Curator aims to encourage artists to rethink their role in society

SARAH URWIN JONES

involved in dissent in the history of the city. The French Revolution is writ large, and not least, Hao tells me, in the plaque, just outside the Cooper Gallery door, marking the Liberty Tree – the only tree in history to be put in prison (which sounds very much like something out of ancient folklore) – put up by revolutionary-minded Dundonians after the French Revolution.

The rest of the “term”, under Ewan’s “occupation”, before her solo exhibition in the gallery space in September, is titled: We Could Have Been Anything That We Wanted to Be and It’s Not Too Late to Change.

It’s taken up by other rather wonderful sounding classes available to all, from the Strike Class, an in-conversation event with former Timex workers and activists from the 1993 strike, to the Play Class – a playwriting workshop on dissent with John McCann, and the Slogan Class where participants work on three word slogans for a protest banner or placard.

There is a Beauty Class on beautifying crises in society with author and social critic Minna Salami. There’s even a Radical Pub Crawl (virtual, of course) which takes in Frida Kahlo and Sylvia Pankhurst, ending in a pub quiz with artist Yara El-Sherbini.

It is, I say, as if you will be turning out activists on to the streets of Dundee – and elsewhere – in search of a cause. “Yes!” beams Hao. “Exactly.”

Future Sit-Ins will include three solo exhibitions from Scottish artists and internationally-renowend artists, plus two “archive” exhibitions on international pedagogical experimentation, from Bauhaus to Nigerian experimentation and the Environmental Art Course at Glasgow School of Art, and historical experiments in art education.

And if the process is to discover how we can uncage the pedagogical imagination from the strictures that we have historically put upon it, then it is also to use that imagination to engage the wider public – the rest of us – in a more productive engagement between art school and city and society.

“Rather than us talking at people, the ethos is about experimenting with flattening hierarchies. Is it possible to rethink?” At this current time of political and other crises, says Hao, this could not be more pertinent.

The Ignorant Art School: Five Sit-Ins Towards Creative Emancipation, Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee. www.dundee.ac.uk/coopergallery Event bookings (free) via website

EVERY art gallery and museum needs to reimagine how it engages with its audiences to some extent in these trying times, and the McManus in Dundee is doing just that, with an eye to the diverse communities that benefit from it in easier times. The “Reconnect” project sees the museum attempt to help alleviate social isolation caused by Covid 19 in the city over the next six months by providing a cultural platform for those currently shielding, or finding themselves isolated perhaps because of long term health conditions, facing poverty and hardship, or simply struggling with their children’s learning whilst trying to work, or find work.

The project will work in partnership with groups such as Tayside Healthcare Arts Trust, who have also part funded the project, Home-Start Dundee and Alzheimer Scotland, to bring cultural activities and events to those who may benefit, rooted in the McManus’ current temporary exhibitions, Time and Tide: The

Transformation of the Tay and A Love Letter to Dundee: Joseph McKenzie Photographs 1964-1987.

These are more than worthwhile projects, with activities ranging from photography classes over zoom to free art kits and online dance sessions themed around the museum. It is, say the McManus, about helping support their wider audiences’ wellbeing in difficult times, when some families cannot afford art materials for their children, when people are losing their jobs, when they are finding the level of isolation too much to bear.

Whether it is a weekly creative challenge, or a way to connect with the wider community through storytelling and art-making, this project from The People’s Museum shows that culture can bring benefits for all, and that community really matters.