Can Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Sandberg Institute become radically inclusive structures? This year, an intra-curricular initiative begins working actively between and beyond the structures and discourses of the academy to unsettle the Rietveld and Sandberg from the roots up.
Through collaboration, confrontation, conversation and complication, unsettling Rietveld Sandberg aims to support existing initiatives, while also developing outreach programs, drawing in new perspectives, and making the context of the academy more inclusive to other voices, minds and bodies – those who are here and those who are not, yet. Together with the dynamic input of students, staff, external advisors and management, unsettling Rietveld Sandberg will collectively generate a policy for equity and diversity in our institutes which aims to not only shift the ways we work together but also ask the question: who is the ‘we’ in the first place?
It’s one of the first steps towards becoming an academy of the 21st century in Amsterdam – an interdependent space for brave ideas and unlearning.