Institute of Investigative Living

The Institute of Investigative Living is an intensive eight-day MFA seminar, held once a year at A-Z West. The program focuses on the subject of “Life Practice” as the junction of art and life – asking of how one can live a life that is intellectually rigorous and culturally relevant, regardless of the market or other outside factors. Following the moto “learning from what we are not” the program takes participants beyond the range of typical everyday experience as a means through which to reevaluate common assumptions about needs, values and social norms.

Each session hosts ten students who are housed in the Wagon Station Encampment at A-Z West. Group discussions are led by James Trainor (former US editor from Frieze Magazine and a frequent AZ teaching collaborator) and each itinerary is crafted by Andrea Zittel.