Groundwork is a four-month library residency at Canal Projects, New York. Over this period, the space will grow as a collective workshop for learning and convening—gathering together friends, old and new, to think and transform together.
What role can artists play in the world? How might art and design help to develop a more equitable, diverse, and joyous world?
From the Middle Ages to today, the figure of the artist has evolved from a modest craftsperson into the ‘apex predator’ of a cultural and creative ecosystem. The world now faces entangled crises—of ecology, structural inequality, belief systems, and community—as well as rapidly changing technologies for communication. Amid this context, D🌎T proposes that a comprehensive rethinking of the role of the artist is necessary. The power and privilege of art to enable individual liberation can become a pathway towards collective transformation.
D🌍T is an emergent, multiform workshop. Its curriculum embraces topics as wide-ranging as embodied practice, exhibition display, facilitation, graphic design, individual and group therapeutic methods, mindfulness, literary theory, neuroscience, organizational management, sociology, and speculative fiction. Starting from small groups, D🌏T explores possibilities for collaboration, learning, belonging, and action embedded within emergent creative practice.
Department of Transformation is currently taking shape through public programs, educational engagements, community-based activities, and self-directed protocols. This website will grow and change to capture this ongoing work. Please join our mailing list if you’re interested in updates, follow us on Instagram, or reach out via email.
