Part of the internship with the AGO has involved a series of workshops where we are oriented to the AGOs organisational structure, its mandate/mission, issues regarding similar institutions and their programs.  My internship in particular, will be dealing with their formal educational program which includes guided visits for school groups, studio classes and an early years family drop-in space.  

i have been most surprised that education is such a focus of the AGO’s mandate  beyond school children.  i had really never connected “education” to the AGO.  i viewed it more as a cultural institution and therefore a destination and as such never equated a visit to the AGO as an education - i would have characterized it as a “cultural experience” - like the ballet, a play or reading a classic novel (or current novel for that matter).  Their mandate however places a heavy emphasis on “informal education” which extends to adult visitors.  i guess because i am an artist and make work - the end result being an art object or experience - my intention in its production is not “to educate”.  i produce these objects to be interacted with, to explore formal elements, spur on  a discussion or share my view of the world - but not to educate.

So the AGO using education as one of its central reasons for being, grates a little.  It saddens me that understanding the “art world” requires education.  Is it so inaccessible that we need to educate people in order to “get” art?  In one of our workshops we were discussing some of the goals the AGO is hoping to achieve when the school groups come through.  One of them was to get the kids to feel engaged with the experience.  i think that is the better word. There seems to be a lack of engagement generally in a lot of areas of life now.  Art is just another way to engage in the world - artist with viewer, curator with artist, viewer with art, curator with viewer.  Each has other points of engagement political, social and cultural that then feeds the dialogue.  It just seem much more dynamic and interesting than education - be it formal or informal.