Schools are regarded as spaces for learning, understanding our relationships to others, and negotiating the realities of power dynamics. Yet, they are also sites of contradiction, where opportunities for refuge and experimentation exist alongside reproductions of exclusion and control. What might a school look like if we began not with a curriculum, or an authority figure, but rather with a collective investment in the conditions necessary for people to study together?

For Studies in Sanctuary, artists Christopher Rey Pérez, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, and Timmy Simonds will offer participatory exercises that explore alternative ways of learning, sharing knowledge, and being together. Pérez will explore how knowledge moves across borders through shared recipes and salsa-making. Rasheed will reimagine the structure and possibilities of an assignment prompt as we reconsider teacher-student power dynamics, deadlines, and mastery of a lesson. Simonds will invite participants to construct a teachers’ lounge from remnants of student projects, reflecting on the gathering spaces that sustain collective learning. Together, the artists propose sanctuary as a practice that is made through collective study and exchange.

Free and open to the public at CTHQ.

Entry
CTHQ is located on the 7th Floor of 59 East 4th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan. The building entrance has no steps and elevator access is provided directly to CTHQ.
Service animals are welcome.

Restrooms
One ADA accessible, all-gender restroom is located inside CTHQ.