Why BEAR Fine Art?

BEAR (Base for Experiment, Art and Research) is the bachelor fine art programme of ArtEZ Academy of Art & Design Arnhem. It is built on a belief in the importance of contemporary art for society. Art is a domain that constructs knowledge by experimenting with new ways to intervene in the world. 

You enter a community for life 

As a community working with and through art, we collectively push the boundaries of creative possibilities and experiment with the role of artists in society. The force of art lies in an unconditional belief in the power of imagination and experimentation, and in embracing and cultivating diverging perspectives. Art is a public sphere and a political force, it examines possibilities for and gives shape to a common world. Art does not exist in a vacuum, it is a living and breathing ecosystem in a dynamic relationship with society. Art is distinctive, it does not conform to prevailing ways of seeing and speaking, but investigates and reinvents these.

You are taught by experienced tutors

Education at BEAR is designed to prepare aspiring practitioners for the field of contemporary art, while leaving ample space for personal learning goals. We acknowledge the complexity of navigating today’s society, and the asymmetries in how individuals experience the world we share. Therefore, we commit ourselves to creating a learning environment where difference can thrive. At the same time, education must build a shared practice, a shared language around communal concerns and objects of study, which in our case is contemporary art. The formats of the education we offer reflect our vision on how individual and collective learning become mutually supportive. 

You get your own studio and state-of-the-art facilities 

First and foremost, learning happens through the process of making and artistic research. Students develop skills through material and conceptual experimentation. This primarily takes place in their studios and in the workshops of the academy, supported by workshop instructors, who offer specialised knowledge. Artistic research classes take place in the studios of the students, elsewhere in the academy, or outside, depending on what is needed to support students in developing their own set of research methods.