total of 1,250 visitors. This included 6 drop-in creative workshops from May – December 2024 for members of the public, developed in partnership with Bath Spa University and facilitated by external arts and environmental organizations such as the Comfy Club Collective, Forest of Imagination, One Planet Bruton and Bath Art Depot. Additionally, the space was activated as part of our Bristol Old Vic Youth Theatre Summer School and Summer Art School, ‘Sensing Sculpture,’ in August 2024, designed for young people aged 14 – 17 years.
The Education Lab is part of the gallery’s commitment to inclusive learning programs. Located at our galleries in Downtown Los Angeles, Menorca and Somerset, as well as the Chillida Leku museum, each Education Lab is a collaboration with a local community group, school or university.
Bristol Old Vic Youth Theatre Summer School, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 2024. Photo: Clare Walsh
‘Summer Art School: Sensing Sculpture,’ Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 2024. Photo: Clare Walsh
About ‘Phyllida Barlow. unscripted’
The work of Phyllida Barlow (1944 – 2023) takes over Hauser & Wirth Somerset in a celebration of the British artist’s transformative approach to sculpture, marking the 10th anniversary of the arts center that was inaugurated by Barlow’s solo exhibition ‘GIG’ in 2014. The landmark exhibition, curated by Frances Morris, draws on her close working relationship with the artist during her lifetime. ‘Phyllida Barlow. unscripted’ explores the evolution of Barlow’s formal and expressive vocabulary, bringing together singular sculptures, installations, studio maquettes and drawings from her extensive career, some of which will be on public view for the first time. The exhibition is on view through Sunday 5 January 2025.
About Phyllida Barlow
For almost 60 years, British artist Phyllida Barlow took inspiration from her surroundings to create imposing installations that can be at once menacing and playful. She created large-scale yet anti-monumental sculptures from inexpensive, low-grade materials such as cardboard, fabric, plywood, polystyrene, scrim, plaster and cement. These constructions were often painted in industrial or vibrant colors, the seams of their construction left at times visible, revealing the means of their making. Barlow’s restless invented forms stretch the limits of mass, volume and height as they block, straddle and balance precariously. The audience is challenged into a new relationship with the sculptural object, the gallery environment and the world beyond. Barlow exhibited extensively across institutions internationally and in 2017 represented Britain at the Venice Biennale.
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