AcrossRCA_Radical Pragmatics_Syllabus 1 Radical Pragmatics: ReImagining Workplace Childcare for Art Schools Today Radical: Fundamental, extreme Pragmatics: logistics, practicalities RCA archival image of Jay Mews crèche, circa 1970s, photographer unknown. Well outside, I mean the college is a microcosm of society, reflects all of the macro hang ups on a micro level. One thing in the college, one element, which relieves the dour feelings to some extent is the crèche, which is where all of the mothers in the college put their kids during the day while they work. And there are about 15 kids there. And the crèche was begun a year ago I think. And it had a very, very profound effect I reckon on the atmosphere in the college, especially in the canteen. Because the kids didn’t know the rules. All of the students in the canteen know the rules. The rules are that you go and sit with a fairly familiar group of people, preferably at the same table, every day. But the kids move from table to table. And none of us course feel any great ease looking at babies. None of us can see the baby in ourselves. And it’s very embarrassing to see the baby in everybody else. But the babies are doing it. They’re crying in public. They’re laughing. They’re breaking all the rules. RCA archival footage of Rector Sir Robin Darwin introducing the College, 1969 video, 9:45, speaker: student David Gale, filmmaker unknown.
Transcript
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Radical Pragmatics: Re-‐Imagining Workplace Childcare for Art Schools Today Radical: Fundamental, extreme Pragmatics: logistics, practicalities
RCA archival image of Jay Mews crèche, circa 1970s, photographer unknown.
Well outside, I mean the college is a microcosm of society, reflects all of the macro hang ups on a micro level. One thing in the college, one element, which relieves the dour feelings to some extent is the crèche, which is where all of the mothers in the college put their kids during the day while they work. And there are about 15 kids there. And the crèche was begun a year ago I think. And it had a very, very profound effect I reckon on the atmosphere in the college, especially in the canteen. Because the kids didn’t know the rules. All of the students in the canteen know the rules. The rules are that you go and sit with a fairly familiar group of people, preferably at the same table, every day. But the kids move from table to table. And none of us course feel any great ease looking at babies. None of us can see the baby in ourselves. And it’s very embarrassing to see the baby in everybody else. But the babies are doing it. They’re crying in public. They’re laughing. They’re breaking all the rules. RCA archival footage of Rector Sir Robin Darwin introducing the College, 1969 video, 9:45, speaker: student David Gale, filmmaker unknown.
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Brief Kim Dhillon (PhD candidate, CHS) and Anna Reid (PhD candidate, CWAD) Size: 10 students Duration: 5 days Dates and Times Mon 27 Oct: 10-‐12, Courtyard Seminar 1, Darwin Building, South Kensington Tues 28 – Thurs 30th: Field trips and group work – see schedule Fri 31st Oct: 1030-‐1, Courtyard Seminar 1, Darwin Building, South Kensington Description Radical Pragmatics is an interdisciplinary workshop to re-‐imagine what workplace childcare can be for an art school today. It will encompass briefings and supply of literature on the field; tours; field trips and site visits to London spaces that offer innovative solutions and models to children, childcare, early years education, play and art; independent group projects; and group presentations with guests including leading artists, museum directors, critics, and educationalists. The project is an interdisciplinary workshop that critically and creatively tackles issues effecting parents and their children in the College. The workshop will be run for up to 15 students across all departments, working in groups of 2-‐5. In 1968, two single mothers who were students at the Royal College of Art established an informal crèche in the College’s former Judo room, staffed by a nursery nurse they hired themselves. Through the 1970s it grew into a formal day care and was advertised to students in the prospectus. In 1982, it was closed when the space was part of a building that was renovated. Working with the case study of the RCA – a postgraduate institution of art and design spread over two inner city campuses – we will ask: what is the role of children and childcare in art schools? Who can afford to go? Why is childcare still a feminist issue? What might art schools look like if children, parents, and childcare were embraced as an essential, and symbiotic, part of the culture and space?
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Guests, collaborators and judges include artists Richard Wentworth, Andrea Francke, critic JJ Charlesworth, play worker Jess Thom, and museum director Caro Howell, as well as early years educationalist Joy Dahl (and former nurse in the RCA crèche in the 1970s), artist Jane Furst who founded the crèche in 1968, and her daughter Vanessa King, who teaches at a Steiner school and was a child at the RCA in the late 1960s. Following an initial introduction session and a tour of the RCA with kids in tow, the mid week will be composed of field trips to sites that offer various models and approaches to children and childcare, from play spaces made with collaborative education projects at the South London Gallery, to RIBA award winning open plan primary schools on Europe’s largest housing estate, to adventure playgrounds and nature gardens built on former WWII bomb sites in Stockwell. The trips will compliment independent group projects where you’ll work on specific briefs to develop models that creatively propose real solutions for parents at the College. Who the Project is For Participants are encouraged across disciplines and departments, and can expect to work hands-‐on with ideas in architecture, product design, and service design, engaging with themes and critical issues from neoliberalism and radical feminism, caring and invisible labour, and early years education and play. You should have an open mind and a willingness to explore creative solutions to pragmatic problems that have a reach within and beyond the art college. Participants with Children Students with and without children are equally welcome. The sessions will be held in a space in which children are permitted so they may be in attendance with their parents. Children of all ages may accompany their parent/carer on the sessions, but responsibility for provision for their care rests with their parent/carer, as the College has not provided us permission or budget to offer a caregiver. We will aim to provide some materials for play, craft, and snacks and accommodate children on the field trips and site visits wherever possible. Outcomes Expect a hands-‐on week that will cross the fields of architecture and interior design, feminism and radical politics, play work and arts education in critical and imaginative ways. On the fifth day you’ll present your projects in response to specific briefs to a group of guests so that the best proposals can be taken forward to the College to develop new solutions, spaces, and models for childcare in an art school today. The project builds on on-‐going dialogues across the independent gallery sector of London and the UK addressing issues around the visibility of parents and children in art schools, galleries, and academia, and offers students to possibility to develop creative solutions to be put into practice within and beyond the College. Group Work Students are expected to work independently in groups through the week to develop practical projects in response to their briefs to be presented on Friday. A budget of £40 per group is allocated. You should respond to your brief with models, propositions and solutions that engage the critical issues with creative possibilities. Models, plans, renders, animations etc are all possible.
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Field Trips and Resources Imperial College London Staff and Student Early Years Education Centre Location: 8 Princes Gate, SW7 2AZ, http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/eyecNearest Nearest Tube: South Kensington Contact: (0)20 7589 5111. Meet at No 8 Princes Gate at 955 on assigned day. Tour is held in groups of up to 5. Time: Tuesday 28th Oct., Weds 29th Oct. Groups of 5. 10-‐1030 tour of nursery. 1030-‐11 observation of nursery groups. Imperial College offers an “outstanding” (Ofsted) nursery on the College site for the use of staff and students. Babies from 12 weeks to children aged 4 are cared for 5 days a week. The nursery staff will give a tour of this example of a classic model of workplace nurseries, and then students can stay to observe rooms of various aged children for research. Children Attending: In order to avoid disrupting the children in the nursery, we’re sorry but children cannot accompany parents on this trip. Feminist Library Location: 5 Westminster Bridge Rd, London SE1 7XW, feministlibrary.co.uk/ Nearest Tube: Elephant and Castle Conctact: 0207 261 0879 Time: Tuesday 28th October: 3-‐4pm. Special presentation of archival material relating to Hackney campaigns for childcare, 1970s. The Feminist Library is a large archive collection of Women’s Liberation Movement literature, particularly second-‐wave materials dating from the late 1960s to the 1990s. We support research, activist and community projects in this field. Opening hours: Monday 6-‐9 pm, Wednesday 5-‐9pm , Thursday 6-‐9pm and Saturday 12-‐5pm Oasis Play Venture: Adventure Playground, Nature Gardens Location: 33 Priory Grove, Stockwell SW8 2PD, www.oasisplay.org.uk Contact: Jess Thom, 0207 622 8756, Nearest Tube: Stockwell Time: 230-‐4, Wednesday 29th Oct. Oasis venture offers an adventure playground, a nature garden, and a go-‐kart track for children in the local area ranging from under 5s to teenagers. We will receive a tour with play worker, artist, and writer Jess Thom (RCA photography 2005), to explore the relationship of adventure play to risk. Children Attending: Children of participants on the course are welcome to accompany the visit to Oasis. The nature garden is designed for Under 5s; the playground for children 6 and over. Parents/carers are responsible for their children while on site. Please let Kim know the ages and numbers of children who will be coming. Burghley Road Play Space Location: Burghley Road Play Space, 23 1/2 Burghley Road, London N8 0QG. http://www.burghleyroadplayspace.com/ Nearest Tube: Turnpike Lane
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Contact: Vanessa Rolf Time: 1030-‐1230 Thursday 30th Oct. Since 1992, Burghley Road Centre has been serving the children and families of North London. Our mission is to provide an enriching environment for our children to develop. The organisation is run 100% by volunteers -‐ many of whom are parents whose children use the centre. There is a £2 entrance fee per adult plus £1 per additional child. It is a drop in stay and play open from 10.30 -‐ 2.30. We serve a basic vegetarian lunch at 12 -‐ £1 for kids and £2 for adults, orders need to be in for lunch by 11.30 latest. Children Attending: Under 5s only. Supervised by parent/carer. Limited to a maximum of 7. Please contact Kim to confirm numbers and ages of children. Shop of Possibilities, South London Gallery, Sceaux Gardens Estate Location: 1-‐2 Florian House Shops, Sceaux Gardens Estate, SE5 7DL. http://www.southlondongallery.org/page/blog Nearest Tube: Peckham Rye Contact: Jack James, SLG Main Switchboard 0207 703 6120 Time: Thursday Oct 30, 1200-‐230 The Shop of Possibilities is the SLG’s social space for play for local residents in a former retail outlet on the neighbouring Sceaux Gardens housing estate. This renovated space was designed in collaboration with Febrik, a collaborative platform for participatory art and design research, and opened in May 2012. Originally invited in 2010 by the South London Gallery to undertake a Making Play residency in a smaller shop unit on the Sceaux Gardens estate, Febrik worked with resident children to create The Shop of Possibilities in a much larger neighbouring unit. It serves as a free afterschool and weekend play space for children and families on a number of local housing estates, with a focus on bringing together children’s play and contemporary art practices.
Please read the text: Nicholson, “Loose Parts,” in advance of Jack’s presentation. As a barter for Jack’s presentation, you are requested to bring something – a loose part – to donate to the play space. This could be a piece of furniture, some tape, string, wood, wheels etc. Anything.
Children Attending: Any children can attend under parents’/carers’ supervision, unlimited in age or number. Please let Kim know the ages and numbers of children who will be coming.
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Other Sites and Contacts of Interest in Preparing Your Project Students seeking further information and resources may find the following useful and can arrange independent visits, either during the project or in the course of your own work. Community Playthings Robertsbridge, East Sussex TN32 5DR, http://www.communityplaythings.co.uk/ Based in East Sussex, Community Playthings design, make and supply nearly all nursery furniture used in state-‐run nurseries in the UK. They have a strong ethos on materials, colours, spaces, and self publish literature (some available in resources) on the field. Any students wanting to visit the site can contact Vreneli Kleinsasser on 0800 387 457 or [email protected] Bishopsgate Institute Library 230 Bishopsgate, EC2M 4QH, http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/, 10-‐530 Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, 10-‐8 Weds. Nearest Tube: Liverpool Street A specific collection of pamphlets on the Friends of Hackney Nurseries movement in the 1970s is also held at the Bishopsgate Institute. Materials Libraries Materials Libraries offering alternate and new materials for design solutions can be found at: The Institute of Making, UCL; Central Saint Martins Collections and Archives; SCIN Gallery; and Material Lab. Children’s Scrap Project 137 Homerton High St, London E9 6AS, www.childrensscrap.co.uk, 020 8985 6290
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The Children’s S.C.R.A.P. Project is a Registered Charity No. 281010 which collects, stores and distributes clean, safe industrial waste to schools, nurseries, colleges, special needs groups, churches, hospital wards, playgroups, community groups and charitable organisations involved in education. The Children’s S.C.R.A.P. Project was first started in 1978 by our founder Mr Bruce Galley in response to cuts in Government spending on education particularly arts and crafts funding. The charities main objective is to advance education and play by the distribution of donated materials to schools, colleges, playgroups, nurseries, community groups and other charitable organisations established for educational purposes. Contact before visiting, as you may need to be registered as an arts/education professional to be able to obtain material. Michael Faraday School Location: Portland Street, Ayelsbury Estate, Camberwell SE17 2HR, michaelfaradayschool.co.uk, Nearest Tube: Elephant and Castle Contact: 0207 703 5806 Designed by Alsop Sparch, the new Michael Faraday Community School, which opened its doors to its first pupils on 30 September 2010, is the first of three primary schools to be transformed under the Southwark Schools for the Future programme. Replacing the existing cramped and inflexible 1970s buildings located at the centre of the Aylesbury estate, the new Michael Faraday Community School is a flagship project for the regeneration of the estate, the largest social housing complex in Europe. The new school provides nursery, primary school, adult education and community facilities in 3021sqm (gross internal floor area) over two floors. It features open-‐plan learning spaces, flexible and adaptable classrooms that are capable of supporting a range of teaching and learning styles, and covered external spaces for outdoor learning. Note: As Radical Pragmatics is taking place in half term, primary schools are closed so we are unable to view this site. The Head, Karen Fowler, welcomes any RCA students to make an appointment to view the school as an architectural site at a later date. Invisible Spaces of Parenthood Library Andrea Francke will make the ISP library available at her home to students on the workshop. Mon – Fri 10-‐6. 35 St Gabriel’s Manor, 25 Cormont Road SE5 9RH. Please text Andrea on 07540 328 870 to confirm time before going.
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Presenting Outcomes Friday 31 Oct, 1030am-‐1pm:
On the final day, Gill Park, director of Pavilion, Leeds, will present on childcare and feminist art collectives of the 1970s and screening of Leeds Animation Workshop: ‘Who Needs Nurseries? We Do?!’, 1976.
Students will then present their projects and outcomes in response to the brief for a group discussion with guests including:
§ Gill Park, Director, Pavilion, Leeds
§ Andrea Francke, Artist
§ Richard Wentworth, Artist
§ JJ Charlesworth, Critic
§ Caro Howell, Director, The Foundling Museum
§ Joy Dahl, Early Years Education Specialist, and former nursery nurse of RCA nursery in 1970s
§ Vanessa King, PhD (Clinical Microbiology), Steiner School teacher, and former child of the RCA nursery, 1970s
§ Jane Copus, Artist and founder of original RCA crèche, 1968.
The panel of invited guests and the group will discuss the projects, with the most innovative being awarded a prize of recognition, and findings and proposals being taken forward to the College.
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Resources Core Texts: Fraser, Nancy, “After the Family Wage: A Postindustrial Thought Experiment,” Fortunes of Feminism, Verso, London: 2013. pp.111-‐138. Hochschild, Arlie, “So How’s the Family?” So How’s the Family? and Other Essays, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: 2013. pp.47-‐63. Hochschild, Arlie, “Inside the Clockwork of Male Careers, with a 1990s Postscript”, 1993 (1973), Kathryn P. Meadow Orlans and Ruth A. Wallace (eds.), Gender and the Academic Experience: Berkeley Women 1952-‐1972, University of Nebraska Press, pp. 125-‐139. An Authors’ Collective, “Preface and Introduction,” Storefront Day Care Centres: The Radical Berlin Experiment, trans. by Catherine Lord and Renee Neu Watkins, Beacon Press, Boston: 1973. pp. vi – xxiii. To Read for presentation at South London Gallery: Nicholson, Simon, “The Theory of Loose Parts, An important principle for design methodology,” Studies in Design Education, Craft & Technology, 1972, Vol. 4, No. 2. All texts available here: http://kimdhillon.wordpress.com/teaching/radical-‐pragmatics-‐texts/ Further Research and Resources: Further resources for your research and projects are available here: http://kimsukie.tumblr.com/ and on Twitter @RCAkids Invisible Spaces of Parenthood Library Andrea Francke will make the ISP library available at her home to students on the workshop. Mon – Fri 10-‐6. 35 St Gabriel’s Manor, 25 Cormont Road SE5 9RH. Please text Andrea on 07540 328 870 to confirm time before going.
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Who We Are Kim Dhillon is a doctoral research student in CHS, chair of the RCA Parent & Family Society, and part of an on-‐going collaboration with artist Andrea Francke, Invisible Spaces of Parenthood, with commissions in 2014 including ‘Changing Play,’ with the Serpentine, and a publishing project with AND publishing. She has a two-‐year old son and a four-‐year old daughter. Anna Reid is a doctoral research student, adjunct curator of Pavillion, Leeds, and has a baby daughter. Contacts: Kim Dhillon: M: 07969 454 193 E: [email protected]
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Tour Plan 11-‐12, Monday 27th October Types of Spaces Public Spaces Studio Spaces Bookable Spaces Technical Spaces – off limits Darwin Building
1. Inner Courtyard Galleries 2. Henry Moore Galleries 3. Podium 4. Courtyard 5. Café / Restaurant 6. Bar / Terrace 7. Jay Mews
Stevens Building
1. Visual Comms studio 2. Performing Arts Lab 3. Humanities Seminar room
Consider pop up spaces, temporary spaces, shared use, sound, safety, access etc. We intend to be touring the spaces with children.
