Page 5403 of 6179
1 5.401 5.402 5.403 5.404 5.405 6.179

Uganda: Universities to benefit from world bank Shs469 billion support

África/Uganda/10 Julio 2016/Fuente: Monitor/Autor: Dorothy Nakaweesi

Resumen: Uganda ha sido seleccionado entre los ocho países de África oriental y meridional para beneficiarse del crédito de $ 140 millones (Shs469b) de la Asociación Internacional de Fomento (AIF) del Grupo del Banco Mundial. De acuerdo con un comunicado emitido del Banco Mundial, esta línea de crédito se canalizará a través de los Southern Africa Centros de Educación Superior del Este y del Proyecto de Excelencia (ACE II) de los países participantes – principalmente de Etiopía, Kenia, Malawi, Mozambique, Ruanda, Tanzania, Uganda y Zambia.

Uganda has been selected among eight Eastern and Southern African Countries to benefit from the $140m (Shs469b) credit of the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank Group.

According to a communiqué issued early this week from the World Bank, this line of credit will be channeled through the Eastern and Southern Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence Project (ACE II) of participating countries – of mainly Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

«The objective of the ACE II project is to strengthen selected Eastern and Southern Africa higher education institutions to deliver quality postgraduate education and build collaborative research capacity in the regional priority areas,» the communiqué noted.

The selected ACEs are expected to address specific development challenges facing the region through graduate training in Master’s, PhD, and short-term courses and applied research in the form of partnerships and collaborations with other institutions and the private sector.

A total of 24 Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) will each be funded up to $6m (Shs20b) over the project period of five years.

It is envisaged that at the end of the project the centres will have developed sufficient capacity to become sustainable regional hubs for training and research in their specialised fields, capable of leading efforts to address priority development challenges and improve lives in the region.

The ACE II project is expected to close in October 2021.

Criteria

The ACEs were selected through an open, objective, transparent and merit-based competitive process based on the following criteria like proposal writing that addressed a specific challenge in one of the five priority areas in the region–industry, agriculture, health, education and applied statistics.

Highest quality proposal, hosting institution had evident capacity, selection that provided for geographical balance and the hosting country had International Development Association (IDA) funding eligibility and availability.

ACEs’ Role

According to WB, all these ACEs are expected to perform the following tasks:

– Build institutional capacity to provide quality post-graduate education with relevance to the labour market.

– Build institutional capacity to conduct high quality applied research, relevant to addressing a key development challenge/priority.

– Develop and enhance partnerships with other academic institutions (national, regional and international) to pursue academic excellence.

– Enhance and develop partnerships with industry and the private sector to generate greater impact.

– Improve governance and management of the institution and set up a role model for other higher education institutions.

– Deliver outreach, and create an impact to society by delivering excellent teaching and producing high quality applied research.

Expected results

According to the WB, over the project duration of five years collectively these ACEs are expected to enroll more than 3,500 graduate students in the regional development priority areas.

«Out of which more than 700 will be PhD students and more than 1,000 will be female students,» the statement says.

The ACEs are expected to publish almost 1,500 journal articles, launch more than 300 research collaborations with the private sector and other institutions, and generate almost $30m (Shs100b) in external revenue.

The Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), a coordinating higher education institution of the East African Community, was selected by the Regional Steering Committee (RSC) of the ACE II project as the Regional Facilitation Unit (RFU).

Beneficiaries

The four ACEs from Uganda to benefit from this programme are:

– Makerere University Centre for Crop Improvement (MaCCI)

– Centre of Materials, Product Development & Nanotechnology (Mapronano)-Makerere University

– African Centre for Agro-ecology & Livelihood Systems (Acalise) – Uganda Martyrs University

– Pharm-Biotechnology & Traditional Medicine Center (Pharmtac) – Mbarara University of Science & Technology

Fuente de la noticia: http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/Jobs-Career/Ugandan-Universities-to-benefit-from-World-Bank-shs469b-support/-/689848/3274706/-/awwl09/-/index.html

Fuente de la imagen: http://www.monitor.co.ug/image/view/-/3274712/highRes/1368810/-/maxw/600/-/113dyx9z/-/job01pix.jpg

Comparte este contenido:

EEUU: Spending on Jails Outpaced Spending on Schools by Three Times Over the Last 30 Years

América del Norte/EEUU/Julio 2016/Autor: Teresa Welsh / Fuente: readersupportednews.org

Resumen:  Durante los últimos 30 años, los gobiernos locales y estatales aumentaron la cantidad que gastan en poner a la gente en la cárcel tres veces más que la cantidad que gastan en la educación de los estudiantes, de acuerdo con un nuevo análisis realizado por el Departamento de Educación.

Over the last 30 years, local and state governments increased how much they spend on putting people in jail three times more than how much they spend on educating students, according to a new analysis by the Department of Education.

The department examined corrections spending and education spending data from 1979-1980 to 2012-2013 and found that over that time, governments increased spending on incarceration by 324 percent (from $17 to $71 billion). This is more than three times the spending increase on education, which only grew 107 percent (from $258 to $534 billion) over the same time period.

All of the 50 states had lower expenditure growth rates for PK-12 education than for corrections. Seven states increased corrections budgets more than five times as quickly than they did K-12 education budgets:  Idaho, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia . Texas had the largest percentage increase over 30 years, hiking incarceration spending by 850 percent.

“These aren’t just statistics. When I think about the lives of those who are incarcerated, I can’t help but feel disheartened,” Education Secretary John King wrote on Medium. “I can’t help but think about their families, spouses, sons, daughters, and parents — or about the art not created; the entrepreneurial ideas that may never reach the drawing board; the classrooms these Americans will never lead; and the discoveries they’ll never make.”

According to King, more than two-thirds of state prison inmates dropped out of high school. Young black men between ages 20 and 24 without a high school diploma or GED are more likely to be in jail than to have a job.

King also cited research showing a relationship between education rates and incarceration rates: A 10-percent increase in high school graduation rates leads to a 9-percent decrease in the rates of criminal arrest, and reduces murder and assault rates by 20 percent. The department said that increasing the amount of money state and local governments spend on educating students could help decrease the jail population.

“Reducing incarceration rates and redirecting some of the funds currently spent on corrections in order to make investments in education that we know work,” the Department of Education report said, “could provide a more positive and potentially more effective approach to both reducing crime and increasing opportunity among at-risk youth, particularly if in the PK–12 context the redirected funds are focused on high-poverty schools.”

Some of those education investments include increasing teacher salaries for those willing to work in “hard-to-staff” schools and increasing access to high-quality preschool. According to the report, “all too often” children who grow up in poor communities do poorly in school and are disproportionately arrested and incarcerated as teens and young adults.

The U.S. has the highest rates of incarceration in the world, with more than 2 million people jailed across the country. The U.S. is only 5 percent of the world’s population, but has 20 percent of its incarcerated population.

Fuente de la noticia: http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/37897-spending-on-jails-outpaced-spending-on-schools-by-three-times-over-the-last-30-years

Fuente de la imagen: http://readersupportednews.org/images/stories/article_imgs21/021768-jail-070816.jpg

Comparte este contenido:

Reino Unido: The Think Project, Brexit and the urgent need for better citizenship education

Europa/Reino Unido/Julio 2016/Autor: Rocio Cifuentes  / Fuente: opendemocracy.ne

Resumen: The Think Project in Gales, que nace de un proyecto para combatir el naciente extremismo islámico, demuestra que la discusión abierta puede aprovechar eficazmente a los jóvenes en riesgo de las ideologías de extrema derecha.

Last Friday’s momentous decision by the majority of the voting UK population to leave the EU was shocking, but, in retrospect, not surprising. It is now glaringly obvious that too many people for too long have been without prospects, without education and without hope. For these people, the benefits of the EU – including the possibility to live and work in one of 27 countries, or the many jobs it funded, were simply never considered as relevant or accessible to them. The imagined disadvantages however – of too many immigrants, and EU bureaucracy – were shouted out to them daily for more than a decade through the populist mainstream media, and legitimised more recently by opportunist mainstream politicians anxious to seem in touch with their concerns.

Indeed Brexit is just a moment on a journey which arguably began after the terrorist attacks in New York on 9/11 and London on 7/7. This is when historical dichotomies of east vs west and narratives of anti-Islam were energetically revived, quickly evolving into anti-anyone-who-looks-Muslim as we saw with the mistaken killing of the Brazilian Jean DeMenezes on the London underground. The global financial crash and acceleration of austerity measures in the UK offered the perfect storm in which foreigners, asylum seekers and Muslims could all be blamed for ‘taking all the jobs and all the houses’.

Preventing extremism with dialogue
In this UK context of increasing racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia, the Ethnic Youth Support Team – a charity established in 2005 to support young ethnic minorities living in Wales – saw a need to do something more practical than simply support victims of, or condemn or report racist hate crime. We knew from our experience delivering projects to address Islamist extremism that young people’s resilience can be increased by simply allowing them to air their grievances and concerns in a safe and respectful environment, coupled with giving them facts and ideas to counter extremist narratives. We also knew, from 10 years of working with a wide range of young people that, given the time, space and opportunity, most have a huge capacity to learn and to change.

Consequently, we developed the ‘Think Project’ – a practical educational programme designed to engage with and educate the most ‘disadvantaged’ young people. These are arguably those most vulnerable to far-right messages, and they include those excluded from mainstream schools in alternative education, and those in the youth offending system, youth prisons, and so on. It was designed as a three-day educational programme giving young people the truth about immigration, about asylum and about Muslims, and changing their views on these issues for the better.

Delivered by ethnically diverse and engaging youth workers, its uniqueness stems from the fact that it combines facts about immigration, Islam and asylum, with a positive first-hand experience of diversity. Also central to its success is its emphasis on open dialogue and debate, allowing young people to say openly how they really feel about migration and Muslims, before those views can be debated and challenged.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating
Following a successful pilot, the Think Project was funded by the Big Lottery Innovation Fund, and between 2012 and 2015 438 young people completed the three-day programme. The project’s formal evaluation found a 95% success rate in radically changing young people’s views from being anti to pro-diversity. As one young man from Merthyr Tydfil said: “I’ve always been a bit racist, I’m not gonna lie, but this project has changed the way I look at things, I see everything completely differently now – it’s changed my life”.

What stood out was the degree of misconception surrounding the issues of immigration, asylum and Islam. At the beginning of the programme, 96% of young people did not know what an asylum seeker was, and those who tried to define it understood it as ‘someone who comes here to take our jobs and benefits’. By the end 83% did know what the term meant, and could link it to the human right to be offered sanctuary from war and persecution. One of the most valued parts of the programme, which was mentioned repeatedly by project participants, was the opportunity to meet and hear first-hand the experiences of someone who had sought asylum in the UK, which they said was something they would never forget.

Crucially, and illuminatingly in light of the Brexit decision, the vast majority of young people grossly overestimated the number of people from a different ethnic background to themselves living in Wales – over half of the young participants estimated that this was more than 50%, and about a quarter thought it was over 75%. By the end of the programme 89% correctly put the figure at under 10%. Distorted perceptions of reality chime perfectly with the message of the Brexiteers; the UK is being over-run with immigrants, who are here to take jobs, houses and benefits, and that we are indeed at a ‘breaking point’. However, our programme shows that given the opportunity to learn the facts, and given a positive first-hand experience of meeting and talking to Muslims and refugees, all this can be changed, making these young people significantly more resilient to the messages and ideology of far-right extremists.

The shame is not that the popular press has been allowed to peddle these myths and misrepresentations for so many years, nor that opportunist politicians have capitalised and exploited these stereotypes, turning vulnerable groups into scapegoats for austerity. No, the greatest shame has been that educational institutions, charged with giving young people the tools to become positive and active contributors to society, have failed to give such a large proportion of young people a clear understanding some of the biggest issues and challenges facing contemporary societies. And of course there have been personal tragedies and victims along the way, including most recently the murder of MP Jo Cox at the hands of a far-right terrorist. If we are to avoid more tragic murders, we need to stop such home grown terrorism in its tracks, and prevent it from taking root in the minds and hearts of our young people.

Citizenship, diversity and democracy all need to become core parts of the national curriculum taught to all young people at every stage of their education. However this should not be the preserve of the high-flying elite. Such programmes rather need to reach out in a more targeted and proactive way to those young people who arguably need it the most, including those who miss out on mainstream schooling, and whose life prospects are limited due to other complex factors linked to poverty and deprivation.

There are much wider challenges involved in addressing the entrenched and inter-generational poverty facing many young people today, and it is no wonder that many feel aggrieved. However, it is essential that schools and educational institutions in particular work proactively to counter and challenge the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim narratives which have been enjoying a resurgence in the UK and across Europe in recent years, and equip young people to question and critique the media, politicians and extremist groups.

The Think Project is one example of such an approach which has been shown to be effective.

Fuente de la noticia: https://www.opendemocracy.net/rocio-cifuentes/think-project-brexit-and-urgent-need-for-better-citizenship-education

Fuente de la imagen: https://cdn.opendemocracy.net/files/u555228/PA-7708644_920.jpg

Comparte este contenido:

Irak: Iraq’s war children face void without world’s help- UNICEF country chief

Asia/Irak/Julio 2016/Autor:  Tom Esslemont / Fuente: Reuters

Resumen:  Una generación de niños se enfrentan a la sombría perspectiva de estar sin una educación, a menos que el gobierno iraquí, sus aliados y los organismos de ayuda reconstruyan las comunidades desgarradas por años de guerra, dijo el viernes un funcionario superior de la agencia oficial de los niños de ONU.

A generation of children face the bleak prospect of going without an education unless the Iraqi government, its allies and aid agencies rebuild communities torn apart by years of war, a senior U.N. children’s agency official said on Friday.
Peter Hawkins, UNICEF representative in Iraq, said recent fighting between government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, and Islamic State fighters, had cut off thousands of children from school and healthcare.
«We are faced with a whole generation losing its way and losing prospects for a healthy future,» said Hawkins in an interview.
Government institutions, faced with financial deficit, are collapsing leaving them dependent on U.N. agencies to provide schools and teacher training, following more than a decade of sectarian violence, Hawkins said during a visit to London.
«What is needed is a cash injection through central government so that we can see it building the systems required for an economic turnover,» he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Conflict has worsened the situation across Iraq, with an estimated 4.7 million children – about a third of all children in the country – in need of assistance, the U.N. agency said in a report last month.
Mass movements of people forced from their homes by fighting in areas like Ramadi and Falluja, west of the capital, Baghdad, put one in five Iraqi children at risk of death, injury, sexual violence, abduction and recruitment into fighting, the report said.
UNICEF said earlier this year that at least 20,000 children in Falluja faced the risk of forced recruitment into fighting and separation from their families.
«A big problem is the lack of schools, with a lack of investment in recent years meaning the systems have all but collapsed,» Hawkins said.
CHILD RECRUITMENT
Thousands of civilians across much of western Iraq’s rugged Anbar province have been driven from their homes into the searing desert heat in the last two years, as a tide of Islamic State fighters took control of key towns and cities.
Despite losing considerable ground on the battlefield, a massive suicide bombing in Baghdad’s central shopping district of Karrada last weekend showed Islamic State remains capable of causing major loss of life.
In Anbar, where fighting has ruined scores of residential areas, many of the people displaced by the militants were now «in limbo», waiting in displacement centres, Hawkins said.
Nearly one in five schools in Iraq is out of use due to conflict. Since 2014 the U.N. has verified 135 attacks on educational facilities and personnel, with nearly 800 facilities taken over as shelters for the displaced, UNICEF data shows.
But Hawkins said he expected thousands of families to soon return home and rebuild their lives.
In Ramadi, where government forces retook control last December, UNICEF will help the ministry of education reestablish schools, provide catch-up lessons and teacher training over the summer after it had been «flattened» by fighting, Hawkins said.
The veteran aid worker, who has also worked in Angola, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Pakistan, said his «biggest fear» was that children could get caught up in a battle to retake Mosul, Iraq’s biggest northern city still held by the militants.
Protection of children must be part of a military strategy to retake Mosul, said Hawkins.
Pressures on UNICEF’s $170 million annual budget for 2016-17, which Hawkins said was short by $100 million, were hampering its ability to reach all those affected and may mean some child protection programmes are abandoned, he said.

Fuente de la noticia: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3681136/Iraqs-war-children-face-void-without-worlds-help-UNICEF-country-chief.html

Fuente de la imagen: https://www.google.co.ve/search?q=guerra+escuela+irak&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=681&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj3282inOXNAhUBJh4KHUrlCjUQ_AUIBigB&dpr=1#imgdii=UXBgFFweGa111M%3A%3BUXBgFFweGa111M%3A%3Bkoao8M7azQY4qM%3A&imgrc=UXBgFFweGa111M%3A

Comparte este contenido:

Senegal: Global academic collaboration: a new form of colonisation?

África/Senegal/Julio 2016/Autor: Hanne Kirstine Adriansen / Fuente: theconversation.com

Resumen:  La educación superior en África es tan antigua como las pirámides de Egipto. Pero las instituciones más antiguas del continente desaparecieron hace tiempo. El tipo de educación superior que se entrega hoy en África, desde el curriculum a las estructura de los estudios y de las lenguas de instrucción, tiene sus raíces en el colonialismo. Esto ha llevado a muchos a preguntarse si las universidades africanas siguen sufriendo una especie de colonización – de la mente.

Higher education in Africa is as old as the pyramids in Egypt. But the continent’s ancient institutions have long disappeared. The type of higher education that’s delivered in Africa today, from curriculum to degree structure and the languages of instruction, is rooted in colonialism. This has led many to question whether African universities are still suffering from a sort of colonisation – of the mind.

The story of renowned climate change researcher Cheikh Mbow is an example. Mbow was born in Senegal in 1969 and studied there. Looking back at his experiences during his first years of university, Mbow observes: “I knew all about the geography and biology of France but nothing about that of Senegal.”

Mbow also happens to be my friend, and together with one of his colleagues we wrote a book chapter about the production of scientific knowledge in Africa today. The chapter is based on Mbow’s life story – which I’ll return to shortly.

In recent years a new consciousness has emerged about higher education’s historical roots. People are calling strongly for a decolonised academy. This feeds into a broader debate about the role of modern universities.

There’s little doubt that Africa’s universities need to be locally relevant – focusing their teaching and research on local needs. Unavoidably, though, they’re simultaneously expected to internationalise and participate in the heated global higher education competition. Standardisation is the name of the game here. Universities compete to feature on global ranking lists, mimicking each other.

Internationalisation also sees African researchers like Mbow travelling North in search of research environments with better resources. These international collaborations can be hugely beneficial. But all too often it’s organisations, universities and researchers in the global North that call the shots.

So how can the continent’s universities manage the tricky balance between local relevance and internationalisation? How can they participate in international collaboration without being “recolonised” by subjecting themselves to the standards of curriculum and quality derived in the North? How can they avoid collaborative programmes with the North that become mere tick-box exercises that only benefit the Northern researchers and organisations?

International collaboration grows

Over the past 20 years, international interest in African higher education has intensified. Aid agencies in the North have developed policies that are designed to strengthen Africa’s research capacity. Scandinavian countries were among the first to do so: Denmark has the Building Stronger Universities programme. Norway and Sweden have similar collaborative programmes.

Such initiatives are important. Research funding is very limited at African universities. National higher education budgets are quite low, especially compared with universities in the North. In their bid to educate rapidly growing populations, African universities tend to emphasise teaching rather than research. So these institutions rely heavily on external funding for research and depend on support from development agencies via so-called capacity building projects. These projects engage researchers from the North and South in joint activities within teaching and research, ideally to create partnerships based on mutual respect.

Many researchers from universities in the North and South are involved in these collaborative projects, usually as practitioners. Only rarely do we turn these collaborative projects into a research field, turning the microscope on ourselves and our own practice. After participating in a capacity building project in Africa, some colleagues and I became interested in understanding the geography and power of scientific knowledge.

We wanted to know how this power and geography is negotiated through capacity building projects. We also sought to understand whether such projects functioned as quality assurance or a type of neo-imperialism.

Simply put, our research explored whether capacity building and the tendency towards increased international collaboration in higher education is helping or hindering African universities. The answer? Both.

‘Monocultures of the mind’

The problem with such projects is that they might create what Indian activist Vandana Shiva calls “monocultures of the mind”. Shiva argues that these make diversity disappear from perception and consequently from the world. People all end up thinking in the same ways.

International collaboration can cause African universities to become more dependent on the North. Their dependence is on funding; through publication in journals from the North; and through technology that only exists in the North. It also manifests in thinking mainly using concepts and solutions developed in the North.

Another problem is that this international collaboration may draw African universities into the competition fetish that dominates higher education today. This may help them to become globally competitive. But they risk losing their local relevance in the process.

Capacity building projects risk creating Shiva’s monocultures of the mind. But they can also have the opposite effect: they can empower African researchers and help them to become more independent.

Empowerment through capacity building

For Cheikh Mbow, the North represented both an imposed curriculum through colonial heritage and the chance to acquire the skills needed to become an emancipated academic capable of creating new knowledge.

His PhD project explored natural resource management in Senegal “but using methods designed in the global North, in particular from France”. During his project he travelled from Senegal to Denmark and was exposed to another way of behaving. At his home institution, the Université de Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, questioning the knowledge and methods of older professors was perceived as misbehaviour. In Denmark he experienced a different system. There he was asked to question what was taken for granted even if it meant questioning older professors.

Paradoxically, the Danish system enabled Mbow to become an independent researcher. He became aware of how knowledge and methods inherited from the North were used in an African context without being questioned.

This is precisely what the African academy – and its societies more broadly – require.

Collaboration to decolonise

I would argue that collaborative projects such as capacity building programmes can be a means to assist African universities in producing contextualised knowledge. These projects can even lead to some sort of decolonisation of the academy if they are based on long-term partnerships, a close understanding of historical, political and geographical context, and not least a common exploration of knowledge diversity.

Fuente de la noticia: https://theconversation.com/global-academic-collaboration-a-new-form-of-colonisation-61382

Fuente de la imagen: https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/128962/width926/image-20160701-18306-1fjureg.jpg

Comparte este contenido:

Hong Kong : Gagosian muestra las primeras pinturas de gran escultor recogido Thomas Houseago

Asia/Hong Kong/Julio del 2016/Noticias /http://www.scmp.com

Resumen   :                                                                          Por     John Batten

Nacido, pinturas del artista de Los Angeles, se mezclan el futurismo, el cubismo y el modernismo. El conocimiento de la escultura de Houseago, inspirado por el primitivismo del arte africano y oceánico, proporciona una mejor comprensión de la exposición

Gagosian Hong Kong muestra las primeras pinturas de gran escultor recogido Thomas Houseago.Yorkshire nacido, pinturas del artista de Los Angeles, se mezclan el futurismo, el cubismo y el modernismo. El conocimiento de la escultura de Houseago, inspirado por el primitivismo del arte africano y oceánico, proporciona una mejor comprensión de la exposición

L os cuadros de, con base Angeles-Los Yorkshire nacido-Thomas Houseago se deslizan a través de una mezcla de-siglo 20 futurismo, el cubismo y el modernismo. Estos se llevan a cabo y los estudios informativos describen con precisión en el título de la exposición en la Galería Gagosian. A pesar de una calidad cuidadosamente sin terminar, los nueve grandes cuadros expuestos como «Thomas Houseago: Psychedelic Brothers – dibujos realizados» no son dibujos de fuego rápido o bocetos, pero funciona totalmente resueltas en capas elaboradas de colores pastel, lápices de colores, lápices, óleo y acrílico sobre lienzo , sobre todo el complejo «Psychedelic Hermano III (arquitectura azul) (2016)».

Houseago es un escultor figurativo que estudió en el Central Saint Martins, en Londres, y en De Ateliers, en Ámsterdam, y vivió en Bruselas antes de trasladarse a Los Ángeles en 2003. buscados por los coleccionistas, sus esculturas son generalmente grandes y completado con un equipo de asistentes en un amplio almacén en Los Ángeles. Sus piezas de bronce se echan en las fundiciones en todo Estados Unidos. En la Bienal de Venecia 2011, su «homme pressé L'(2011-2012)», un enorme bronce de un hombre en un apuro, fue exhibido en el Gran Canal, Venecia fuera del museo del propietario de Christie François-Henri Pinault, como parte de su colección.

El conocimiento de la escultura de Houseago, rara vez se ve en Hong Kong, proporciona una mejor comprensión de esta exposición. El artista se inspira en la larga historia de la escultura, de formas humanas y griegos clásicos a despojada, interpretaciones simplificadas de la figura humana y la arquitectura en el cubismo y el modernismo mínima. Igualmente influyentes son sus esculturales ancianos – Henry Moore, Jacob Epstein y Eduardo Paolozzi – y la cultura popular, incluyendo personajes como los de Los Picapiedra, anime japonés y la ciencia ficción, a menudo en el perfil familiar de Star Wars Darth Vader. Sin embargo, es el «primitivismo» del arte africano y oceánico que se ve más claramente en su escultura y en estas pinturas dibujadas.

Thomas Houseago. Uno de los materiales preferidos de esculpir Houseago es TUF-Cal, un yeso de alta resistencia, que se va a secar en bruto, blanco y desnudo. A menudo, sus figuras distintivas cuentan con una máscara TUF-Cal como una cara estilizada en la madera contrachapada expuesta o una parte más vulnerable de la armadura metálica. Las pinturas dibujadas aquí expuestas tienen una similar a una máscara de calidad similar y los inicios de estas representaciones bidimensionales de la máscara se pueden ver en una escultura de 2009, «Máscara (cerro negro / colina roja)». En la obra, Houseago preparó un esquema prima, plano de un rostro en TUF-Cal, pero en lugar de trabajar el yeso, dibujó sobre la superficie, que representa cuencas de los ojos profundos, uno de los ojos claros, una, boca casi-sonrisa abierta y negro pelo que cubre un lado de la cara.

«Pintura Drawn – Padres Ghost I (astronauta) (2016)» es un retrato muy trabajado y en capas del padre del artista, que fue diagnosticado con esquizofrenia cuando Houseago era un muchacho joven. remolinos de la pintura de líneas vigorosas íntimos a un hombre angustiado, y en su ejecución, un artista que refleja en sí mismo como un niño angustiado.

En cada cuadro, la vinculación «psicodélica» de las mentes entre la familia y amigos – de hecho, todos nosotros – se intensifica por las líneas repetitivas y obsesivas por el lienzo y los ejes de color en una paleta estrecha, a menudo en tonos de color púrpura y azul.El primitivismo de estas pinturas es una reminiscencia del arte marginal: ingenua, tímida y honesta, pero con una totalidad de formulario que tiene una calidad como de niño y una madurez extraordinaria y una visión de la fragilidad de la naturaleza humana. Cada uno de los nueve retratos representa un aspecto de la máscara como un cráneo – un memento mori (del latín, «recuerde que debe morir») – un símbolo clásico y artístico que nos recuerda que la vida se ve atenuada por la muerte y que debe ser humilde en nuestras vidas . Siempre es un mensaje aleccionador y hace que esta exposición más potente que la mayoría retratos pintados.

Fuente: http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/1987250/gagosian-hong-kong-shows-first-paintings-much

Fuente Imagen:http://cdn2.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/780×510/public/images/methode/2016/07/08/13688796-41b0-11e6-b5a0-f2e623e104bf_1280x720.jpg?itok=3oUSZzLN

 

Gagosian Hong Kong shows first paintings of much collected sculptor Thomas Houseago

Houseago is a figurative sculptor who studied at Central Saint Martins, in London, and at De Ateliers, in Amsterdam, and lived in Brussels before relocating to LA in 2003. Sought after by collectors, his sculptures are generally large and com­pleted with a team of assistants in an extensive warehouse in LA. His bronze pieces are cast in foundries across the United States.

At the 2011 Venice Biennale, his “L’homme pressé (2011-2012)”, a huge bronze of a man in a hurry, was displayed on the Grand Canal, outside the Venice museum of Christie’s owner François-Henri Pinault, as part of his collection.

Knowledge of Houseago’s sculp­ture, rarely seen in Hong Kong, provides a better under­standing of this exhibition. The artist draws inspiration from the long history of sculpture, from Greek and classical human forms to stripped-down, simplified interpretations of the human figure and archi­tecture in cubism and mini­mal modernism. Equally influential are his sculptural elders – Henry Moore, Jacob Epstein and Eduardo Paolozzi – and popular culture, including characters such as those from The Flintstones, Japanese anime and science fiction, often in the familiar profile of Star Wars’ Darth Vader.

However, it’s the “primitivism” of African and Oceanic art that is most clearly seen in his sculpture and in these drawn paintings.

Thomas Houseago.

One of Houseago’s favourite sculpting materials is Tuf-Cal, a high-strength plaster, which he leaves to dry rough, white and bare. Often, his distinctive figures feature a Tuf-Cal mask as a stylised face on exposed plywood or a metal armature underbelly. The drawn paintings exhibited here have a similar mask-like quality and the beginnings of these two-dimensional renderings of the mask can be seen in a 2009 sculpture, “Mask (black hill/red hill)”. In the work, Houseago prepared a raw, flat outline of a face in Tuf-Cal, but instead of working the plaster, he drew over the surface, depict­ing deep eye sockets, one clear eye, an open, almost-smiling mouth and black hair cover­ing one side of the face.

The mask motif was settled on years ago, but his use of crayons and pastels came about recently, when Houseago was draw­ing with his young daughter. These paintings are the first he has publicly shown and each uses a skull-like mask as the basis of a universal, egali­tari­an, homogenous, full-faced portrait. They appear anony­mous, but each is personal.

“Drawn Painting – Fathers Ghost I (astronaut) (2016)” is a highly worked and layered portrait of the artist’s father, who was diag­nosed with schizophrenia when Houseago was a young boy. The painting’s vigorous swirls of lines intimate an anguish­ed man, and in its execution, an artist reflecting on himself as a distressed child.

In each painting, the “psychedelic” link­ing of minds between family and friends – indeed, all of us – is intensified by repetitive and obsessive lines across the canvas and shafts of colour in a narrow palette, often in shades of purple and blue.

The primitivism of these paintings is rem­i­niscent of outsider art: naive, self-conscious and honest, but with a wholeness of form that has both a child-like quality and an uncanny maturity and insight into the fragility of human nature.

Each of the nine portraits depicts an aspect of the mask as a skull – a memento mori (Latin for “remember you must die”) – a classical and artistic symbol reminding us that life is tempered by death and we should be humble in our lives. It is always a sobering message and makes this exhibition more powerful than most painted portraits.

 
Comparte este contenido:

Namibia: Africa, Technology Is Important in Education

Africa/Namibia/Julio 2016/Autor: Editor/ Fuente: allafrica.com

Resumen:  El Director Ejecutivo de Recursos para el Aprendizaje en Pearson Education Africa, Brian Wafararowa, se reunió con funcionarios del gobierno y los educadores a principios de esta semana en Windhoek, como parte de su serie de Diálogos de Educación de África, que se llevará a cabo en más de 30 países.

Executive Director Learning Resources at Pearson Education Africa, Brian Wafararowa met with government officials and educators earlier this week in Windhoek, as part of their African Education Dialogues series, that will be held in over 30 countries.

«We aim to educate 1 million people with quality education,» he said, when he addressed the topic ‘Providing solutions to the challenges of education and quality of learning in Africa, from early childhood to higher education’. Wafararowa emphasised on the importance of using technology in the classroom to ensure that skills imparted to the learners are equipping them for the needs of the 21st Century. «Technology does not have or need to be complicating or complicated, it can be as simple as communication via WhatsApp, between teachers, students and parents,» he added.

He said that Africa’s future and success is its population and even thought most people focus on the negatives, it does not mean that progress has not and is not being made in improving education. «Education clearly is the ticket out of poverty, as I am sure the 91% of Namibian graduates who are employed would agree,» he said.

«At Pearson we know that learning must be lifelong, and the skills obtained must be relevant and up to date and the qualifications that our hard earned money is spend on must be internationally recognized and valid,» added Wafararowa. The breakfast was concluded with a panel discussion which included, Ilana Carlitz from the Institute of Open Learning (IOL), Fritz David from the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED) and Peter Reiner an education specialist.

The panelists were all in agreement that education is the key, and quality education should start at an early age and learners should be able to use what they have learned in their lives.

After the breakfast dignitaries took a trip to Blowkrans Primary School in Dordabis and handed over a cheque of N$30,000 to Lucas Bock the school principal, which will be used for upgrades at the school.

Fuente de la noticia: http://allafrica.com/stories/201607010669.html

Fuente de la imagen: https://www.google.co.ve/search?q=windhoek+university+namibia&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=683&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjv-5bWsuXNAhVJOiYKHYQIDuUQ_AUIBygC

Comparte este contenido:
Page 5403 of 6179
1 5.401 5.402 5.403 5.404 5.405 6.179