But Is It Art?

What is “art”? What makes something art?  What criteria operate in our identification of art?  Is art culture-specific or universal? Does it depend on form, content, medium or criticism? Is there such a thing as art that belongs to us and “art that is alien”?
These questions, although very important can often lead us to take one side or another.  As we are living in a time of extreme categorization and identification with different categories, this Olio will seek to challenge our usual notions of art and how we converse about it. Here, we won’t be so concerned with the subjective opinion, nor the object itself (is it art or not?), but rather we’ll focus on our ability to turn to each other and discuss art itself. What happens in this kind of conversation if we allow space for other’s opinions?

We will explore what a space beyond categories can look like and talk about art in a way that challenges our usual conversations – i.e “This is art! This isn’t art!”

While museums are shut down and travel is restricted, let’s voyage to India by watching a short film by an Indian artist, together. You, the participants, will then theorize about this film guided by some questions and context about art history. We’ll go beyond the culture and the country to look at the larger journey into the question of art.


Teacher: Vishwa Adluri

Vishwa holds PhDs from the New School and University of Marburg, Germany. He recently published ‘The Nay Science’ and is the author of many books and articles. Dr. Adluri teaches courses on: Approaches to Religion, Indian Philosophy, Christian Theology, Mysticism, Hinduism, art history and The Religious Meaning of Death. He has been thinking about Space, Time, and Death since he was 5.

Pay what you can $10/$15/$20











When: Thu., Jul. 30, 2020 at 7:00 pm
What is “art”? What makes something art?  What criteria operate in our identification of art?  Is art culture-specific or universal? Does it depend on form, content, medium or criticism? Is there such a thing as art that belongs to us and “art that is alien”?
These questions, although very important can often lead us to take one side or another.  As we are living in a time of extreme categorization and identification with different categories, this Olio will seek to challenge our usual notions of art and how we converse about it. Here, we won’t be so concerned with the subjective opinion, nor the object itself (is it art or not?), but rather we’ll focus on our ability to turn to each other and discuss art itself. What happens in this kind of conversation if we allow space for other’s opinions?

We will explore what a space beyond categories can look like and talk about art in a way that challenges our usual conversations – i.e “This is art! This isn’t art!”

While museums are shut down and travel is restricted, let’s voyage to India by watching a short film by an Indian artist, together. You, the participants, will then theorize about this film guided by some questions and context about art history. We’ll go beyond the culture and the country to look at the larger journey into the question of art.


Teacher: Vishwa Adluri

Vishwa holds PhDs from the New School and University of Marburg, Germany. He recently published ‘The Nay Science’ and is the author of many books and articles. Dr. Adluri teaches courses on: Approaches to Religion, Indian Philosophy, Christian Theology, Mysticism, Hinduism, art history and The Religious Meaning of Death. He has been thinking about Space, Time, and Death since he was 5.

Pay what you can $10/$15/$20

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