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NSCAD welcomes Tim Rollins and K.O.S.

NSCAD University is excited to welcome Tim Rollins (BFA, SVA) and Angel Abreu of K.O.S. (Kids of Survival) as part of NSCAD’s 2014-2015 Public Lecture Series on Friday, February 27, 2015 at 7 p.m.

Tim Rollins and K.O.S. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (after Shakespeare and Mendelssohn), 2009. Watercolor, acrylic and india ink, collage, offset music score on paper on canvas, 106.7 x 121.9 cm.

In 1984, Rollins launched the Art and Knowledge Workshop for at-risk students in the Bronx, NYC.  Reflecting on the harshness of their upbringing, many of the kids called themselves K.O.S. (Kids of Survival).  These students were considered to be learning or emotionally disabled, but by making art and combining lessons of reading and writing Rollins was able to teach these students about literary and musical classics.

“What we’re doing changes people’s conception about who can make art, how art is made, who can learn and what’s possible, because a lot of these kids had been written off by the school system. This is our revenge,” said Tim Rollins creator of the Art and Knowledge Workshop (The Art of Survival: The Story of Tim Robbins and the K.O.S., 1989).

Tim Rollins and the K.O.S continue to create work, consisting of drawings, photographs, sculptural objects and paintings. They’ve exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (2011), Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, (2011), Museum fur Gegenwartskunst (2012), and Hayward Gallery (2012). The Art and Knowledge Workshop continues to this day

Rollins and Abreu will discuss their experiences with the Art and Knowledge Workshop, K.O.S. and their current projects. Admission to the lecture is free and will be held in the Bell Auditorium, 5163 Duke Street, NSCAD University, Halifax. Visitors are asked to show government-issued ID in order to gain access to the NSCAD campus.

You can watch Tim Rollins and Angel Abreu’s PLS Lecture here.

Tim Rollins and K.O.S. The River – Meander II (after Edward “Duke” Ellington) (detail), 2011. Indigo ink, xerography, rag paper on panels, 16 panels, each: 35.6 x 27.9 cm.

Tim Rollins and K.O.S. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – On the Raft (after Mark Twain), 2011. Matte acrylic, book pages on canvas, 96 x 72 x 1.5″
243.8 x 182.9 x 3.8 cm

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Tim Rollins documentary in seven parts, 1 of 7: Tim Rollins and his collaborators, high school students from the South Bronx, NY, typically make works based on classic literature. He discovered that his students responded to art – art taught his way, not the way it is usually taught in public schools. Some of Rollins’ students became a group of regulars who participated in an after-school and weekend program called the Art of Knowledge Workshop. The students named themselves K.O.S. which stands for “Kids of Survival.” “What we’re doing changes people’s conception about who can make art, how art is made, who can learn and what’s possible, because a lot of these kids had been written off by the school system. This is our revenge.”