Sandberg Institute

Rosanne Jonkhout Maja Brouwer

As the postgraduate program of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam, the Sandberg Instituut offers Master's Programs in Fine Arts, Interior Architecture, and Design. The five main departments aim to deepen the practices of artists, designers and critics. In addition, the temporary programmes reflect on specific urgencies in society and the arts, and the hosted programmes focus on collaboration with other institutes.

Sandberg Instituut’s Main Departments are Critical Studies, Design, The Dirty Art Department, Fine Arts, and Studio for Immediate Spaces. An average of only twenty students per programme allows each course to be flexible and open to initiatives from students and third parties. The course directors, who are prominent artists, designers, theorists and curators with international practices, invite tutors and guests who are able to challenge the students to critically reflect on their profession, their work and their progress.

The Sandberg Instituut was established in 1990 by former Gerrit Rietveld Academie Director Simon den Hartog, and developed into a fully recognised educational institution with several Master’s programmes by its first Director, Jos Houweling.

Jurgen Bey, Director since 2010, looked for a way to align the institute with the dynamic of modern day culture. He introduced temporary, two-year programmes developed around issues of contemporary society such as vacancy, art and healthcare and political spatial design.