Welcome. Feel free to engage or just observe.
Take a seat, walk around, talk to us.Listen to our presentations, join our discussions.
Have something to eat.
We are the class of 2019 and this is Pedagogy of Insist_ence.
A safe space, a learning space, an “other” space.
Where going against the grain is something we believe in, even though it leaves its marks.
Where we push through our own discomfort and where we invite you to be uncomfortable with us.
So we can learn from it and create something new.
To see the quality of something that is different or unusual.

Pedagogy of Insist_ence was a symposium organised by the students of the Piet Zwart Institute’s Master Education in Arts programme, and was part of the 2019 Willem de Kooning Academy Graduation Show. During this symposium, the students shared stories about their graduation projects: their insights, their struggles, the beauty that came out of their discomfort (or the ugliness that came with it). From primary/secondary and higher education to museum education and participatory practices, they seek to inspire you ― fellow educator / colleague / passing stranger ― with performances, presentations, discussions, and interviews. They aspire to bring insist_ence to education.

The graduation presentation of the Master Education in Arts programme took place in 2018 at two locations in Rotterdam: the Willem de Kooning Academy (WdKA) and TENT. The graduation projects of the students were presented adopting two different formats: the symposium Pedagogy in Context, hosted by TENT, and a Reading Room at the WdKA, both part of the 2018 WdKA Graduation Show. The symposium Pedagogy in Context at TENT consisted of workshops, presentations, performances and discussions. It introduced the diverse experimental contexts and research methodologies of the students’ graduation projects, as well as the diversity of their educational practices. Visitors were invited to participate in an open discussion on the urgencies of contemporary art/design education. The Reading Room at the WdKA offered a space where visitors could access the students’ research projects, as well as the “living archives” of their theoretical and practice-based research. There was also a live screening of the symposium.

How to Act Otherwise? was the central question of this collective presentation by seven graduates of the Piet Zwart Institute’s Master Education in Arts. Seven concepts were proposed ― Tools, Exploring, Participation, Awareness, Body, Position and Speculation ― each hosted by one student as a lens to highlight an aspect of their graduation project and to open this up to wider issues in art education. The seven concepts were organised as a constellation, interwoven by cross-references to elements of each other’s projects. The research and graduation projects of the seven students were presented to the public, taking shape as seven different attitudes towards contemporary issues in education. Together they addressed the question: How to Act Otherwise? The graduation projects were interconnected with and referenced each other, reflecting the research of a learning community exploring the possibilities of alternative pedagogical views and approaches. The presentation thus highlighted different contexts, social and pedagogical aspects, and present-day challenges in art and design education, in which the students were embedded.