Pedagogical Factory (2007)

The Pedagogical Factory (2007) was the exhibition that was part of the Hyde Park Art Center inaugural residency for the Stockyard Institute. Stockyard Institute built and used a large scale, collaborative exhibition and series of programs designed by AREA Chicago, which was founded by Jim Duignan and Daniel Tucker (2005) to build a Pedagogical Factory, a two month long experimental structure to enact weekly programs, fixed and temporary exhibits, workshops, incidental conversations, display local archives, develop international residencies, and secure the openness to encourage activity into the space. The Pedagogical Factory was complimented by two dozen or more programs on a wide range of topics from alternative funding to using abandoned spaces, from radical pedagogy to bicycle mechanic education. The space and the programs worked well to represent the work and practices in and around Chicago and helped to define a better understanding of the many alternative strategies for designing infrastructures and models of informal education.