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Ashford was hired as an instructor at the Vermont College MFA in Visual Arts program in 1991. The program was founded by G Roy Levin the year before and established a structure of process-oriented low residency education – that at the time was a revolutionary break from traditional programs. The program rejected the historical burden of mastery-based professionalization in order to allow students to find their own tactical relationships to making art as an autonomous and institutional re-defining occupation. Institutional decision were made through collective decision by the resident faculty, including Faith Wilding, Steve Kurtz, Humberto Ramirez, Miwon Kwon, Claire Pentecost, and Gregg Bordowitz. After G Roy’s retirement in 2000, Ashford became faculty chair and worked to re-design the artists-lecture format to include participatory project based experiences, student initiated instruction, greater involvement by off campus artist-mentors and other changes. He left the program in 2004 in order to address the growing demands of his studio output and the developing changes at The Cooper Union.<\/p>\n
“Notes on the Pedagogical Importance of Failure” from: Education, Information, Entertainment. Ute Meta Baur, ed., Editions Selene, Vienna, 2001 _(link)<\/a><\/p>\n Founder G Roy Levin’s graduation speech _(link)<\/a><\/p>\n