Jennifer Wicks

9.2 Manifesto of Collective Practice: Ethics, Intentions, and Interdisciplinary Engagement in Art Education (Panel)

Chair:

Adrienne Boulton – Kwantlen Polytechnic University, BC, Canada

Panellists:

Jennifer Wicks – The University of Quebec in Outaouais, Canada

Natalie LeBlanc – The University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Abstract:

This presentation highlights the collaborative efforts of four international colleagues as they create a manifesto focused on collective practice, ethics, intentions, and interdisciplinary engagement through the perspectives of their respective artistic practices. Our manifesto embodies our collective’s ethical, political, and pedagogical foundations, grounded in a commitment to exploring collaborative art practice’s unexpected and evolving nature. We position collective practice as a means to counter neoliberal academic isolation and foster interdependence and connection in the face of competitive educational structures. Building on Bourdieu’s and Massumi’s theories, we conceptualize collective practice as an “event,” highlighting transformative potential inherent in collaboration. This perspective redefines artmaking as a socially situated act, challenging academic hierarchies and norms. In penning our manifesto, we embrace the ephemeral nature of these events, aligning with the Fluxus tradition of the “happening” as a way to prioritize experience and engagement over object creation. Art’s transformative potential inspires and motivates us in collective practice. We offer a conceptual representation of shared values, capturing convergences of individual and collective intention. This visual approach reinforces our work’s intermedial and interdisciplinary dimensions, referring to intersections of art and academia. This allows participants to experience overlapping boundaries defining collective artistic/academic territories. Through this lens, we edify a re-evaluation of permanence in art education, proposing a model of continuous, reflective practice, valuing process over product. Ethically, our manifesto emphasizes the concept of “trying” – striving for change without the constraint of finality. Politically, it embodies a desire to construct spaces where art challenges neoliberal norms, inviting participants to connect rather than compete. Pedagogically, it presents an art education model rooted in community, collaboration, and ongoing inquiry. In sharing our manifesto, we invite fellow educators to explore shifting grounds of collaborative practice as an “event,” reconfiguring perception and action, proposing transformative, collective approaches within the landscape of art education.