School of the Alternative

“Expenses advertising 105 contract labor 2,600 supplies & materials 351 paypal fees 88 bank fees 60 po box 182 software & apps 601 website fees 333 food 1,732 gas 50 lodging 1,000 total 7,102”

“School of the alternative is an experiment in education and community. We aim to provide a passion-driven model of education that encourages greater possibilities for thought, creation and collective action. Instead of a traditional classroom environment, our campus supports a collectively built, self-directed approach to learning, which gives opportunity for all participants to learn and teach.”

“In the face of unaffordable, corporatized learning, and the one size fits all curriculums that often define public and private higher education, we are presenting an alternative. School of the alternative is a socially integrated experience, with intimate classes, communal living, and emphasis on shared labor. Through a system of co-education, learners and educators cooperate in actively producing knowledge and forming new aesthetic experiences. Faculty are free to plan their class according to their own instruction, and are encouraged to join other classes as students. Students are expected to design their own curriculum but are also given the opportunity to teach. All members will participate in the schools physical maintenance through gardening, cooking, cleaning and will contribute to the gradual and continual transformation of the educational objectives, essential values, and political concerns, bracing school of the alternative. We value experimentation as both an aesthetic drive, and as a way to push new ideas and old traditions to their limits. This radical power is one that allows for significant change within us, our respective fields, our society, and and our relationships with others. At school of the alternative we aim to be an alternative to the broken higher education system, which is a symptom of a broken society. We know that programs of intentional inclusivity in higher education are under constant threat. But by supporting disruptive curricula, building relationships with organizations serving diverse populations, and listening deeply to folks who higher education traditionally silences, we hope to reverse that trend. Our hope is that our community, unlike higher education and the art world, will be a wider reflection of the art-making community as a whole. We want school of the alternative to be accessible to anyone who wants access. We want to share our programming with all regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender, income level, or educational experience, or background. We value reciprocal education, wherein dialogue between peers, students, teachers, and community members creates space for all to learn.”