Avans plans to bring all St. Joost art programmes together in Breda

With this proposed direction, we aim to create a strong foundation for the future of St. Joost and our arts education. We have carefully considered what is needed to continue providing high-quality, distinctive arts education in the future. St. Joost offers education for future professionals in the arts and cultural sector, where professional practice is constantly evolving. Alongside strong professional skills, this requires the ability to research, experiment, collaborate and use new technologies in a critical and creative way.

St. Joost is currently based in Breda and Den Bosch, meaning that its community and facilities are spread across 2 locations. We want to create more opportunities for students, teachers and researchers to connect and collaborate in their day-to-day work and learning. These values are particularly important for fostering creativity and strengthening the quality of arts education.

Bringing the art programmes together will create better conditions for quality, innovation and stronger connections between education, research, professional practice and different creative disciplines.

Why Breda?

In deciding on a single location, we considered which location offers the best starting point for the further development of St. Joost.

Breda already has the largest student population of the 2 St. Joost locations and offers a larger catchment area for attracting prospective students. Its geographical location, compared to other cities offering arts education, offers favourable conditions. Student enrolment figures over several years also show that more students are enrolled in St. Joost programmes in Breda than in Den Bosch.

Taking all these factors into account, Breda offers the best foundation for bringing all St. Joost art programmes together at one location. We have considered student enrolment trends, prospect potential, location, finances and accommodation together, with our educational ambitions for St. Joost as the starting point.

A dedicated home for St. Joost on campus

Bringing programmes together at one location does not automatically improve the quality of education. Choosing Breda therefore also gives Avans a clear assignment: we need to create an environment and provide facilities that meet the needs of the arts education we envision for St. Joost.

Avans intends to develop Quadrium, a building on the Breda campus, as the future home of St. Joost. The building is located at the heart of the campus, but in its current form it does not meet all the requirements for high-quality arts education at St. Joost. We want to develop Quadrium into a distinctive, dedicated space for St. Joost, with room to create, learn, research, meet and exhibit work.

Facilities for a high-quality learning, working and creative environment

An art academy needs more than standard teaching spaces. It requires studios and specialist workshops, as well as spaces for teaching, research, meeting, collaboration, exhibitions and other forms of creative practice. Avans will work out the exact changes and facilities needed over the coming period. We will draw on the knowledge and experience of students and staff. Their day-to-day experience gives them valuable insight into what is needed for a good learning, working and creative environment.

Our starting point is that St. Joost must retain its identity as an art academy. This is about more than the physical environment. It also concerns the academy's culture and community, and creating a learning and working environment where students and staff feel safe and at home. At the same time, a location at the heart of the campus offers opportunities to build stronger connections with other programmes, research activities and disciplines within Avans.

The connection with the city of Breda is also important. Cultural institutions, festivals and other partners can become part of the environment in which students learn, create, research and present their work.

What this means for Den Bosch

This choice has a significant impact on Den Bosch. St. Joost and the city have been connected for more than 200 years. Generations of artists and creative professionals have been educated here, and the academy has an established place in the city's cultural and creative life.

If the proposed direction is formally approved, Den Bosch will no longer be a permanent location for St. Joost programmes in the longer term. This does not mean that our connection with the city will disappear. St. Joost already works with cultural partners in Den Bosch in various ways, including outside its regular education programmes. We intend to continue and develop these connections.

We want to partner with the municipality of Den Bosch as well as others about which activities could be valuable and feasible in the future. These could include exhibitions, periods of creative work, artist-in-residence programmes and other forms of creative practice. We also want to explore how Avans can continue to contribute to arts, culture and talent development in Den Bosch.

Avans will also continue to have a presence in Den Bosch through other programmes in the creative domain, including the Koningstheateracademie, Communication & Multimedia Design (CMD), Business Innovation and Built Environment.

Status of the proposed direction

This is a proposed direction. The overall course is clear: Avans wants to bring St. Joost together as a fully-fledged art academy at one location in Breda. The exact design of the future academy and its accommodation has not yet been finalised. We will work out the details over the coming period. The formal decision-making process will follow. The participation council of the organisational unit involved has an important formal role in this process, before the Executive Board takes a final decision.

We have chosen to share this intention now rather than wait until the formal decision-making process has been completed. The proposed change affects many students, staff members and partners. We recently informed them, because we believe it is important that they hear directly from Avans what we are proposing, why we are proposing it and what still needs to happen.

Read the earlier article (in Dutch) about the sale of the Beukenlaan building in Breda