A project of Loop House (Lecce, IT) and Musagetes, Free Home University (FHU) is a pedagogical experiment grounded in experiencing life and creativity in common. FHU is a response to the need to generate new ways of sharing and creating knowledge. Created in collaboration with a pool of diverse international artists and thinkers, FHU is based in and around the city of Lecce, in the Puglia Region of southern Italy.
FHU approaches the possibilities of education by producing collaborative artistic projects and coalitional knowledge. A positive alternative to the neoliberal and service-oriented system, FHU provides a home for radical thought, experimental action, learning-by-doing. It opens up existing competencies and encourages personal enrichment. The name Free Home University (FHU) refers to how a horizontal, inviting, energy-liberating environment (Free), within a protected and intimate space (Home), can provide an alternative, yet universal experience of sharing knowledge (University).
The FHU includes a series of projects in 2013, 2014 and 2015. A group of artists from various backgrounds collaborate to explore an inquiry into ‘how we want to live’ Through artistic projects. Our definition of inquiry is open and includes alternative forms of research, artistic processes, and experimental practices. The group of artists meet regularly to live and work together while pursuing their inquiry.
The form and contents of each project is determined collaboratively by the invited artists: each person is both a teacher and a student, sharing the responsibility of contributing and nurturing each other’s perspective. The group lives, cooks, eats, and experiences the local context of Lecce and the surrounding area together. Intimacy, immersion, mutual learning, collaboration, and hands-on practice are fundamental values. FHU is an experience building on many kinds of knowledge or saperi from the intersection of different disciplines and perspectives.