Socially, ecologically and politically we are under pressure as a society to re-imagine our communities. Virtually all disciplines and many social issues – from education to indigenous sovereignty, from health and recreation, to borders and economies – intersect with issues to do with the land.

Art, critical thinking and creative approaches have much to offer. If we understand, as per Eduard Said, that art and the (geographical and social) imagination prefigure colonization, by extension we can understand art as a way to re-imagine the world, rather than reproducing existing social constructions.

We need new ways of understanding the world, new ways of thinking that can respond to the complexity of the issues we are facing. Creative thinking and acts of the imagination have a role to play in social and environmental change, particularly if they are grounded in thoughtful, critical analysis.

The 4e Institute of Land | Art Studies provides a series of courses and practical work that integrate critical and creative thinking, making, interdisciplinary and community-based practices, within an ecological and land-based approach.

This integrative learning contributes to learning – whether applied in community development, the arts, or education – in thoughtful, engaged, and relevant ways, and with a much-needed land-based analysis integrated with creative application, and on-the-ground practices.

Together the suite of courses along with applied practice provide learners with a Certificate in Land | Art Studies. The courses include long and short courses, workshops, and hands-on practice with 4e and/or in your own community. Courses are offered on-site, on-line, on demand, and in your community.

Topics include:

• Critical and historical geographies of land, place and space
• Ethics and epistemologies, politics and processes in land-based practices
• Environmental/land art survey
• Sensory, embodied, and land-based methodologies
• Land-based work, education and land-based practices
• Land-based practices, place, and social change
• Landscape, representation and ‘wilderness’
• Walking + art: practices and processes
• Working in ‘the field’: a critical approach to research practices
• Writing the land: textual practices
• The emergence of the material: ecological practices in early learning
• Residency/Placements with 4e are designed for:
• The land-based community practitioner
• The land-based educator
• The land-based artist/curator

To learn more about the program, to book a course or to sign up for an independent learning course contact 4e.