12 Sep 2014

Academy of Art and Design FHNW, Basel

On September 12th, on the occasion of its degree show, the Academy for Art and Design opens its doors to a preview of the new building complex. The new location includes converted studio spaces and a new high rise, and will celebrate its official opening in Basel's Dreispitz area on October 23rd. The new Campus of the Arts is at the heart of an evolving, urbane, inner-city district that also houses other important players in the field of art, design and the creative industry.

Through the spatial concentration of the departments of art, design and media in a joint Campus of the Arts, knowledge and experience can now be widely shared and also centrally pooled. This also constitutes a significant reinterpretation of the identity of the institution and the strategic orientation of the academy under the direction of Kirsten Merete Langkilde - until now, the academy's ten institutes were spread across different locations around Basel. In addition to the successful integration of research and practice from the various departments at the academy, projects resulting from creative processes can now be presented centrally to a wider audience with exhibitions, conferences and symposia.

Moreover, four new initiatives will foster the interdisciplinary and intercultural orientation of the Campus of the Arts:

Curating the Campus:
With internationally renowned artists and curators as faculty members and promising graduates, the academy as an institution actively helps to shape artistic developments. Headed by Chus Martinez, Curating the Campus is an experimental public exhibition platform for contemporary artistic positions which aims at developing an independent curatorial practice. Temporary exhibitions, film programmes, lectures, artist talks, happenings and performances will integrate locals and artists from different corners of the world representing a variety of approaches into the academy life on campus.

Digital Campus
The Digital Campus forms the high-performance digital infrastructure of the academy, and is unique in the education sector worldwide. The Digital Campus enhances the academy's ability to strengthen the emphasis on conceptual, artistic and technological advances in the fields of visualization and simulation, broadcasting and rapid prototyping. This knowledge based, interactive digital platform, which will connect theory, research and artistic and design practice, will be implemented in education services, research, communication, publishing and archiving, and will enable the development and realisation of forward-looking, interdisciplinary projects.

Design Platform Basel
The Design Platform Basel is an initiative that will link areas of knowledge, other activities, and current discourses on the themes of design confronted with today's environmental challenges. Through a series of lectures, exhibitions and publications, the Design Platform Basel seeks to trigger debates around these discourses and document them for the long run.

Swiss Cultural Entrepreneurship
Offering programmes for education, consulting and mentoring on starting a business, the excellence programme Network for Cultural Entrepreneurship of Swiss Universities of Arts supplies students and graduates with the necessary tools for successfully entering their professional careers in the private or public sectors.


Dreispitz area
Spread over approximately 50 hectares, the Dreispitz area is the largest contiguous area for commercial spaces and service providers in the region of Basel, yet its industrial flair is rapidly changing. In 2002, the Merian Foundation commissioned, as owners of the area, a study from Herzog & de Meuron on the transformation of the Dreispitz, located in the vicinity of the internationally renowned Schaulager. Bearing in mind that Basel has in the meantime established itself as an international art world location, the Foundation responded positively to the study's suggestion to establish a place for art production and communication there. The relocation of the Academy of Art and Design is at the heart of the new development, joining its six disparate locations in one site.

On the occasion of the degree show and the preview of the Campus of the Arts on September 12th on the Dreispitz area, the academy offers, for the first time at its new location, a comprehensive overview of the art and design projects and research conducted at the academy. The exhibition will present degree works from the departments of visual communication, industrial design, art and design education and the master programme for integrative design. In addition, students from all other departments present projects from the current semester. Guided tours, performances, happenings, music events and screenings will signal the new approach taken at the Campus of the Arts, which will establish it as a place of exchange, learning, research and production.


Campus of the Arts
Freilager-Platz 1
4023 Basel
Switzerland

www.campusderkuenste.ch (starting September 12th)


For more information, please contact:
Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW
Press and Communication

Jenni Schmitt | BUREAU N
Freilager-Platz 1
4023 Basel

Tel: +41 (0)61 695 68 22
Mobile: +41 (0)76 4832 456
Email: kommunikation.hgk@fhnw.ch