Secret Arts Teachers Workshop: Valuable Failure

From 11 to 27 September 2026, Framer Framed presents Secret Arts Teachers, a group exhibition where the classroom enters the gallery space. The presentation is the result of an international project by the Art Education department of Amsterdam University of the Arts (AHK), in which art teachers use their teaching practice as an artistic workplace.

The project starts from the idea of the Teacher as Conceptual Artist: the boundary between teaching and making art blurs, the classroom becomes a temporary art collective, and students become co-creators. Twenty art teachers from primary and secondary education gathered in Amsterdam to exchange experiences, develop new teaching formats, and participate in inspiration sessions led by artists and theatre makers. This resulted in assignments that leave room for uncertainty, play, and failure - from activist actions to forging a masterpiece.

What is visible in the exhibition are the distinctive outcomes of these experiments. Guest curator Kevin van Braak guides the presentation, which explores how art and education relate to each other when you don't view them as separate domains, but as something that continuously comes together and transforms in practice.