DIEO in Art and Design Schools (swissuniversities)

In project "DIEO in Art and Design Schools", two Swiss Art and Design Schools initiatives join forces in an interdisciplinary and site­specific pilot program at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design (HGK FHNW) and Department of Performing Arts and Film at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).

The goal of the program is to address the issues of diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity (DIEO), operating on the intersection of education, knowledge production, and community building, at the same time to enhance interdisciplinary and interinstitulional exchange.

Amidst transnational debates on depatriarchalizing and decolonizing design, performing and fine arts, and the rise of anti-discriminatory movements in Swiss academia; two parallelly running programs have emerged: the Intersectional Lab in Arts and Design at the HGK FHNW and Living Inclusion at ZHdK with the common goal of integrating the DIEO into educational, mediation and organizational life of both schools.

Using intersectionality as a guiding framework and applying art and design practices to enhance paradigm change on cultural, institutional, and educational levels will be implemented through two sub-programs that collaborate with each other and are situated within the specific context of each school.

The subprogram "Living Inclusion" at the Department of Performing Arts and Film (DDK) at ZHdK aims to develop a toolkit of exercises for training and further education in diversity competencies in dealing with heterogeneous student groups in the performing arts and beyond. It combines expertise from theater and civic education, approaches to self-sensitization from civic education (self-observation through logbook entries, questionnaires, interview tasks) are linked with practises and methods from the applied theatre, such as forum theater, - a theater form that focuses on the visualization and transformation of mechanisms of oppression.

The subprogram "lntersectional Lab in Arts and Design" at the HGK FHNW focuses on three different areas:

• Education -This part aims to incorporate the DIEO holistically into pedagogical (how do we teach?), educational (what do we teach?) and organizational (who teaches?) approach. Furthermore, to enhance the knowledge exchange between adjacent disciplines s.a. Design and performing arts and see how they can benefit mutually from each other's approaches. Lastly, to create a supportive group of peers, we will host regular workshops engaging in exchange of knowledge, approaches and practices with the team from ZHdK.
• Mediation - a public program making the discourses around the DIEO public through an art and design mediation at the campus of the HGK FHNW and digitally. Part of the program will be co-curated with the Living Inclusion Team
• Organisation - community-building activities for the staff that will address the issues of DIEO, and specifically of racism, cis- hetero-sexism, ableism, and classism at the HGK FHNW.

Projektteam HGK FHNW
Mayar El Hayawan
Maya Ober
Laura Pregger

Project duration:
01.09.2022-31.12.2024

Co-operation partner:
ZHdK