Research Visitation

"[...] on Friday the 30th October 2020, we presented our entire research portfolio to a globally critical and formidable panel made of Prof. Dr. David Theo Goldberg (Director, University of California Humanities Research Institute), Dr. Evelyn Wan (Utrecht University), Dr. Christine de Lille (TU Delft / Haagse Hogeschool), chaired by Raoul van Alaast from the AEQUI. Over a long day of conversations in 4 blocks, ending at 20: 30 on Friday evening, we presented our critical self-reflection as an ‘entanglement of practice’, presenting, with colleagues from our internal education and research community, external stakeholders and partners, and our growing research community, a vision and ambition of research that we have built over the last 4 years.

Supported by the Executive Board, and with 15 participants spread across the day, the committee asked us thoughtful, tough, challenging, creative, and caring questions where each session ended with us growing more aware and reflective on what we have achieved and the strengths that we as a community embody. It was astonishing that even at the late evening, the energy was high, the conversations engaged, and the critical dialogue, going strong. We were very proud to be able to present such a strong team to the panel, and there was a quiet pride, and growing confidence that not only are our efforts being recognized but that there was a huge interest and genuine excitement from the panel as they dug deeper into our work across the research and outreach programmes, the academic and educational research practices, and the external partnerships.

[...]

With 3 Excellents and 2 Goods, we have a stellar performance from the team. The panel has officially recognized that the needs of research for planning, control, projections, and communication are needed and need a lot of investment and support. They in fact said, ‘you are very modest – your website, your social media, your communication needs to make much more noise because these are stories that have to be heard and heard strongly.’ They particularly mentioned that experiments like APRIA are genius and strategically very strong and need to be supported more heavily to show what research in the arts can mean. They have left us saying that this is precious, this is unique, this is excellent, and this is something that needs to be protected, cherished, and pushed forward, and that they look forward to seeing how ArtEZ establishes itself as a university of the arts to become a transformative force".

Yours sincerely,

Prof. dr. Nishant Shah
Director of the ArtEZ Research Centre