Doing and Undergoing

Doing and Undergoing

A site-specific multi-media art exhibition celebrating Teachers College's 125th Anniversary

Doing and Undergoing is an art exhibition at Teachers College, Columbia University celebrating its 125th year anniversary. From October 16th to December 15th, 2013 select artists present site-specific installations that reference the thoughts and wisdom of the American Philosopher John Dewey.

The exhibition is organized throughout the historic Teachers College building on 120th Street in New York City and enlightens the three core themes of Dewey’s foundational text “Art As Experience”. While “Experiential Inquiry” conveys the idea that the process of researching and finding meaning is transformative, “Experiment and Experience” opens new fields of experience through experimentation. Dewey’s third notion “Doing and Undergoing” stresses that only by doing as well as undergoing an experience, it becomes transformational.

The artworks selected for the exhibition reflect and sensitively engage the site as an educational structure and idea. The exhibition is accompanied by an interactive audio-video guide that provides behind-the-scenes insights and leads visitors through the structure of the college and its intriguing history.