Prepare well

Would you like to start a programme at the ArtEZ Academy of Art & Design Zwolle?

Visit one of our open days to experience the atmosphere at the academy for yourself. You can speak with lecturers and students, have your portfolio reviewed, attend information sessions, ask questions at the Student Information Point (STIP), and explore the classrooms and student work.

Get inspired

To prepare well, it helps to start exploring art and design. Visit exhibitions and browse platforms such as MetropolisM, Kunstbeeld, Frame, DAMn and Dezeen.

Each year you can also visit the academy’s ArtEZ finals exhibition. This usually takes place in June or July and presents the work that fourth-year students created for their graduation.

Portfolio

For your portfolio, we ask you to bring examples of your own work. This can be a selection of work you have created during secondary school or a preparatory course, assignments you made for others, and work you created independently. We would like to see what you have been creating in recent years, whether at home, at school or on a course.  Your portfolio can take various forms, from drawings to digital work.  

Take time to develop work in different media. If you want to know what is expected, or whether your portfolio is strong enough, you can bring it to the open day. Students will be happy to look at it with you and give you tips.

Portfolio tips

• Show work that you have created yourself in the past three years.
• Take different types of work with you, such as drawings, paintings, photos, animations, websites, clothing, furniture or posters.
• The work may be either flat or three-dimensional.
• Also show sketches, samples and intermediate steps. That will give us an idea of how you work.
• Choose work that clearly represents who you are as a creator.
• Make sure you can tell us something about what you made and why.

During open days, you can have your portfolio reviewed and receive tips from students and lecturers.