School of Apocalypse

A conversation between Tal Beary, Eugenia Manwelyan, and Catherine Despont, three faculty members of School of the Apocalypse, a multi-course educational program at Pioneer Works, running through June 2016. In light of technological acceleration, ecological collapse, and cultural revolution, the apocalypse is upon us, begging the question: How do we live now? SoA examines connections between creative practice and notions of survival, through courses and programming that apply theoretical and practical experience to intellectual investigation.

Recorded in the Clocktower radio studio during the February 2016 Second Sundays open house.

Tal Beery is a co-founder and Program Director of Eco Practicum as well as an artist, environmental advocate, and educator. He has worked abroad in Holland, Israel, and Palestine. As a core member of Occupy Museums, Beery has helped to stage large demonstrations as well as more intimate interventions in museums and galleries in New York, at the 7th Berlin Biennale, and Zamek Ujazdowski Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw. He is a founding member of Debtfair, and the Best Praxis collective, which creates art through intimate encounters, adaptive reuse, and place-making. Beery's written work and interviews have been published in Spike, Printed Matter, Cine Qua Non, Cura, Temporary Art Review, and Revolt.

Eugenia Manwelyan is a dancer, choreographer, and educator. She is a co-founder and Director of Eco Practicum, and is the Managing Director of the Food + Enterprise Summit. As a visiting faculty at Columbia University, Eugenia has worked on environmental planning and arts projects in India, Vietnam, and Jordan, as well as a youth theater and peace-building project in Israel and Palestine. With a passion for democratic education and civic engagement, Eugenia is committed to taking part in the effort to reorient humanity toward sane and respectful coexistence with one another and the environment.

Catherine Despont is a writer, editor and educator. She has an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University, and her writing and teaching focus on the values and beliefs that underlie the way we learn and teach. As Co-Director of Education at Pioneer Works she organized the first annual Summit on Pedagogy in June 2015, and runs a popular monthly forum on education called the Teaching Roundtable. She also oversees PW’s publishing projects including the bookstore, Pioneer Books, and the Groundworks book series; she is editor of Intercourse, the magazine.

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