The Piet Zwart Institute houses the international Master programs of the Willem de Kooning Academy at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (RUAS). Since 1999 it has been dedicated to promoting study and research in the fields of art, design and art education.
The Piet Zwart Institute is part of the Willem de Kooning Academy (WdKA), an art school that can be found right at the heart of the design city of Rotterdam. The Academy’s origin dates back to 1753, and now — with over 2,000 students — it is one of the largest art academies in the Netherlands, offering both Bachelor’s and Master’s programs in Fine Art and Design. The Academy is part of the multi-sectoral Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (RUAS), a dynamic knowledge institute for higher professional education with a variety of programs across all educational sectors and closely connected to developments in the metropolitan region of Rotterdam. Although part of the RUAS, Willem de Kooning Academy is autonomous in realising its goals and positioning its national and international profile.
WdKA’s Master’s programs are positioned within the Piet Zwart Institute (PZI), which currently hosts a little over 120 students. Named after the pioneering Dutch designer Piet Zwart, who worked experimentally across different media and contexts, the Institute offers a rich combination of in-depth specialisation and interdisciplinary exchange within an intimate learning environment. The programs of the Piet Zwart Institute are located in Rotterdam’s city centre, at Karel Doormanhof 45 and Wijnhaven 61. Students and staff come from around the globe and bring with them a variety of cultural influences and international connections. In addition to these international ties, the program maintains strong local connections to the city of Rotterdam, its history and ever-changing urban environment.
The Piet Zwart Institute houses four full-time Master programs, Interior Architecture: Research + Design (MIARD); Master of Arts in Fine Art and Design, which encompasses Fine Art (MFA) Lens-Based Media (LB) and Experimental Publishing (XPUB) and two part-time Master programs, Education in Arts (MeiA) and Master Design. Through uniquely tailored curricula combining collective learning, individual tutorials, practice-based research and theoretical inquiry, the programs educate professionals who have a critically reflective, innovative, questioning and imaginative approach to their work. Our graduates go on to not only establish themselves in their field, but also challenge and creatively define the parameters of their profession.
As an educational institute and cultural centre, the notion of ‘making public’ is core to the activities of PZI. Exhibitions, programming, conferences and publications on a national and international level are a means of sharing and expanding our research beyond the confines of academia. At the same time, the program provides the very necessary speculative space for reflection and knowledge-building that is only made possible through an academic framework like the Piet Zwart Institute.
The two-year Master of Fine Art (MFA) program at the Piet Zwart Institute is an HBO Masters offered by the Willem de Kooning Academy, which is part of the Hogeschool Rotterdam (Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences). The Piet Zwart Institute Master Fine Art (Master of Arts in Fine Art and Design, option Fine Art) educates […]
Master Interior Architecture: Research + Design, MIARD at the Piet Zwart Institute is an international post-graduate program that is part of the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. MIARD is a two-year multidisciplinary course with a focus on practice-based research and spatial strategies in the field of interior architecture. We invite you to visit our […]
The Experimental Publishing master course (XPUB) focuses on the acts of making things public and creating publics in the age of post-digital networks. XPUB’s interests in publishing are therefore twofold: first, publishing as the inquiry and participation into the technological frameworks, political context and cultural processes through which things are made public; and second, how […]
The Master of Arts in Fine Art & Design: Lens-Based Media program focuses primarily on artistic and experimental lens-based practices (both still and moving image/animation) that embrace the use of artifice, formal and technical innovation, fictional strategies and other unconventional visual approaches to create new and meaningful visions of the world. We support visions that […]
Experimental and engaged practices in art and design educationThe MEiA programme is called ‘Education in Arts’, but in essence it is multidisciplinary. We pay attention to contemporary developments in art and design education, considering it to be an expanded and interdisciplinary field that also includes socially engaged practices in art. The programme pays attention to […]
Within current design practices we choose a specific position, in which creative forms of design research and working with participants are crucial. The methods that the study programme provides for conducting design and in-depth participatory research support this. We see design as an engine for (behavioral) changes and transitions in the context in which our […]
You, the public have been chosen by the Experimental Publishing second year (XPUB2) students! The evening aims to make their graduation proposals public and open for fair judgement! Feel free to join us on Tuesday the 7th of November at De Leeszaal West. Best wishes, XPUB2 https://xpub.nl/2023/the-trial/ De Leeszaal West Rijnhoutplein 3, 3014 TZ Rotterdam […]
https://zinecamp2023.hotglue.me/ XPUB is at Zine Camp 2023! Publications in diverse forms will be available from current and past projects (Special Issues and Graduation works) — Meet and talk with tutors and students from the program! Come and find the XPUB stall on both Saturday 4 + Sunday 5 November! And join us in person or […]
Our next Open Day takes place on February 10th, 2024. Next to the annual Open Day Master Education in Arts, Master Design and Master Interior Architecture: Research + Design also offer Open Information sessions. For further information about the Piet Zwart Institute, please contact us via: E-mail: pzwart-info@hr.nl
Master of Education in ArtsEmbodiment, Activism, and the Arts Workshop by Rae Johnson Date: Wednesday 4 October 2023Time: 10am – 1:00pmLocation: Tent Auditorium, Witte de Withstraat 50, 3012 BR Rotterdam, NetherlandsNo. of participants: Maximum 30 Hereby the Master of Education in Arts of the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, warmly invites you to take part […]
Master Interior Architecture Research + Design: Maya Kumari Statement from the artist: The Thar Desert, situated in northwest India’s Rajasthan, stands as one of the world’s significant hot deserts with a dense population. The geography of the desert villages becomes a site for spatial inquiry, or rather enquiry into what is spatial and how it […]
Graduating students of the Piet Zwart Institute’s Lens-Based Media Master’s program, invite you to their graduation exhibition 54 BPM, held at two locations in Rotterdam and curated by V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, Garvan Corr, Aitan Ebrahimoff, and Shannon Liang.
A graduation shop and, a space to continue conversations on how we sell and distribute published matter as independent makers. Graduating XPUB students invite you to Making Things Bubblic in Slash Gallery, Rotterdam. Opening Thursday 29th June 18:00 Presentation 20:00 Commencement speech by Erica Gargaglione and Kimberley Cosmilla Performance 21:00 by mitsitron (mitsa chaida)* Expo […]
Anything that is alive cannot be in the gallery spaceMIARD’23 graduate exhibitionJuly 6–12, 2023 Nieuwe InstituutMuseumpark 25,3015 CB RotterdamThe NetherlandsNieuwe Instituut miard.pzwart.nlInstagram / Instagram Public opening: July 6, 19:00 – 22:00General opening hours: Daily from 10:00 – 17:00 (closed Mondays)Events program: read belowMusic: princess.k.dj / central.diskoDrinks: Nieuwe Café With works by: Isabella Fiorante, Ruth Gonzalez, […]
Marie Caye, Anna Kieblesz, Yezi Lin, Maia Liu, Lilian Ptacek, Johannes Hugo StollWith Cannach MacBride Image credit: poster by Yezi and Maia working with a zine compiled by Anna from materials made by all [Image description: A graphic black and white poster with various sizes and styles of handwritten typography overlaid on a collage of […]
From June 29–July 14, 2023 all the Master programs will be exhibiting a wide variety of work from students of Master Design, Education in Arts, Experimental Publishing, Fine Art, Interior Architecture: Research + Design, and Lens-based Media. The Graduation Shows will take place at various venues through the city of Rotterdam. See below for the […]
This group exhibition by first year students brings a selection of works and works-in-progress to the Polderland Garden of Love and Fire. Emerging from “Domestic Territories,” an intensive 6-month research project carried out across Flevoland and led by Studio Ossidiana. The exhibition explores the post-natural condition of the Netherlands’ youngest province. Join us and discover […]
Congratulations to Lens-Based Media student Sam Koopman who received an EYE ResearchLabs award for Most Urgent Work with his short film Dear Moritz. The hybrid form short film invites us to observe and reflect at a chance encounter between humans in public space. An unplanned story exploring power, privilege, colonial pasts and present realities. Screened […]
Time: April 11, 18.00hr / 6pmLocation: Piet Zwart Institute Master Fine Art, Karel Doormanhof 45, RotterdamLanguage: English Reenactment and the lost object: documentary, art and restaging reality This lecture will be prefaced by a brief introduction to British artist John Keane’s elliptical portraits of real subjects (politicians, public figures). Keane’s subjects, pixelated, blurred and buried under layers […]
Exhibition duration: 04.04 — 10.09.2023 ITALY: A New Collective Landscape The challenges facing us at this global moment and the ongoing ecological and social transformations are the starting point for the work of young Italian designers presented by Italy: A New Collective Landscape. Produced by the ADI Design Museum, the exhibition is curated by Angela […]
Time: March 29, starting at 17.30Location: Piet Zwart Institute Master Fine Art, Karel Doormanhof 45, RotterdamLanguage: English Mercedes Azpilicueta is a visual and performance artist from Buenos Aires living and working in Amsterdam. Her artistic practice gathers various characters from the past andthe present who address the vulnerable or collective body from a decolonial feminist perspective. In fluid, associative connections […]
XPUB & PNF present:ConsoleSpecial Issue XX Launch19:00-21:0031.03.23 Page Not FoundBoekhorststraat 126-1282512 CT Den Haaghttps://page-not-found.nl/ Console is an oracle; an emotional first aid kit that helps you help yourself.Console invites you to open the box and discover ways of healing;Console provides shelter for your dreams, memories and worries.Face the past and encounter your fortune.Console gives you […]
Time: March 10, 17.00 – 18.00Location: Piet Zwart Institute Master Fine Art, Karel Doormanhof 45, RotterdamLanguage: English We’re excited to co-host along with WET a conversation with filmmakers Ernst Karel and Veronika Kusumaryati about their augmented sound work Expedition Content (2020) sceening at WET’s space in Rotterdam South. Anthropologist and educator Sander Hölsgens will join […]
Piet Zwart Institute’s MEiA heartily invites you to Affective Pedagogies, a public event hosted by TENT. at Friday March 10. Affective Pedagogies aims to explore the relational and reparative potential of affect around a set of pedagogical questions. Performer and choreographer Raoni Muzho Saleh will lead a call and response moaning session. Scholar Sanne Koevoets will give a […]
Location: Wijnhaven 61, fourth floor, MIARD studios We are pleased to invite you to join us during our annual Open Day at MIARD. Our Open Day this year is in-person. During the day you have a chance to learn about the program, ask questions, and speak with the Course Director and Coordinator, tutors, students, and alumni. […]
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