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THE PUBLIC SCHOOL DURHAM (2010 – present)
GLOBAL
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL is a school with no curriculum. At the moment, it operates as follows: first, classes are proposed by the public (I want to learn this or I want to teach this); then, people have the opportunity to sign up for the classes (I also want to learn that); finally, when enough people have expressed interest, the school finds a teacher and offers the class to those who signed up.
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL is not accredited, it does not give out degrees, and it has no affiliation with the public school system. It is a framework that supports autodidactic activities, operating under the assumption that everything is in everything.
LOCAL
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL DURHAM was launched in 2010. It is in its beginning stages and does not have one central location for classes but changes locations according to availability and class needs. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL DURHAM is an auto-didactic and experimental learning community that has no set curriculum; courses are proposed by the public and can vary in fields of studies, types of exercises and duration of classes. Courses emerge at the intersection of theory and practice and are geared towards the development of theoretical and/or practical skills. They can take the form of hands-on workshops that aim at critical artistic creation/production.
The PUBLIC SCHOOL DURHAM is not associated with one university in the triangle area, but operates independently and is not attached to any institution. Anybody can be part of it, express interest, propose and teach classes!
Classes have included Spatial Derive, Basic Machine Sewing, Queer Cinema, The Egyptian Revolution and Its Historical Context, Music Theory, Mapping with the Counter-Cartographies Collective, DIY Electronics, Cinema from Southeastern Europe, and Art as a Way of Life.
