Art and Education: Curating a Conference Theme

This essay is an exposition of inter-related themes, curatorial iterations, and grounded projects that converged at the University of Kassel, Germany, the location of the 2008 International Conference on the Arts in Society. In my role as 'Conference Director,' I linked the purpose of the Arts Conference - to create an ongoing intellectual platform for the arts and arts practices - to one of three over-arching themes of Documenta12 (Art and Education). Our conference team proceeded to shape the arc of the conference as an integrated and open site for engaging with Documenta12 and its global participants of curators, educators and community arts organizers. Originally conceptualized as an introductory essay to the set of collected and published articles from the 2007 annual Arts Conference (see http://ija.cgpublisher.com), this paper also is intended to stand alone as a reflection and journey through the labyrinth of presentation stops, exhibition showcases, and thematic agenda that mapped conference events. The selection of speakers and collateral events with Documenta12 emerged in the context of working with the Documenta12 education team, and followed its connective threads carefully interwoven throughout exhibition venues by co-curators Roger Buergel and Ruth Noack. More selected 'walk through,' than 'virtual tour,' the following paper invites the reader to enter a subjective storyline of curating a conference theme.