IAFD x OCW - Emancipation awards 2026

Jos Brink Award 2026 and Six Honorary Statements

Over the years, the Jos Brink Prize has been awarded to individuals whose significant contributions, hard work and courage actively help to make our society a safe place for the LGBTQIA+ community. Inspired by the aims of this prize, we — design students at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (KABK) — have chosen to embrace what lies at the heart of this vision: the solidarity that exists among us. It is not sameness that binds us, but our willingness to be responsive, engaged and caring for one another. In doing so, we can build a society in which everyone can find both space and agency to express themselves safely, freely and without judgment.

The creation process of the main award and the honorary statements became a tribute to the community, reflected both in the way we worked together and in the design itself. We perceive community as a non-hierarchical and rhizomatic structure, therefore, we wanted to pursue the same approach in our design methodology. By looking at materials, not as merely the subjects of the design, but as active participants, we have decided on the materials and methods that allow this horizontal process. Thus, we hope that the award and the honorary statements will serve as a lasting reminder of the appreciation and support that come from the collective effort.

Letter for the Jos Brink Prize Winner and Nominees

The Six Honorary Statements

As a regenerative alternative to a bouquet of flowers, we chose to honour the nominees with six art statements. Each piece is designed as delicate jewellery that can be showcased as an art object. Together, they form a family of shapes with each piece similar to another in size, weight, shape, and material language, while also maintaining their distinct identity through a unique keyword that guided their design. The six themes represented in honorary statements are empathy, collectivity, infinity, fluidity, embrace and freedom. In The Hague, passers-by contributed by creating abstract drawings that interpreted the six themes. Subsequently, these drawings were shaped in sand and cast with aluminium.

Jos Brink Prize Publication

Reality Check, Year 2

The assignment was embedded in the IAFD2 course Reality Check, under guidance of Nienke Sybrandy and Victoria Meniakina.

In this course, the second-year students work with a client and their assignment; collectively challenging the heteronormativity of knowledge, time and identity; imagine and propose other worlds that come from respect, empathy, and coexistence; and emphasize relationality and regenerative thinking in the research and design process.

More about IAFD's course programme structure