PUBLIC EVENT: The NCAD SCHOOL for UN/LEARNING, UN/LEARNING Workshops. NCAD Gallery.

PUBLIC EVENT: The NCAD School for Un/learning, Un/learning Workshops
Wednesday, 11 February, 2026, 17:00-19:00, NCAD Gallery Map Link, Foyer, Street. Events are fixed to the time zone in Ireland (GMT+0). Capacity for 50 public participants, who in rotation will experience 4 Un/Learning exercises.

NCAD MA/MFA Art & Social Action students, working with Dr Emma Mahony, have devised four unlearning exercises specifically for NCAD. They will deliver these exercises with the participation of staff and students who are invited to enrol in the NCAD School for Un/learning. Upon completion of the exercises participants will be awarded a certificate of failure.
Unlearning is both a discourse and a practice that involves the critical appraisal of accepted “truths”, power relations and practices, as well as an appraisal of the role the individual plays within this matrix. Unlearning calls on those who practice it to challenge not just what they know and believe to be untrue and unjust, but also deeply rooted habits and attitudes that are unjust. Habits, however, are not just practiced by individuals, but are also performed by institutions where they comprise the often invisible and unquestioned organisational actions and structures that reproduce systemic inequalities. The purpose of The NCAD School for Un/learning is to apply unlearning to NCAD to unpack, unsettle and undo any unjust institutional habits and attitudes.
Workshops are additionally supported by Anne Kelly.

1. UNLEARNING EXERCISE #6: STANDARDISATION
Devised and facilitated by: Linda Hederman, Anne Reilly and Ludwig Schaible.
This exercise focuses on unlearning standardisation, or one-size-fits-all in education. Participants are invited to respond to a set of questions about their learning experiences and then reflect on their responses. The unlearning engendered by this exercise leads its participants to critically reflect on their perception of ‘learning’ and to understand how others learn in non-typical ways, and to consider the relevance of alternative learning methodologies for their own socially-engaged practices, including visual and practical methodologies.

2. UNLEARNING EXERCISE #7: FINDING COMMON GROUND.
Devised and facilitated by: Megan Atkinson, Anna Ebeling and Christopher Roman.
This exercise seeks to unlearn unhelpful or inflammatory reactions to potentially triggering phrases. Instead of being triggered, participants are encouraged to find common ground and to understand intersectionality. The goals of this unlearning exercise are to challenge assumptions and unconscious biases; to defuse potentially triggering comments; to find common ground; to understand how structural inequalities impact on certain groups; and to understand how intersectionality works.
Trigger Warning: This exercise is designed to encourage reflection, empathy, and build intersectional understanding without verbal discussion. Some participants may find the prompts triggering, this workshop engages with potentially inflammatory phrases related to gender, identity, family roles, and belonging. Please be respectful and mindful of others, we welcome challenging conversations but we will not tolerate any hateful discourse. Please prioritise your well-being and feel free to step back or seek support from the facilitators if needed.

3. UNLEARNING EXERCISE #4: SOCIAL CAPITAL.
Devised and facilitated by: Romane Glas, Karen Matias and Leyette Moll.
This exercise is focused on ‘unlearning that knowing more people is better than building quality connections with a few’. It takes the form of a game with two sets of playing cards, the first set of cards consists of “problems”, and the second set describes a role or a skill which denotes a level of social capital or the lack thereof. The goals of this unlearning exercise are to demystify the structures of power (why some people have more social capital than others), and to understand the privilege that comes from having connections with the "right" people even if these connections come about through chance or good luck. It also demonstrates how important collaboration and community are as mitigating factors in leveraging social capital, with the players working together to solve the problem by combining their skills and influence and applying creative thinking.

4. UNLEARNING EXERCISE #5: UNWORKING C.V.
Devised by/ Facilitators: Loor Amin, Cúan Cusack and Leanne Dooley.
This exercise focuses on ‘unlearning employability’; the tendency to tailor our skills and experiences through the lens of ‘employability’ or what makes us a ‘good worker’. The goals of this exercise were to refocus attention away from the skills and activities that are valued by employers in the neoliberal economy, towards personal attributes that do not typically feature on a curriculum vitae. The intention is also to reframe the understanding of what a ‘skill’ or an ‘attribute’ is, to encompass skills and attributes that have been deemed insignificant or worthless by the neoliberal labour market. It also seeks to emphasise the relevance of negative life experience in contributing to a more rounded person, and how failures could be reinterpreted as learning experiences.
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The NCAD School for Un/Learning, Un/Learning Workshops are part of the exhibition programme, INSTITUTING COMMONING: A PLATFORM FOR UN/LEARNING, an exhibition programme bringing together a network of artistic and academic practices through the exchange of viewpoints, and the creation of new social bonds, 30 January - 27 February, 2026, Mon-Fri, 11AM - 6PM, NCAD Gallery, curated by Anne Kelly. Find the full events programme at this LINK.

Image credit: The NCAD SCHOOL for UN/LEARNING Certificate of Failure, designed by Cúan Cusack.