Gustav Metzger, Dartington College of Arts, 2007. Photo: Kate Mount
Hauser & Wirth launches The Gustav Metzger Foundation Scholarship
In partnership with Dartington Arts School
We are proud to partner with Dartington Arts School by supporting a student on the ‘Arts and Place’ MA course, starting April 2022 until January 2023. The Gustav Metzger Foundation Scholarship will be eligible to a student with refugee status or have an application for asylum in the UK. The gallery’s support will include tuition fees for the one-year course, living expenses and associated residency location at Hauser & Wirth Somerset for two weeks. This unique collaboration is part of Hauser & Wirth’s ongoing commitment to providing opportunities for equal access to higher education, whilst working to establish meaningful connections that continue Gustav Metzger’s legacy and vision.
Access to university is not only restricted for asylum seekers; people with leave to remain from an asylum claim and some people who lived in this country for their whole lives but do not have a secure immigration status can also be held back in this way. Most are classed as international students, meaning that they are charged higher fees and are ineligible for student loans. Admissions for the Gustav Metzger Foundation scholarship will be led by Dartington Arts School and independent student recruitment bodies, UCAS and Student Action for Refugees (STAR). STAR has campaigned for equal access to university for refugees and asylum seekers for over ten years, providing expert support to scholarship programmes and sharing good practice between university practitioners across the UK. Gustav Metzger came to the UK in 1939 as a refugee before dedicating his entire creative practice to social activism and challenging our perception of public art as a vehicle for change. The Gustav Metzger Foundation was founded upon Metzger’s death in 2017. During his lifetime, Metzger defined the organization’s mission by envisioning not only exhibitions of his work and furtherance of the political and philosophical ideas he espoused, but also through support for individuals working in the fields of the arts and environmental studies.
Current figures from the UN Refugee Agency suggest that globally, as few as 3% of refugees have access to higher education compared to the 37% global higher education access rate.
Arts and Place 'Shared Acts of Sensing' with Emma Bush, Dartington Estate, April 2021. Photo: Grace Gelder.
Ula Dajerling and Leanne Dmyterko, Co-directors and Curators at the Gustav Metzger Foundation stated ‘As Dartington was so significant to Gustav’s life and practice, The Gustav Metzger Foundation is delighted to launch this scholarship, supported by Hauser & Wirth, to further the education of a young refugee or asylum seeker and the development of their artistic practice.’
‘Gustav appreciated the historic significance of the Dartington experiment and repeatedly visited Dartington College of Arts between 1999-2008. He was attracted to the college’s pioneering approach towards art-making and learning.’—Ula Dajerling and Leanne Dmyterko, Co-directors and Curators, Gustav Metzger Foundation.
High Cross House, Dartington Arts School. Photo: Josh Pratt
Dartington Arts School is a key faculty of the Dartington Trust, a centre for learning, arts, ecology and social justice based on a 1,200 acre estate near Totnes, Devon, UK_._ The initial Dartington College of Arts was founded in 1961 as a consequence of the original Dartington Hall experiment in rural regeneration. Gustav Metzger was awarded an Honorary Fellow of Dartington Arts School in 2001 and was part of a rich interdisciplinary community of staff and students working with a passion to be change-agents for a sustainable future. Metzger had a profound insight into our relationship and interdependency with nature and whilst at Dartington he spoke extensively about his environmental concerns. Find out more: https://artsschool.dartington.org/
‘We welcome practitioners from all arts disciplines and backgrounds to join a unique residency-based learning programme which encourages new ways of thinking, knowing and making in response to place.’—Dr Jo Joelson, Programme Lead, MA Arts and Place, Dartington Arts School
‘It is an opportunity for students to engage with nature, environment and ecology from aesthetic and critical perspectives, revealing and responding to some of the most complex issues of our time. We are thrilled to be building new relationships with partners to support scholarships for students from communities under-represented because of race, class, gender, sexuality, age and immigration status’ says Dr Jo Joelson, Programme Lead, MA Arts and Place, Dartington Arts School. –
Hauser & Wirth began working with the Gustav Metzger Foundation in 2020 and the first exhibition of his work will be at Hauser & Wirth Somerset from 26 June – 12 Sep 2021. In September 2021, Hauser and Wirth Somerset will host a Remember Nature Summit with independent artist-curators Jo Joelson and Andrea Gregson, (of Remember Nature, 2015 with Gustav Metzger) who will bring together project partners to begin activation of Remember Nature for 2022.
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