New International School came about as a response to the over bureaucratization of art education. NIS contends that art education is the very practice of art in emergence and cannot be formalized or contained by external concerns to those practices. NIS is first of all a mobile coalition of artists whose interests among other things, is in examining the limits and limitations of art as it is practiced in economically buoyant zones. The marginality of locations is not seen as a subject for artists and other specialists to comment on or react to, but an opportunity to re examine their own practices in an expanded understanding of context and engagement. The international outlook of the group, first selected by Shahin Afrassiabi, will retain a multi-voiced relationship with all of its locations.The projects are structured around loose groupings of individuals who act as peers.
NIS meets at the Treignac Projet , France each summer to exchange ideas, discuss new projects and introduce new participants. it is based on a seminar talk system, where artists are invited to present their work or other related projects.
Discussions are continued throughout the period of stay (one week) and the participants responses take many forms including work done on site or initiating projects in other locations.
The mobility of NIS is dependent on the individuals who take part and conditions the schools mutability from the outset.
