In 2010/2011, MFA Public Practice students worked with artists S.A. Bachman and Krista Caballero to present DISMANTLED, an innovative visual arts collaboration. As students across California faced tuition hikes, emerging artists from Otis participated in an exploration of public education, critical pedagogy, and the privatization of our school system. This statewide project acknowledges California’s unique history while simultaneously questioning what the future holds if our institutions of learning are no longer shaped by the core principles of accessible and affordable education for all.
DISMANTLED employs outdoor projection and performance to frame key issues such as the severe cutbacks in funding, charter schools, students and families burdened by debt, financial aid, and access to education. Highlighting populations the government and media often ignore, DISMANTLED integrates interviews from a cross‐section of Californians with provocative visual analysis. In addition, images of blowing bubble gum, historical footage from Brown VS The Board of Education and superhero school uniforms are utilized to raise awareness and incite questions.
Audience members have the opportunity to participate in the project’s ongoing interviews as well as contribute to the creation of a site‐specific installation. Projection sites serve as gathering spaces for sidewalk conversations and run the gamut from neighborhood storefronts to museums, colleges and libraries.
California educators including Peter McLaren, Gilda Haas, Janna Shaddock Hernandez and Ricardo Dominguez have informed this project. The Scan-Tron Video animation was courtesy of Jen Schmidt.
STUDENT QUOTES:
DISMANTLED opened my eyes to different challenges of Education in California and how access can be blocked by systems of power. I learned that one should take action for her/his belief rather than neutrally sit around and watch the failure of the system. As an immigrant, this project was a launching point for my own education in a new environment as well as an imperative source of new methodologies for teaching. Neda Moridpour
It was important to bring DISMANTLED to Fresno, CA because there is a struggle for education in the Central Valley. By projecting onto the city’s vacant Metropolitan Museum of Art, DISMANTLED not only brings this struggle to light, but calls for action from every person on the street. Teresa Flores
Former Fresno MET plays starring role in ArtHop, The Fresno Bee
by Donald Munro
