Boniteza's Arts Chair, Pedagogical Curatorial Practices with Contemporary Artists as Arts-Based Educational Research

Abstract

[Abstract] This article puts forward a new methodology in artistic education. It is based on scientific utopia as it aims for the implementation in schools of the cátedras de la Boniteza (the Boniteza's Art Chair), where an inhabiting artist changes the institution from within through the development of quality art projects. The process of pedagogical investigation in the arts materialises in pedagogical curatorial practices. These are socially engaged actions that ground the theoretical artistic findings. Thanks to the DERARTI research project, the Boniteza project has been successfully carried out in four rural schools in Galicia (Spain). The results of these experiences are collected and displayed in the exhibition ‘La táctica del colibri’ (The Hummingbird's Tactics), whose spaces are built to resemble a cabinet of curiosities that visitors can explore. All the ‘cabinets’ are interconnected, but each one is dedicated to one of the four Boniteza's Art chair projects, its developing processes and results.