Chloë Bass's Chalk Drawing at National Academy of Design Reflects on Educational Crisis in Future Schools Exhibition
In February, Chloë Bass, an artist from Brooklyn and a former associate professor at Queens College CUNY, unveiled a chalk drawing titled 'Notes from ungiven talks (2026)' at the National Academy of Design. This work is part of the Future Schools exhibition, which will be on display until August and explores the educational crisis in the U.S. through innovative approaches. The exhibition features input from groups such as Strother School of Radical Attention and LA ESCUELA___. A report by the American Association of University Professors from 2025 highlights a trend toward predominantly part-time faculty since 2002, with a nearly 4 percent decrease in wages following the pandemic. Additionally, federal funding issues and anti-DEI initiatives have heightened tensions, as seen in the University of North Texas's closure of an MFA thesis exhibition.
Key facts
- Chloë Bass's chalk drawing 'Notes from ungiven talks (2026)' is part of the Future Schools exhibition at the National Academy of Design, running until August.
- Bass left her position as an associate professor at Queens College CUNY in 2025 due to concerns over underfunding and increased workloads.
- Joseph Beuys was dismissed from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1972, inspiring Bass's work through his lecture-performances on topics like democracy and alchemy.
- A 2025 AAUP report shows U.S. academic workforce shifted to majority part-time faculty since 2002, with wages dropping nearly 4 percent post-pandemic.
- Andrew Paul Woolbright teaches six classes per semester across multiple institutions to manage financial pressures.
- Kameelah Janan Rasheed commutes from New York to teach at Yale University and California Institute of the Arts, focusing on institutional complicity.
- Future Schools includes events by Strother School of Radical Attention in March and April, LA ESCUELA___ in May, and the School for Poetic Computation in summer.
- The exhibition features materials from alternative pedagogy organizations worldwide, including CHARAS, TEOR/éTica, and Open School East.
Entities
Artists
- Chloë Bass
- Joseph Beuys
- Andrew Paul Woolbright
- Kameelah Janan Rasheed
- Christian Nyampeta
- Anton Vidokle
- Boris Groys
- Walid Raad
- Augusto Boal
- Luisa Capetillo
- Matthew Berland
- Antero Garcia
- David A. Ross
- Jeffrey Epstein
Institutions
- National Academy of Design
- Queens College CUNY
- Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
- American Association of University Professors
- School of Visual Arts
- Pratt Institute
- Fashion Institute of Technology
- Yale University
- California Institute of the Arts
- University of North Texas
- California College of the Arts
- Vanderbilt University
- Strother School of Radical Attention
- LA ESCUELA___
- School for Poetic Computation
- CHARAS
- TEOR/éTica
- Open School East
- unitednationsplaza
- WAI Think Tank
Locations
- New York
- United States
- Brooklyn
- Düsseldorf
- Germany
- New Haven
- Los Angeles
- San José
- Costa Rica
- London
- United Kingdom
- Mexico City
- Mexico
- Berlin