Fair & Square University

2011 – ongoing*

Fair & Square University exists as a media-relations campaign for an institution of higher learning where admission is free, thinking is dead, and you are enrolled. It began with the screening of a short, educational film, titled Presentation 1, during a 2011 lecture at Columbus College of Art & Design. The film is first in an intended series of short, instructional lessons for screening in theaters prior to the featured movie.

The main thing is that you are caught up in life.

Carl Malmstem, Capellagården founder

In spring 2016, I was a guest resident at Capellagården, a small school “for creative work” located in the farming village of Vickelby on an island in the Baltic Sea off the east coast of Sweden. Established by the designer Carl Malmsten in 1960, the school’s founding mission is “to put hand and spirit in creative cooperation according to each individual’s beak and shape.” The curriculum at Capellagården includes furniture making, textile design, ceramics, organic gardening, and traditional building practices. While there, I opened an F&SU pop-up campus with specialized instruction in how to make mistakes.

Related reading Fair & Square University at Capellagården: Activities Report and Closing Address by Michael Mercil, June 2016. Make A T-Shirt And It Will Happen, James Voorhies with Michael Mercil in The New Administration of a Fine Arts Education, Bureau for Open Culture and Columbus College of Art and Design, 2011