So, over the past couple months something really interesting happened in NYC – a new art school was started and it’s free to attend, no catch other than it isn’t accredited, but they think the accredited system is full of shit anyway. The ‘university’ was started by a collective of artists known as the Bruce High Quality Foundation. Their recent work includes the film Isle of the Dead depicting the art world as zombies, driving a boat with a miniture version of Manhattan and a mock version of Cristo’s The Gates around Manhattan, and their ongoing performance piece Public Sculpture Tackle (awesome).

Amongst their subversive and well thought out public pieces they also recently gave a lecture called Explaining Pictures to a Dead Bull… which was a nice prereq for the University. The idea is that art school costs to much, and is a corporate system which you’re forever indebted to by attending. So fuck that, start your own school! Which, they did. Stating that the Bruce High Quality Foundation University is “A university, a space for higher education and research, a community of scholars; an expansion of the BHQF practice to include more participants (that’s where U come in); and a “fuck you” to the hegemony of critical solemnity and market-mediocre despair.”

The first classes started last week, with one class called “Build your own University,” which will be responsible for setting up how everything well run, while other classes include The Occult Shenanigans in 20th/21st Century Art, What is a Metaphor, Futurological Poetry, Edifying, Environmental Music Performance + more. To get into the classes all you have to do is keep watch for their next open house to sign up.

If it is what they’re trying for it’ll be nothing short of incredible! I mean, really all the classes people take to achieve that special piece of paper and most of the time they don’t even give a shit. So give it to those who really want it and those who aren’t in it for a piece of paper, but in it for the art and the sake of continuing it’s development. This feels like the right place to also tell you what their motto is… “Don’t say can’t. Say canarchy.” … And I’m sold.

It’ll be interesting to watch how this develops over the next couple months, but I would have no qualms over moving to NYC and taking some classes with them…