Dilemmas for Artists and Designers

This research project is a follow-up to the YAFF (Young Artist Feed Forward) project. 

Young Artists Feed Forward is a collective of recently graduated artists that was set up in 2017 in collaboration with CARADT researcher Rob Leijdekkers.  

YAFF explores and develops commercial models in connection with the changing social positions of autonomous visual artists. The collective also advocates substantial changes in the current understanding of the creative industry. Attitudes within the creative industry embrace the principles of creative autonomy (the idea of art playing an innovative role, for example) while, simultaneously, there is very little space for actually expressing that autonomy. 

After two years of intensive collaboration, Rob Leijdekkers withdrew from YAFF. The collective now continues independently. Reflections on the YAFF collaboration provided Rob with the foundations for new research. Based on the initial findings, an educational module was developed that focuses on the dilemmas of young artists. The uncertain future is an issue for most students, but is often ignored through a dedicated focus on projects. Conversations with artists, colleagues, alumni and students have resulted in a working method that can be meaningful in practice. 

This ongoing research has since developed into a multi-year trajectory centred around a series of core dilemmas that hinder young artists’ imaginative autonomy. These include issues such as authenticity and false controversy, the tension between inclusivity and individual expression, and the question of whether artistic practice can ever be truly independent. Each dilemma is explored through a dedicated chapter in a forthcoming workbook that combines theoretical analysis, historical examples, and practice-based artistic responses. 

Personal Activism Module

One of the educational interventions emerging from this research is the pilot module Personal Activism, developed in collaboration with the KTA and students from the Art & Research programme. The module invites students to explore how humour and self-reflection can become powerful tools within activist artistic practice.

Workshop ‘Welcome to the Weird & the Dirty’

The workshop ‘Welcome to the Weird & the Dirty’, developed in collaboration with Renée van Oploo, Sebastian Olma, and Jess Henderson, examines imaginative dimensions as a contradictory and layered concept. Rather than approaching something as pure or morally elevated, participants were invited to engage with its ambiguous, uncomfortable, and even ‘dirty’ aspects. The workshop foregrounded imagination as a critical force capable of embracing what is strange, unwanted, or morally complex, and aimed to open up space for nuance rather than consensus. It was presented as part of the Studium Generale 2025 programme, within the Ecology Futures master’s lecture series, and during Avans Day. 

Studium Generale 2025 pictures by Bregje Goorts, Avans Day 2025, and In(di)visible Lectures Series ‘Welcome to the Weird & the Dirty’ workshop pictures by Dora Lionstone

Publication

The publication (currently in progress) The Conflict Model (working title) will be an invitation to place the arts within society, to engage in conflict, and to link a sense of community to a diversity of artist practices. The model advocates indirect benefits, as opposed to direct benefit. This is why our art students can no longer be kept at a distance from societal issues: we must let them take their place. We must not protect them from the dilemmas of being an artist, but rather make these dilemmas a part of their practice and approach. 

Results

The main result – in addition to a number of lectures and workshops – is that within the art education of St. Joost School of Art and Design and the Communication and Multimedia Design programmes more explicit attention is paid to the importance of collectivity, citizenship and, art and design’s contribution to social issues. A contribution that is not based on offering solutions to these questions, but on offering insights into possible alternatives. 

The project has led to a number of public interventions, including the exhibition The Untamable Hand at BétonSalon (Paris), accompanied by performances, workshops, and an educational children’sprogram. It also spurred collaborative modules such as Personal Activism and Radical Empathy, developed together with KTA and students from the Art & Research program.  

In the coming year, the research will focus on finalising the workbook and integrating its methods into educational practice, public workshops, and lifelong learning contexts. By embedding these dilemmas directly into both curriculum and artistic programming, the project continues to explore how imagination can be reclaimed as a force for democratic engagement and cultural transformation. 

Exhibition view from Hedwig Houben’s «The Untamable Hand», Bétonsalon – centre for art and research, Paris, 2025. Exhibition photos by: Aurélien Mole. Workshop photos by: Maya.

Research question 

What are the dilemmas for artists and designers who want to deal with and relate to social issues? Which (alternative) forms of (independent) practices are required for this? 

Ongoing research, started in 2020. 

Principle investigator
Rob Leijdekkers

Other researchers involved  
Bart Stuart (external researcher / CARADT)
Eke Rebergen
Hedwig Houben
Brenda Tempelaar
Collective YAFF: Mirron Looijmans, Gerrit-Jan Smit, Rob Leijdekkers, Reinier Vrancken, Lisette van Doren, Roel Neuraij, Eef Schoolmeesters, Ruben Mols, Carl Alexander, Eva Hoonhout, Amanda van Wijk,  Rozemarijn de Booij, Camping Viervaart, Renée van Oploo, Dagmar Marent Esther Schaminée
Hans Leijdekkers
Hans Scholten
Sanne Feenstra
Klaar van der Lippe
Floor Snels 

Professor
Sebastian Olma

Collaborators
Cascoland
De Fabriek Eindhoven
Fabrique
Gemeente Rotterdam
Jeugd Cultuur Fonds
InBlik Radio (Malú van der Bijl and Sofie Hollander) 

Institute  
Avans University of Applied Sciences