Residency programme
The ARTISt-in-Residence programme, established in 2020 in collaboration with ARTIS, is open to artists who have completed the Rijksakademie within the past eight years.
Since the 19th century, Rijksakademie artists have sought out the park to draw and sculpt. ARTIS also lent animal skeletons for studies at the Rijksakademie. Former director of the Rijksakademie August Allebé (1838-1927) invariably visited ARTIS with his students. The current collaboration is a contemporary interpretation of the centuries-old bond between the two neighbouring institutions.
In early March 2025, artist and Rijksakademie alum Sheng-Wen Lo began his ARTISt-in-Residence programme at ARTIS. Over the course of twelve months, he is researching enrichment in animal enclosures, waste recycling and the visitor experience. Lo has set up his studio in one of the ‘Salmhuisjes’, one of the 26 listed buildings in ARTIS Park.
In 2023 artist Floris Schönfeld hold studio in one of the 'Salmhuisjes' in ARTIS and explored the communication between everything that lives in the park.
Schönfeld makes work that arises from the life he observes in a specific place. He is particularly interested in the communication between different organisms. He describes his videos, films and digital technology as accounts of experiences he has. Schönfeld when staritng his residency: “What struck me is how rich the ecosystem in ARTIS is. It is a unique place. With all the animal species, both the animals in enclosures, and the urban animals that come to ARTIS and further life. I'm interested in how all these different animals, people, plants, microbes interact with each other.”
Canadian/New Zealand artist Arvo Leo kicked off the renewed collaboration in 2020. For the past decade he has been examining the relationship between humans and other animals which has led him to make works inspired by dung beetles, holy cows in India, a hunter-turned-artist from the Canadian Arctic, and the destruction of an ant colony in a forest fire in Canada. He moved his research further towards botany, ecology, and ethnobotany, studying the relationship between humans and various plant species, particularly angiosperms (flowering plants).
Arvo Leo continued his research into plants, bacteria, excrement and fertilisers at ARTIS and conducted various film and sculptural experiments.
The Rijksakademie initiates projects and collaborates with other institutions in the Netherlands as well as globally.