POOL (Peer Organisation for Open Learning) was a Glasgow based learning collective that worked and researched together between early 2016 and 2018. POOL piloted an alternative creative education programme, initiated in response to the limitations encountered in institutional further education and life ‘post-education’. It opperated through the idea of the city as curriculum, forming a platform for the multitude of self-organised educational groups or events that already exist across Glasgow and Scotland. This platform constituted a series of public learning events, a Google Drive of shared information, a calendar of events at local institutions and regular reading groups. It acted as a tool for individuals and groups to connect with each other, access or contribute support and continue to grow overall access to different kinds of continued learning.
In 2017 we undertook a residency at Glasgow's CCA, where we programed a series of open and closed workshops covering both creative and practical professional development training for artists, as well as parties and reading groups. Alongside this we undertook training for the steering group in group facilitation, consensus lead decision making and designing workshops, delivered by Tripod.
Later that year we were commissioned to produce a learning event for the Scottish Artist Union's AGM, building on that year's theme of 'resilience' we ran a reading group, a workshop and a round table meal and discussion which dug into the interface between artists and the larger world. From our own perception of what constitutes labour, to communication and connection in a political landscape of an evolving world of work.