Notes from New York: Independent Study

Arts education in US universities is interleaved with unhappy departures and uneasy participation. Could a model of self-paced, self-motivated study be the solution?

In 1972 the German artist Joseph Beuys was dismissed from his teaching position at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf after repeatedly occupying university offices to advocate for applicants he believed should have been accepted. A photograph shows Beuys, all smiles, being marched out of the building by police. With his ties to traditional academia severed, he began presenting a series of lecture-performances around the world on topics like democracy, alchemy, myth and astrology, using chalkboards to capture cat’s cradles of thought. These performances are referenced in the label accompanying Chloë Bass’s chalk drawing Notes from ungiven talks (2026), which the Brooklyn-based artist began installing at the National Academy of Design in February. The work fills one of four panels in the academy’s galleries as part of the exhibition Future Schools, which features artists and collectives responding to the current educational crisis in the US through alternative methods such as collaborative play, improvisation and experimentation. So far, Bass has drawn a pair of hands hovering hesitantly over piano keys and written a paragraph in white chalk reflecting on what it means to practise an instrument outside of formal lessons. She will fill the remaining panels over the course of the exhibition.