Foundational: Exploring the Legacies and Impacts of Foundation Art & Design Education

The Royal College of Art and The University of the Arts, Helsinki invite you to attend the third INFE symposium titled Foundational: Exploring the Legacies and Impacts of Foundation Art & Design Education.

The symposium will take place over the course of three days. The first session, on 18 June 2024 will be held online, while the second and third sessions will be hosted by The Royal College of Art (RCA) on 29 August – 30 August 2024. Each session will take a different approach in exploring the legacies and impacts of Foundation art and design courses, along with their equivalents, such as ground courses, basic courses, preparatory courses, and the (post) graduate diploma.

Within art schools and beyond, it is common to hear Foundation art and design courses described as a key moment in people’s lives. FOUNDATIONAL sets out to explore how this is so: to ask in what ways Foundation courses, and their equivalents, both internationally and at other levels of education have been foundational. What experiences have stayed with people and continue to shape their personal, professional, and creative selves? What aspects of foundation teaching have been adopted and adapted by other levels of education, and why does this seem to be increasingly common? How can we begin to archive these experiences, and how can we explore them creatively using modes of artistic research? How can we ensure that future generations can continue to benefit from these pedagogical experiences?


Dates, Times and Information

Day One (Online):

This first session will explore different archives, and begin to imagine what an archive of Foundation Art and Design Education might look like

• Tuesday 18 June 2024
• 10:30am - 7pm CEST
• Find out more here>

Day Two (RCA):

This session will consist of presentations exploring the legacies of Foundation Art and Design Education.

• Thursday 29 August 2024
• 9:30am - 6pm GMT+1
• Find out more here>

Day Two (RCA):

This third and final session will consist of workshops that are based on methods of Foundation Art and Design pedagogies and artistic research. They will use materials from day one and two as their basis.

Find out more about the symposium here>