Learning and working climate at ArtEZ

NRC and Het Parool published an article yesterday about courses which have been criticised for inappropriate behaviour. The article centres on an interview with former chair (2010-2013) of the ArtEZ Executive Board, Dingeman Kuilman.

It is regrettable that ArtEZ was not asked for a response before the article was published. Mr Kuilman states that there is something fundamentally wrong in arts education and “that the problems are rooted deep in the system.” This is based on his experiences from at least eight years ago.

In fact, ArtEZ is proud of all its students, members of staff and alumni, who work every day with great motivation on the future – their own futures and the future of art and culture. We have worked hard to create a safe learning and working climate, among other things by introducing new teaching methods and fostering connection and collaboration between courses and academies (also across disciplines). Culture is an ongoing topic of discussion and we conduct research on it in the workplace, reflecting the fact that we remain critical and strive to build inclusive arts education in which everyone can develop freely.

We value our talented and motivated students, who we train to become critical artists, even if they are critical of us. We are proud of the ever more open culture at ArtEZ, within which students, lecturers and other members of staff feel able to and do draw our attention to areas where we are not yet doing enough. That process is not automatic or flawless, but we are learning every day and we keep our lines of communication open – even if what we hear is uncomfortable, even if it hurts. That leads to genuine changes that are significant for each and every one of us. When someone raises an issue, we take it seriously; incidents occur wherever people are together, learn together and work together. And we take action in response; we do not tolerate discourteous patterns of behaviour that leave others feeling unsafe.

As such, we continue to learn and to work towards good and inspiring education in a safe learning and working climate. And those conversations will go on as before. We are redoubling our efforts to make sure arts education is a safe and inspiring place for all students and members of staff, and of course that applies especially to our own university of the arts.