Sandberg Instituut

Sandberg Instituut is the postgraduate institute of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, offering master’s degrees in Fine Arts & Design and Interior Architecture through five permanent departments alongside a new Temporary Department each year. Together, these departments form a dynamic educational ecology in which creative practice, theory, research and experimentation are closely intertwined.

Sandberg Instituut offers an open, international and interdisciplinary environment that supports students in developing practices which are self-reflexive and socially engaged. Across all departments, students are encouraged to position their work in relation to broader social, political, ecological, technological and cultural contexts, while developing their own vocabularies and modes of practice.

At Sandberg Instituut, education is understood as a relational undertaking. Learning emerges through dialogue, and an approach to critical reflection grounded in collective inquiry. Art and design are approached not as fixed disciplines, but as practices situated within an expanded field of creative engagement. Students are encouraged to question and reconfigure existing roles and methods, using their practice as a tool for investigation, intervention and imaginative response to the urgencies and complexities of contemporary life.

Departments

Sandberg Instituut’s permanent departments are Critical Studies, Design, Dirty Art Department, Fine Arts and Studio for Immediate Spaces.

Each department develops distinct pedagogical approaches and educational rhythms, supporting students in positioning and deepening their creative and research practices. Through challenging and expanding disciplinary boundaries, the departments create opportunities for students to critically reflect on both their work and their relationship to the wider conditions in which they operate.

The departments are small-scale and therefore flexible, allowing space for initiatives from students, tutors and external collaborators. Heads of Departments shape the curriculum and invite tutors and guests who are  artists, designers, theorists, architects, curators and researchers with internationally engaged practices. While departments maintain strong individual identities, they also form part of the broader educational ecology of Sandberg Instituut.

Temporary Departments

Each year Sandberg Instituut launches a new Temporary Department in response to emerging urgencies and questions within society, culture and the arts. These are full-time, two-year master’s curricula that run parallel to the permanent departments while introducing new pedagogical approaches, and forms of practice into the institute.

Temporary Departments function as spaces for experimentation, speculation and institutional renewal. They offer an opportunity to delve deeper into a specific theme or societal condition to generate new perspectives on creative practice. Temporary Departments also build connections with practices, organisations and communities beyond the institution, expanding the contexts in which art and design education can operate. Through these formats, they contribute to the wider ecology of Sandberg Instituut through exchange and cross-pollination with the permanent departments.

The current Temporary Departments are Lumbung Practice (2024–2026) and Monstrous Futurities (2025–2027). The forthcoming Temporary Department is Phantom Scores (2026–2028).

History

Named after Willem Sandberg (1897–1984), former director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and a strong advocate for experimental and socially engaged art and design, Sandberg Instituut was founded in 1990 as a postgraduate institute connected to the Gerrit Rietveld Academie.

The institute was established to create space for advanced artistic research, critical inquiry and self-directed practice beyond bachelor education. Since its inception, Sandberg has been characterised by small-scale, thematic and experimental approaches to learning in which practice, theory and research remain closely connected.

Under the leadership of its first director, Jos Houweling, Sandberg Instituut developed into a fully recognised master’s institute. Between 2010 and 2023, director Jurgen Bey expanded the institute through the introduction of Temporary Departments focused on contemporary societal urgencies and interdisciplinary forms of practice.

Since 2023, Ruby Hoette has been director of Sandberg Instituut & Research, with a focus on strengthening collective pedagogical reflection and institutional dialogue.