Prologue School Non-Formal Educational Programme
A programme of non-formal education that has been initiated under the aegis of Prologue School will provide six creative persons an opportunity to develop their creative practice while collaborating with mentors during one year.
The call for applications announced at the end of August 2020 resulted in 20 submitted applications. For the pilot programme, six creative persons were selected to participate: Anna Kaarma, Sille Kima, Piibe Kolka, Krista Mölder, Jane Remm and Mart Vainre.
All participants have already obtained degrees in art and acquired considerable experience as a freelance artist. They were inspired to apply for the Prologue School because of the need for continuous feedback and collegial support.
During the non-formal education programme of one year, participants work on their individual projects/subject matter, either preparing for an exhibition, a film or searching for the right output for their subject matter. So far, three meetings have taken place; among the keywords that emerged during the meetings are for instance extended cinema, skin-hungriness, digital modelling paste etc; among the numerous themes there are for instance research about artists' studios in Lasnamäe district, how to visualizing lightness or forwarding the perceptual experience of other species etc.
The year-long non-formal education programme won't provide the participant either a diploma or a certificate – instead, it creates a supportive framework for the selected artists in order to develop their creative practice, to systematize their research and to provide them the opportunity to share their work process.
The meetings take place between participants and mentors once a month – the work-in-progress and ideas receive feedback from architectural historian and curator Ingrid Ruudi, design researcher Kai Lobjakas, art critic-curator Maarin Ektermann, fellow participants and invited guests. Every participant has a specially compiled workbook in order to aid the participant's individual work and to keep up with the programme's schedule. The initiative has been supported by several cultural institutions that provide meeting spots (for instance Estonian Museum of Architecture, Kai Art Centre, Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art etc.).
Prologue School aims at filling the gap in further education of creative persons while trying to find solutions to issues how to stay in shape after graduating from the academy, between obtaining degrees, or in case the official educational system is not the best option. Lifelong learning as a field of education is generally divided into trainings and hobby education; however, for freelance creative persons these solutions would not always fit.
The objective of Prologue School is to experiment with new formats in adult and non-formal education as well as to mediate contemporary art through various projects such as „Artists in Collections“, to provide training and organize events. Prologue School has been initiated by Maarin Ektermann; visual design has been created by Maria Muuk.
The year-long non-formal educational programme is supported by the Ingrid Ruudi and Kai Lobjakas' grants by Cultural Endowment of Estonia; the rest of the costs are incurred by the initiator.