Throw away the canvas. Let the brushes dry out. Grab a #2 pencil (but you may not need it). This fall, SPACES will be host to The Plum Academy: An Institute for Situated Practices, an experimental school. Rather than house a traditional exhibition of objects, SPACES is choosing to organize a school-as-exhibition. Concepts and ideas will take the forefront, rather than materials, styles and conventional aesthetics. Specially selected facilitators from the regional community and beyond will lead forums that approach topics obliquely, find unique entry points to ideas and challenge the established structures of education. (To assist in taking a different look at education, we use the terms "forum" and "facilitator" rather than "class" and "teacher", respectively.)

Forum subjects will be unexpected. The student-teacher relationship will be questioned and the school itself will function as a large, collaborative performance.

This is not an “art school” per se. We are not offering art classes. We do offer a variety of forums that tackle contemporary thought on a number of topics and disciplines—that challenge traditional educational systems, are out-of-the-ordinary, outrageous, educational and entertaining. Forums will be solo presentations, workshops, open discussions, field trips, etc.

Departments

Forums (courses) are color-coded below to fall into the following Academy departments:

 The Department of Psycho-Cartography

Why we live where we live, the choices we make, where we go and what we see, and how we move through the day.

 The Department of Cultural Husbandry

This department deals with issues of cultural creation and maintenance—from the arts, to the organizations that mediate between artists and the public, to how culture is categorized and historicized.

 The Department of Chance

Randomness and chaos dictate this wild-card department. If you choose to participate in this department, forums may deal with the subject of chance/randomness, or facilitators may volunteer to have a subject and format selected for them at random.

Enrollment

Each forum with an enrollment limit or materials fee requires pre-registration (no registration at the door). Registration fees are as follows:

• $5/credit for SPACES members
• $8/credit for non-members
• $20/5 credit block for SPACES members
• $30/5 credit block for non-members

Each credit is one meeting period. One credit = one meeting. Three credits = a three meeting series. Each meeting date and time is listed immediately after the credit number. If a forum has no cost, no credits are listed, just the date and time. It's pretty easy.

Scholarships

Ten scholorships covering four (4) forum credits each will be awarded to applicants. For more information on how to apply and how the scholarships work, email us at .

Forums (listed chronologically)

Package Deal: Five Credit block

Purchase here: Select "member" or "non-member" and you will be taken to PayPal. Once you have entered your credit card information, you will be asked to review your payment. On this page, you will find a field for "Notes." Please enter only the forum numbers to which you would like to register in this field. Remember, some forums are one credit, while others can be more than one. Some forums require materials fees. Should you register for a forum that does include a materials fee in addition to the credit fee, we will invoice you at a later date. (Material fee invoicing applies only to those who purchase a package. Material Fees are included in the prices listed for individual forums.)

 001 Academy Dis-Orientation/Opening Reception

Facilitator: Christopher Lynn, SPACES Executive Director
Friday, September 11, 6:00–9:00 p.m.
To disrupt the hierarchy of school leadership, you are invited to lead 5-minute lectures using the SPACES executive director’s PowerPoint presentations as your guide. Never having seen the presentations before, your improvised lectures will be fraught with fiction, but are sure to be highly entertaining.
Cost: FREE, no pre-registration required

 002 Bad Art Day

Facilitator: SPACES
Saturday, September 12, 12:00–8:00 p.m. (as supplies last)
No good art is allowed to be made at Bad Art Day. Join us where you can make your own horrible knock-off of a contemporary artist’s work while wading in the shallow end of the aesthetic pool. This is part of the Sparx City Hop event.
Cost: FREE, no pre-registration required

  004 Chance & Procedural Writing: History and Practice

Facilitator: Tom Orange, Ph.D. English Literature, The University of Western Ontario, 2007; has taught literature, creative writing, composition and interdisciplinary courses at Vanderbilt, Georgetown and The George Washington Universities
3 credits: Tuesdays: September 15, 22, 29, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
We will consider the history of utilizing chance within writing, the methods at work, the motivations for creating such work and how to evaluate it. There will also be opportunities for participants to try these writing practices themselves.
Enrollment limit: 20

 009 Reclaiming Lost Idealism about Art, Ideally

Facilitator: H. Scott Westover, Curator at The Progressive Art Collection
1 credit: Thursday, September 17, 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Calling all Marxists, Pragmatists, and Idealists! This forum discusses the possibility of being empirically honest, but aesthetically and ideally empowered. Reclaim a belief in contemporary art, artists, and visual art institutions as potent and even historic contributors to social progress.

 019 Driver’s Head

Facilitator: Kristin Bly, artist / musician / writer / corporate minion
1 credit: Saturday, September 19, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Artist Kristin Bly may be in the driver’s seat, but you are the instructor/evaluator in this forum. Kristin sees himself as a very good driver, with excellent skills of observation, maneuverability, predictability, and driver multi-tasking. Almost unanimously, however, seemingly everyone who has ever been in a car or on a motorcycle with him has declared otherwise. During this forum, Kristin will drive around with up to four participants, conducting himself in the usual ways—all the while, defending his driving behaviors and unique style as NOT offensive driving, but rather the savvy, intelligent, and downright skillful execution that he (alone) maintains as the characteristics of his abilities to operate a moving vehicle. Just two-hours in the car listening to Kristin’s music is worth it.
Enrollment limit: 4
Pre-requisite: A sense of adventure

 005 Elaine Hullihen Workshop: Float a Float

Facilitator: Elaine Hullihen, SPACELab artist
2 credits: Saturday, September 19, 12:00–4:00 p.m. and
Saturday, September 26, 11:00–1:00 p.m.
Elaine Hullihen’s “floats” are wearable devices to help individuals navigate the flow of rivers. Make your own float with Elaine and on the following Saturday, float them down the river.
Enrollment limit: 10

  006 Graffiti Frost

Facilitator: Maria Samuelson, artist
1 credit: Thursday, September 24, 6:30–8:30 p.m.
We will overview the parallel aesthetic underpinnings and corresponding practice elements of graffiti and cake decorating, followed by an introduction to basic cake decorating techniques, concluding in a short excursion outside of the gallery to tag exterior structures.
Materials fee: $10 for bags, icing, tips and colors
Enrollment limit: 15

 007 Foxy Proxy Cleveland

Facilitator: Christopher Lynn, SPACES Executive Director
Saturday, September 26, 3:00–4:00 p.m. and 6:00–7:00 p.m.
In films, Cleveland can be a stand-in for Chicago, LA, New York, Sioux City, etc. We will dissect what it is that makes Cleveland both ambiguous enough to be a duplicate/duplicated and specific enough to render itself unique. This event will be in conjunction with The Bridge Project.
Cost: FREE, no pre-registration required

 008 Deborah Stratman: Lecture Screening

Facilitator: Deborah Stratman, Chicago-based artist and filmmaker, pythagorasfilm.com
1 credit: Saturday, September 26, 7:30-9:00 p.m.
Deborah Stratman will present some of her film work and talk about the history, uses, mythologies and control of highly varied landscapes from Muslim Xinjiang China, to rural Iceland, to gated suburban California. Deborah is a Chicago-based artist and filmmaker whose work plies the territory between experimental and documentary genres. She also works in other media, including photography, sound, drawing and sculpture. She recently completed a series of works that collectively address concepts of the paranormal in the information age and is presently working on a new film about the milieu of elevated threat, patriotism, wilderness and the possibility of transcendence. Stratman teaches in the School of Art & Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

 020 Driver’s Head

Facilitator: Kristin Bly, artist / musician / writer / corporate minion
1 credit: Saturday, October 3, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Artist Kristin Bly may be in the driver’s seat, but you are the instructor/evaluator in this forum. Kristin sees himself as a very good driver, with excellent skills of observation, maneuverability, predictability, and driver multi-tasking. Almost unanimously, however, seemingly everyone who has ever been in a car or on a motorcycle with him has declared otherwise. During this forum, Kristin will drive around with up to four participants, conducting himself in the usual ways—all the while, defending his driving behaviors and unique style as NOT offensive driving, but rather the savvy, intelligent, and downright skillful execution that he (alone) maintains as the characteristics of his abilities to operate a moving vehicle. Just two-hours in the car listening to Kristin’s music is worth it.
Enrollment limit: 4
Pre-requisite: A sense of adventure

 010 Field Recording in the Land of Smokestacks

Facilitator: Sarah Paul, musical artist and assistant professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art; Nicholas Economos, digital artist and educator
1 credit: Saturday, October 3, 12:00–2:00 p.m.
Join us on a sonic exploration of the ArcelorMittal Steel Yards of Cleveland. We will parade through the public streets of the steel yards, stopping to record and observe the sonic diversity that Cleveland’s post-post-industrial landscape has to offer us.

 011 Lucy Raven: Lecture/Screening

Facilitator: Lucy Raven, New York-based artist and filmmaker; founding editor, along with Rebecca Gates, of The Relay Project audiomagazine, and is Editorial Director of Bidoun Magazine
1 credit: Monday, October 5, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Lucy Raven, an artist based in New York, will present her new movie China Town, an experimental photo animation about global copper production. China Town is currently screening at art and film spaces around the country, including Mass MoCA, The Wexner Center for the Arts, Storefront for Art and Architecture, and the Nevada Museum of Art. Raven has been a resident artist with The Center for Land Use Interpretation, The Wexner Center for the Arts, and the Atlantic Center. Her work has recently been exhibited at The Kitchen, New York; Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA; In Situ Gallery, Paris, France; The Boise Museum of Art, Idaho; The Cleveland Institute of Art, Ohio, and Sculpture Center, Long Island City, New York. She is a founding editor along with Rebecca Gates, of The Relay Project audiomagazine, and is Editorial Director of Bidoun magazine.

  012 Regionalism in Practice: Lessons from Architecture

Facilitator: Tom Orange, Ph.D., English Literature, The University of Western Ontario, 2007; has taught literature, creative writing, composition and interdisciplinary courses at Vanderbilt, Georgetown and The George Washington Universities
3 credits: Tuesdays: October 6, 13, 20, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
What would it mean to paint a uniquely Cleveland artwork? As it turns out, architectural theory has a well-developed body of writing on what constitutes regionalism in building design and construction. We will study and discuss architectural regionalism, and determine how these ideas can be applied to other forms of artistic practice.
Enrollment limit: 20

  013 Graffiti Field Trip

Facilitator: Peter Tabor, artist
1 credit: Saturday, October 10, 12:00–2:00 p.m.
Participants will discuss the rules and conventions of the graffiti community as well as graffiti’s impact on the residents of Cleveland. We will visit multiple sites of concentrated graffiti work. Participants will create their own chalk graffiti.
Enrollment Limit: 15 people
Age Restrictions: 18 and older
Required Material: Sidewalk chalk, RTA fare, camera or sketchbook (optional)

 014 Electric Intonarumori: DIY Noize Instruments and Performance

Facilitator: bbob drake, electroacoustic musician and synth designer, fluxmonkey.com
1 credit: Saturday, October 10, 2:00–5:00 p.m.
This is a hands-on exploration of building electronic circuits as playable noize instruments. This is not primarily “circuit bending” (modifying existing musical toys), but creating new circuitry from scratch. No electronics experience required.
Materials fee: $15.00
Enrollment limit: 8
Age restriction: 18 and older

  015 I Like the Way Dancing Feels . . . Just Not the Way It Looks: An Exercise in Radical Choreography

Facilitator: Maria Samuelson, artist
1 credit: Tuesday, October 13, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
By utilizing movements that don’t look like “dance,” we will be conceptually choreographing dance works fit to be read and appreciated using the contemporary visual art vocabulary.
Enrollment limit: 20
Required material: Comfortable clothes, rubber soled shoes and a willingness to be barefoot

 021 Driver’s Head

Facilitator: Kristin Bly, artist / musician / writer / corporate minion
1 credit: Saturday, October 17, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Artist Kristin Bly may be in the driver’s seat, but you are the instructor/evaluator in this forum. Kristin sees himself as a very good driver, with excellent skills of observation, maneuverability, predictability, and driver multi-tasking. Almost unanimously, however, seemingly everyone who has ever been in a car or on a motorcycle with him has declared otherwise. During this forum, Kristin will drive around with up to four participants, conducting himself in the usual ways—all the while, defending his driving behaviors and unique style as NOT offensive driving, but rather the savvy, intelligent, and downright skillful execution that he (alone) maintains as the characteristics of his abilities to operate a moving vehicle. Just two-hours in the car listening to Kristin’s music is worth it.
Enrollment limit: 4; FULL!
Pre-requisite: A sense of adventure
SOLD OUT!

  016 Of Sound Mind: Ephemeral Fusion of Found Sounds and Created Clatter

Facilitator: Eric Rippert, artist, educator, musician
1 credit: Saturday, October 17, 12:00–2:00 p.m.
This forum will address and explore the commonly defined notions of the aesthetics of sound and particularly the boundaries of song structure by incorporating randomness, chance and appropriation, concluding with participants creating their own soundscapes.
Material fees: $5
Enrollment limit: 8
Age restrictions: 16 and older

   018 Commencement

Friday, October 23, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Join us as we bid fond farewell to our alma mater with a grab-bag of activities and forums. Academy participants and the general public are invited to participate in The Paradigm Race. Visitors will be encouraged to test their wits and stamina in a fun, friendly, physical, and theoretical debate. The last-standing competitor able to pontificate on random topics while engaged in physical exertion earns an honorary (although useless) doctorate from The Plum Academy. All alumni and the public are welcome!
Cost: FREE, no pre-registration required

The Plum Academy School Board

The Plum Academy school board that helped to conceptualize and frame the Academy is: Chris Auerbach-Brown, Julia Christensen, Christopher Lynn, Saul Ostrow, Kristin Bly, Laila Voss and Vlada Vukodinovic.