How Will Art Survive Us? Lecture by Tal Beery, 22 May

Respondent: Joost Adriaanse and Juliette Huijgen
Date: Tuesday, 22 May 2018
Time: 4 p.m. – 5.15 p.m.
Room: VU main building, room HG-12A33
Drinks afterwards
Attendance is free of charge; please register using the form below.

Facing social and ecological changes that may threaten the very survival of our species, our times require large-scale collective adaptation. The arts, and arts institutions, are crucial here. They hold space for new stories and act as arenas for the rehearsal of new structures and modes of engagement that will be the most effective tools for surviving what we have become.

And fortunately or unfortunately, depending on where you stand, we aren’t heading to some spectacular apocalypse. Instead, we have entered a moment of profound uncertainty as we grapple with cultural, ecological, and technological phenomena that challenge basic assumptions about human existence. How does art participate in this transformation? What kinds of influence do artists have over its direction?

In this lecture, Tal Beery will present on two artist-run institutions he has co-founded to help address these questions. Eco Practicum, an artist-run school for ecological justice, offers immersive and experiential education in environmental and social justice to promising undergraduate students from around the world. School of Apocalypse creates opportunities for collaboration between artists, scientists, thinkers, and concerned people of all kinds who wish to connect creative practice and notions of survival. He will end by discussing the roles that such artist-run institutions play both within the arts and beyond to improve environmental practices and build public awareness of critical environmental issues.