Final Conference of the Creator Doctus Project in Amsterdam

On October 31, 2021, the final conference of the Creator Doctus program took place at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. The aim of the Strategic Partnership of 12 international higher education institutions and networks was to enable arts higher education institutions in the Bologna area to enter the third cycle of studies (doctoral level) and award a degree that is on the same level as a doctoral degree and is recognized as equivalent.

The publication “The Creator Doctus Constellation: Exploring a New Model for a Doctorate in the Arts” was launched in Amsterdam. This book summarizes the three-year project period and offers a new perspective on doctoral research by artists*. Prof. Dr. David Quigley wrote the paper “Designing a New PhD Curriculum” for the publication, and Merz Akademie Master’s graduate Caroline Meyer-Jürshof is featured with her case study “Beacons: Maritime Markers.” She also presented the case study at the conference, and a model was shown in the group exhibition “Processing Spaces-Times” at the same time.

Caroline presented her work with a video that not only showed her project in more detail, but also what her daily artistic research looks like in concrete terms:
“For this, I discussed existing video footage, such as from a road trip to seaside beacons in Denmark, flipping through my notebook, or footage of me building a model of a seaside beacon, with comments from me, such as how I first saw a seaside beacon or an excerpt from Friedrich Schiller’s poem Hero and Leander.”

The final exhibition presented the results of the project and featured works by artists associated with the CrD project. In addition to Caroline’s work, the exhibition featured the practices of artists Arnas Anskaitis (Vilnius Academy of Arts), Joan Ayrton (l’École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy) with Hanako Murakami, Femke Herregraven (Gerrit Rietveld Academie), Saoirse Higgins (Glasgow School of Arts), Theodoros Giannakis (Athens School of Fine Arts) and Jane Jin Kaisen (Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts).

“It was exciting to hear the impressions of the artists and PhD graduates who talked about their work and their experiences from their PhD. The presentation of my work and the questions I was asked about it during the conference have encouraged me to find a PhD program that suits me now,” summarizes Master’s graduate Caroline.

About Creator Doctus:

Over the past three years, the participating universities have been working on how to facilitate the introduction of the 3rd cycle in European Higher Education Area (EHEA) countries where no such regulation currently exists. Key questions have been: What do current artistic research methods do for new and innovative approaches? How can best practices help artistic research in institutions that are still at the very beginning of this development? How can models be developed and promoted, especially with a view to improved career opportunities for researchers?

The results, in addition to the publication mentioned above, are a framework of what such a model might look like as well as a continuing education program for faculty, collaborators, and students in the 3rd cycle. A database provides information on international best practice models.