ICA is pleased to present RAW Académie at ICA: Infrastructure, directed by Linda Goode Bryant, the first session of the Académie to be held outside of Dakar, Senegal. The program will serve as a laboratory within ICA, bringing national and international perspectives around the issue of arts infrastructure and asks us to think critically about how institutions can be reimagined. Taking place over seven weeks at ICA, with eleven international fellows in-residence, this experiential study program will be led by artist, writer, filmmaker and activist Linda Goode Bryant in conversation with visiting faculty.

Join us starting March 16 for the events listed below. More details and registration links will be made available soon.

Wednesday, March 16, 6PM

Introduction to the RAW Académie at ICA: Infrastructure with Linda Goode Bryant, Marie Hélène Pereira, Dulcie Abrahams Altass, and Alex Klein

Linda Goode Bryant, Artistic Director for RAW Académie at ICA, introduces her vision for the session in Philadelphia and her work towards creating a different arts infrastructure. Joining her in conversation are Marie Hélène Pereira and Dulcie Abrahams Altass of RAW Material Company, and Alex Klein, ICA’s Dorothy and Stephen R. Weber (CHE ’60) Curator, to reflect on their multi-year dialogue and resulting institutional collaboration.

Friday, March 18, 6PM

Arthur Jafa

Artist and filmmaker Arthur Jafa sets the stage for the first week of the session of RAW Académie at ICA: Infrastructure.

Wednesday, March 23, 6PM

Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung

Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung considers the question of the public as he transitions from the founder and artistic director of SAVVY Contemporary to his new role as the Director of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin.

Friday, April 8, 6PM

Louis Massiah

This session asks Académie participants to consider what it would mean for institution building to be part of their artistic practice or to imagine institutional relationships as key to the realization of their cultural work. How can art production and institution building be understood as cultural work: the conscious use of art as a tool in strengthening down-pressed communities, and more importantly the use of art to assist in the long-term viability and sustenance of human society? Can we reframe the institution by positing that institutions not only allow us to do cultural work, but can be our cultural work? If cultural work is understood as a set of processes, might the role of institutions become a way to support production and systematize methodologies?

Wednesday, April 13, 6PM

Gudskul

Gudskul will share stories and engage with fellows through games about embracing and developing the collectivity as an aspect of building infrastructure. Within a collective model, the permission to fail and the asynchronous rhythms of collaborators becomes an integral part of the system itself.

Wednesday, April 20, 6PM

Bryant Wells: Compression —> Transmission

Bryant will share methods of distribution that antagonize prevailing methods inherent to the institution. Over the course of the sixth week, Bryant will aid the fellows in developing their new model for infrastructure.

Date TBD

Closing event with Linda Goode Bryant and RAW Académie Fellows

Celebrate the culmination of RAW Académie at ICA with a presentation by the fellows on their work with Linda Goode Bryant and the visiting faculty to reimagine an alternative infrastructure for the arts.