Project background

Buried under the vast halls and galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts in Den Haag (KABK) are several thousand pieces of smashed plaster casts from the 19th and 20th centuries. These were reproductions of sculptures and architectural details, often from ancient Greece, Rome, or the Renaissance.

Widely produced and sold to art academies to make famous works of art more accessible to students and scholars, plaster casts allowed for hands-on study without risking damage to the original artifacts, allowing students to explore the texture, proportions, and three-dimensional qualities of sculptures that they might otherwise only have seen in photographs or drawings. But in the 1960s, the KABK placed their entire study collection of plaster casts in the courtyard and smashed them to tiny bits. A few were saved in this act of fury and violence, but who made the decision to do this? How did it happen? Why did they bury the tons of broken shards under the academy? These and many other questions were discussed during the physical week of this blended intensive programme.

Kick-off & project week

The project kicked off with a meeting online prior to the physical week. The group got to meet each other, and everyone received the assignment that they would continue to work on in The Hague. The main focus of the physical week was to investigate and speculate on the topic of study collections. Students were asked to bring an object that has a specific meaning for them in their study and create kennings (figures of speech, similar to riddles) about them, which were used to ignite the initial discussion.

The first night ended with candlelit dinner in the very room where KABK’s old study collection once was harbored, whilst sharing Lebanese treats and stories between us. During a cyanotype workshop the following day, many of the students used the objects and the kennings as material, while reflecting on the various themes discussed—the notion and act of copying, ethics, ghost stories, (digital) study collections etcetera.

Some chose to show their cyanotypes in the final exhibitions, others got inspired to create other kinds of work: videos, performances, drawings, installations. A mid-week excursion to the Black Archives in Amsterdam was also an element to approach their vast archive as a study collection of colonial history, seen from a decolonial discourse.

The successful final exhibition was showcased to a wider audience as it was included in the Contemporary Art Tour The Hague’s programme as well as the KABK Open Day.

Project outcomes

This project contributed to the curriculum development of BA Fine Arts as it closely examined the topic of study collection from a contemporary perspective, reflecting on what is necessary for learning and developing fine art in a setting of an art academy, leading to new discussions that we find very interesting to experiment with. The study collection is seen as both a personalised archive and a collective moment.

Both academies are partner schools and were happy to collaborate together in this project. It strengthened the existing cooperation and inspired lecturers with new teaching practices for interdisciplinary curriculum courses.