Soyoung Yoon Named Director Of Whitney Independent Study Program

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Scholar Soyoung Yoon has been appointed the new director of the Whitney Independent Study Program (ISP), succeeding Ron Clark, who led the program for over 50 years. Yoon herself is an alumna of the ISP, having participated as a Helena Rubinstein Critical Studies fellow in 2006. She later returned as faculty in 2012.

Her appointment follows a period of controversy for the program, which was suspended after a censorship dispute. Yoon recently served on a 15-member advisory committee, convened by Whitney curator Adrienne Edwards, to help shape the ISP's future. She currently teaches film and media theory at The New School and is working on three books as she prepares to welcome the program's next class.

Yoon expressed her honor and excitement about stepping into the role, acknowledging Clark's long tenure.“I am among many who have had the great fortune, or a shared commitment, according to which I can describe Ron as a teacher, a mentor, a friend, as well as the leader and steward of this storied institution, this constellation of people that Ron also calls friends: the faculty, the guest speakers, the alumni of the ISP over multiple generations across different fields and movements of study and practice. The lessons of such friendship, its potential, its risks, its promise, are not ones that I take lightly,” Yoon stated.

Reflecting on her experience as both a student and teacher at the ISP, Yoon described it as a practice and ethics of“peer-to-peer learning,” particularly evident in the“horizontality of the seminars” that form the program's core. She emphasized that the ISP's goal is not to professionalize students but to encourage them to be thinkers, fostering a culture of“public intellectualism.” The program aims to encourage artists, curators, critics, and scholars to“think anew about their practice” and to challenge participants to reimagine the roles of student and teacher.

Yoon was part of the advisory committee that engaged in“very interesting” discussions, noting the diverse perspectives across generations of ISP alumni and faculty. Despite differences in what people remembered as distinctive about the program, a“shared commitment, a real passion that this program must continue” was a consistent theme. Yoon personally credits the ISP as“decisive” in her own trajectory.

Her initial encounter with the ISP, which she described as“an ideal for theory in practice,” occurred during the student movements in Seoul. This activism informs her teaching, particularly in highlighting the historical significance of student-led movements, including protests against the Japanese occupation of Korea. She referenced artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's work, Dictée, which will be featured in a retrospective exhibition at Artists Space in New York City, as relevant to the“figure of the student.”

Yoon also connected these ideas to the contemporary context of higher education's“restructuring,” questioning the value of education in terms of both financial and intellectual risks. She cited philosopher Jacques Rancière's concept of“the ignorant schoolmaster,” which proposes that teaching involves translating from a position of difference rather than simply transferring knowledge.

Addressing whether critical theory still anchors the ISP for artists shaped by the internet, Yoon affirmed that“the framework still holds.” She elaborated on the dynamic and formative relationship between the ISP and critical theory, which has been integral to the program since its establishment in 1968. Yoon also countered the perception of a“dogma” in the ISP's curriculum, asserting that its syllabus has always been“fluid and flexible,” exemplified by the diverse speakers and approaches over the years. She confirmed that core areas, such as psychoanalytic theory, will continue to be part of the curriculum.

Source: Observer Arts

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