A NOMADIC ART SCHOOL
MARE is an ongoing experiment, a leap of faith in world building and alternative education
It is the execution of an idea first seeded in Stockholm over 10 years ago whilst I was running an experimental art space - Konstapoteket.
This seed then germinated during the last Conjuring Creativity conference in London when I was considering how I might facilitate knowledge sharing and practice within Art, Esotericism and Ecology.
These seminar workshops are the first step towards forging a forked path, encouraged by initiatives including TOMA (The Other MA) and Open School East, sourcing deep inspiration from organisations such as Dartington Trust and Schumacher College, alongside other grass roots groups I’ve been involved with along the way.
The workshops are born of awareness that we need places where enquiring academic discussion and research can co-exist alongside less orthodox theory and hands-on practice. The investigation of magick and esotericism occurs through a lens of ecological kinship communicated through art practices, specifically when considering contemporary art as a meta discipline.
One of the main motivations behind this model is a need to reconcile cosmological ecologies, and the other biological entities we share the planet with, on a material and spiritual plane. With a knowledge that artists/creators and educators are often at the frontline of paradigm shifts - there have already been instances such as the forest school movement, started in Sweden which has recently been adopted in the UK, and the emergence of university courses in Art & Ecology,
I feel that that in general these courses are often simply not financially viable for many, and therefore that running high quality one off workshops and courses affords opportunity to bring this current into our communities,
The urge to facilitate and strengthen knowledge in these areas is birthed out of over 25 years personal experience of teaching and facilitating art, working with all ages and backgrounds, often outside of the academy. This is underpinned by an inherent desire to foster space for post-colonial, post-capitalist learning which incorporates both contemporary methodology and discourse, while equally revering and resonating with esoteric and indigenous wisdom traditions.
The nomadic art school seeks to create space to re-concile lost knowledges supressed during the supposed time of Dis-enchantment.
M.AR.E has at it’s core an intention to recognise, honour and work with the entanglements of Magick, Art & Ecology through a series of seminars and workshops, and eventually longer courses.
There is no academic goal or product outcome, rather a hope to activate and facilitate individuals to realise the potential they are capable of through their art making, and how this in turn has the potential to facilitate re-alignment, re-conciliation and co-creativity with other than human beings and the planet.
Recognising the strength in authoring our own narrative, alongside the inherent truth in Myth when HIStory has failed us, this school strives to practice a non patriachal, non Ceartesian hegemony of radical pedagogy and interspirit connectivity.
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
Geraldine Hudson
I am a cross-disciplinary contemporary artist with a vocational background in socially engaged and therapeutic arts practice (often working with marginalised people). Most of my practice is informed by my early environmental activism and my involvement in the ‘counter culture’,
Alongside being a practising artist and educator I have worked both as an independent music promotor and curator for art institutions in Sweden, as well as being on various boards and art collectives.
In the past I had kept my own art practice and curatorial projects separate from my teaching work so MARE feels very freeing in the sense I am teaching a ‘curriculum I want to engage in and am eager to share with other artists.
While I undertook an MA in printmaking, (20 years ago) I was heavily involved in organising and participating in the underground and avant garde music scene that thrived at that time, inspired by green anarchist ideas. This led me to start looking at states/philosophy of the wild, transgressions and individual freedoms in relation to the apparent cultural severance from other than human ‘nature’.
After a series of exhibitions which examined peripheral cultural histories in line with contemporary alienation, I began researching the land enclosures and the English witch trials. This serendipitously coincided with a reacknowledgement of my own magical practice. This invoked a way of being in the world that was strongly linked to the land and traditional celtic seasonal alignments.
During my printmaking M.A, (20 years ago) I was still heavily involved in organising and being around underground and avant garde music and green anarchist ideals. This led me to start looking at states/philosophy of the wild, transgressions and individual freedoms in relation to the apparant human severance from other than human ‘nature’ ... and after a a series of exhibitions which examined peripheral cultural historys in line with contemporary alienation, I began researching the land enclosures and the English Witch Trials. This serendipitously coincided with a reacknowledgement of my own magical practice. As a way of being in the world strongly linked to the land and traditional celtic seasonal alignments.
Living in Stockholm at the time enabled me to weave together these three strands of my self together. I was lucky enough to meet some amazingly dedicated and inspirational artists working with magic/k, esotericism, folklore and spirituality during my time in Sweden.
This gave me the courage to begin Conjuring Creativity (a series of conference events addressing art and esotericism) which was co-founded with Dr Per Faxneld.
It was after holding the last Conjuring Creativity in London and being asked by attendees what was coming next, that I decided now is the time to take a leap of faith and assimilate my own practices with my role as an artist educator.
If you’d like to know more about my own art practice please visit
https://linktr.ee/enidlareg
I welcome all dialogue and possible collaboration from any interested minds, anthropologists, artists, ecologists, esotericists, film makers, herbalists, musicians, psychologists, teachers, writers or others interested in this path.
I can be contacted via ghuds004@gold.ac.uk or conjuringcreativity@gmail.com
I will facilitate the first series of MARE workshops myself, with the intention that the art school will evolve into a family of freelance educators sharing their passion and knowledges, for artistic world building.
M.AR.E workshops are either taught/facilitated by myself, at times with other practitioners both academic and creative who are all experts in their individual field.
The longer school course includes different guest tutors/practitioners