Lecture #4
Time: Friday September 16, 19:00 – 21:00 hrs.
Location: Piet Zwart Institute, Karel Doormanhof 45 Rotterdam
Admission: Open

Within his work Jan Boelen connects various fields and disciplines: design education, theory and curating, thereby placing the debate on art and design education outside a regular institutional context. He critically questions: ‘Should learning be methodologically or individually based? Which counts most: form or content, product or process, today or tomorrow? Should teaching focus on design or the designer? Are schools the appointed places to develop new politically- and socially-led teaching methods? In order to foster debate he started the platform: ‘Re-Inventing School from A to Z33’, offering a space to discuss educational developments in today’s schools.
http://www.reinventingschool.net

Jan Boelen graduated as a product designer at the Media and Design Academy (KHLim). He now works as a curator, educator and artistic director. He currently holds the position of artistic director of Z33, house for contemporary art in Hasselt (B) and is Head of the Masters Department Social Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven (NL).  Z33 has been fashioning projects and exhibitions that encourage the visitor to look at everyday matters in a novel manner. Under the guidance of Jan Boelen Z33 has developed itself into a laboratory and a meeting place for experiment and innovation. In 2014 Jan Boelen curated BIO50, the 24th Biennial of Design in Ljubljana (SI) and lead a series of international debates on the future of design.

How do you position yourself or act in what are always complex pedagogical situations? As part of last year’s program the students of the Master Education Art self-organized a series of lectures/events. They mapped out four areas most relevant to their current interests: #1 Embodiment/Interaction with theatre maker and artist Lotte van den Berg; #2 Institutional Public Programming with educator and curator Belinda Hak; #3 Education Innovation with media artist and educator Michiel Koelink and #4 Design Education with Jan Boelen.