Earlier this month, Dr. Michael Rao, president of Virginia Commonwealth University, made a bold statement: it’s time to move “beyond” the educational model developed by Oxford University in the High Middle Ages. Rao was speaking at the opening of “أغرب إدراك: Aghrab Idrāk: Thresholds of Perception,” a an official Venice Biennale collateral exhibition presented by VCUarts at Palazzo Cavanis in Venice.

Indeed, “Aghrab Idrāk” is a rare show for a university, a sort of proof of concept for a new way of teaching the arts.