Alpha_Alternative_School_1972–2012-Yumpu
ALPHA Alternative School—A Lot of Parents Hoping for an Alternative—one of the oldest alternative schools in Canada, celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2012. It seemed like a good time to take a look at the lives of some of its earliest students in order to get a sense of the long-term effects of this radical experiment in education. Our idea was to place black and white childhood portraits taken by F. Robert Openshaw in 1978 alongside present-day portraits of the same people taken at ALPHA during the 40th anniversary reunion by Michael Barker, and to contextualize the photographs with portraits in words contributed by the subjects and shaped by Ariel Fielding. The result is a sort of ethnographic art project or a personal history. It was not commissioned by ALPHA, nor was it conceived with any particular agenda in mind, except to present portraits of some interesting people with a common educational background.
ALPHA Alternative School—A Lot of Parents Hoping for an Alternative—one of the oldest alternative schools in Canada, celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2012. It seemed like a good time to take a look at the lives of some of its earliest students in order to get a sense of the long-term effects of this radical experiment in education. Our idea was to place black and white childhood portraits taken by F. Robert Openshaw in 1978 alongside present-day portraits of the same people taken at ALPHA during the 40th anniversary reunion by Michael Barker, and to contextualize the photographs with portraits in words contributed by the subjects and shaped by Ariel Fielding. The result is a sort of ethnographic art project or a personal history. It was not commissioned by ALPHA, nor was it conceived with any particular agenda in mind, except to present portraits of some interesting people with a common educational background.
- TAGS
- education
- alternative
- toronto
Transform your PDFs into Flipbooks and boost your revenue!
Leverage SEO-optimized Flipbooks, powerful backlinks, and multimedia content to professionally showcase your products and significantly increase your reach.
Authors
Ariel Field ing received her early education at ALPHA Alternative School
starting in 1974; hers is the family with the longest attendance in the
history of the school. She returned to ALPHA first in 2008–2009 to work
with the youngest students, and again in 2011–2012 as a member of the
organizing committee for the school’s 40th anniversary. Free schooling,
with its emphasis on equality, has influenced Ariel’s work of honouring
and amplifying minority voices in the arts, and engaging and educating
new audiences. ALPHA gave Ariel a foundational sense of belonging to a
strong and vibrant community, something she has been seeking to replicate
ever since. She holds a Master of Music degree from the University
of London; was a research associate at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival
in Washington, D.C.; and has directed marketing and communications
for both Duke Performances, at Duke University, and the Ackland Art
Museum, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Michael Barker is a graphic designer and pho tog ra pher based in Toronto,
Canada. He grew up in the Bain co-op, a progressive cooperativehousing
project, and attended ALPHA in the 1970s. He attend four alternative
schools in all: start ing with ALPHA and con tin u ing with Hori zon alter native
Senior School (Grades 7 – 8), City School (Grades 9 – 12), and The Student
School (OACs). He graduated from the Ontario College of Art and
Design in 1996. www.michaelbarker.ca
51
Change language