An annual research residency in partnership with Conway Hall Humanist Library and Archives, in 2019-2020

C19th Pamphlets, image courtesy Conway Hall
19th century pamphlets, image courtesy Conway Hall

This was an opportunity for a London based artist, working in any medium, with at least 5 years’ experience, to develop their practice responding to the collections of the Conway Hall Humanist Library and Archives.

The project was temporarily suspended due to COVID-19 restrictions and staff furlough.

The award

The selected artist received:

  • An award of £3,000 to engage with the collections of the Conway Hall Humanist Library and Archives
  • An additional award for a public facing event showcasing the thinking and research undertaken during the residency
  • Privileged access to the Library’s staff and archives

2019: Sophia Kosmaoglou

Constitution for a Co-operative Art School. Conway Hall, 3 Dec 2019. Photoby D. Vora
Constitution for a Co-operative Art School. Conway Hall, 3 Dec 2019. Photo by D. Vora

Sophia Kosmaoglou took part in the 2019-20 Conway Hall Residency. She is an artist, tutor, curator, researcher and activist. She has a practice-based PhD in Fine Art from Goldsmiths and her research interests include alternative art education, radical pedagogy, self-organisation, collectivity, autonomy, institutions and the relationship between art and politics. In 2015 she founded ART&CRITIQUE, a peer-led alternative art education network based in London and in 2019 she co-founded the Radical Pedagogy Research Group, a research project on alternative art education, radical pedagogy and self-organisation.

During her residency at the Conway Hall Humanist Library Sophia expanded her research on co-operatives, self-organisation and alternative art education and crowdsource a strategy to set up a co-operative art school. She also developed her research in alternative art education, which challenges mainstream institutional and educational models with respect to authorship, responsibility, labour relations and the art economy more broadly. Sophia organised discussions and workshops on co-operatives in the arts, conducted interviews and documented and disseminated the research in pamphlets, zines and a blog.

Listen below to an interview with Sophia on her experiences over the residency period.

Residency workshops

A co-operative art school? is Sophia’s research project on co-operative education, alternative art education, radical pedagogy, self-organisation and other dimensions of a co-operative learning environment. As part of this project and her research residency, Sophia ran a series of workshops that asked: What would a co-operative art school look like? How would it work? Who is it for and what would the benefits be? The workshops all took place at Conway Hall.