Re:Form School Exhibit: Recap and Picures

The Re:Form School exhibit and call to action this weekend was truly eye-opening and both inspiring and deflating. The exhibit, which took place in an old elementary school in SoHo, featured the work of several famous artists and included a total of over 150 artists from across the country.

The mission of Re:Form school, taken from the website, is as follows:

"We believe that ALL AMERICANS should have EQUAL ACCESS to a HIGH QUALITY EDUCATION, with no exceptions.

Throughout history artists have lent their creative expression to ideas and issues of culture & politics, combining innovation with art’s greatest strength — its ability to transcend boundaries and make an impact, while not relying solely on language. RE:FORM SCHOOL gathers together a diverse array of hundreds of the nation’s most talented visual artists under one roof to celebrate that role and to send a loud message that the time has come to fix our ailing public school system.

RE:FORM SCHOOL is a high profile group art exhibition, event series and public awareness campaign, taking place in New York City. Thousands of artists, parents, community leaders, educators and grass roots organizers are coming together in a vibrant and creative space in order to shine a light on what is working, explore the potential of what might be and celebrate the role imagination, creativity and innovation will play in the process."

And, true to is political theme, Re:Form school had a private party benefit Friday night, with tickets at $100 a head, all proceeds going to NYC Charter schools.

As I mentioned, Re:Form school was not only filled with positive and creative art, but included many pieces as well that criticized and shed light on many of the problems in American education. This included some pretty disturbing information, such as the fact that corporal punishment is still legal in 20 states and statistics that no state has an average high school graduation rate higher than 83.6%. This disturbing, provocative data was coupled with very stark and creative images, and hopefully will provide some fodder for change!

Some of the inspiring art from the show:

(Large installation, reads "inspire," made entirely out of thumbtacks! Artist also created small animation with it.)



(cellist recording above and live cellist below, with projected water vibrations from music)
("It Matters to Me", above)

(courtyard of elementary school, with walls screenprinted, above)
("wish come true" figurines, free at exhibit)