Every year the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, the Akademie van Kunsten, and De Jonge Akademie organize an Honours Programme for young and talented artists and scientists. This year, two of our colleagues from the Humanities department – Wander van Baalen and Boo van der Vlist – are selected to participate in the prestigious program.
The Arts/Science Honours Programme aims to promote knowledge sharing and collaboration beyond the borders of one’s own academic or artistic discipline. The group – consisting of seventeen talented scientists and artists – is encouraged to think of the ways in which the arts and sciences can enrich each other in both research and education.
Wander recently started his PhD research at Codarts University for the Arts. He approaches the Honours Programme as an excellent opportunity to generate new ideas and potentially engage in unique, transdisciplinary research collaborations. Wander says that he is especially thrilled to participate, “because the lessons learned can feed back into the educational practice of the Rotterdam Arts & Sciences Lab.”
In addition to her work at EUC, Boo also holds a teaching position at Willem de Kooning Academy and runs her own artistic practice. Last week (26-03), the first meeting of the Honours Programme took place at Het Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. Boo is enthusiastic about the first gathering. She describes the group of participants as “inquisitive, diverse, and with a candid openness for new perspectives.” The upcoming months there are four more meetings. It is now up to the group to take ownership of the programme and further delve into the symbiosis between the arts, sciences, and society.