AA Bronson on Art Education, Free Schools, and the Institute for Art, Religion and Social Justice

In a 2010 interview with Sissu Tarka for Afterall, AA Bronson discusses his lifelong engagement with alternative art education. Bronson, co-founder of General Idea, recounts dropping out of architecture school in 1967 to start a free school and commune. He reflects on his cancelled 2010 residency 'AA Bronson's School for Young Shamans' at the Banff Centre, which he felt was too institutional for his spontaneous, collaborative vision. Bronson contrasts this with Fritz Haeg's one-day-a-week free school in LA. He also details his work at Union Theological Seminary, where he founded The Institute for Art, Religion and Social Justice in 2009 with Kathryn Reklis, aiming to bridge the art world and Christianity. Bronson curated a series of artist lectures featuring Gregg Bordowitz, Paul Chan, Alfredo Jaar, and The Guerilla Girls, and planned an exhibition called 'Social Justice' using vitrines throughout the seminary. He resigned as President of Printed Matter, Inc. and Director of the NY Art Book Fair. The interview touches on his self-taught background, his critique of MFA programs as producing 'collectables for rich people,' and his ongoing project series Invocation of the Queer Spirits (2008-10).