Another School

Another School follows the structure of a six-week school programme. The gallery space functions as a classroom, testing ground, and working studio, referencing models of alternative art and design education. Developed by Lee Richardson with collaborators including Josephine Jelicich, Tjaša Cizej, Tom Collins, Fiona Connor, and others, the exhibition features lecture sessions and hands-on events with artists, designers, and architects from Aotearoa and internationally.

Central to the work are steel-framed, wood-topped trestle tables manufactured by Tubefab in Christchurch from the 1960s onwards, stamped with 'Another Folding Table'—commonplace in schools and communal venues. Richardson's research explores how these tables functioned as tools for group learning and community gathering, while meditating on changing local industry and education models.

The exhibition references alternative education precedents including (Graphic) Design School School at The Physics Room (2014), alongside international projects like Escola para Nada in Portugal and the Mountain School of Arts in Los Angeles. The material of school—exercise books, canteen lunches, sports days—forms the backdrop for exploring how inadequate education structures might be retrofitted toward something more collaborative and non-hierarchical.

A print studio remains active throughout, with weekly overprinted posters documenting upcoming sessions, accumulating as a document of the exhibition's complete activity.