The focus at the institute is on two areas: teaching and research. Together the theoretical and historical teachings form a backbone throughout the BFA and the MFA at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. The first year of the BFA, students attend a course in art history and together with a thorough theoretical course with invited lecturers at the second year of the BFA, they provide the foundation for our students’ further historical and theoretical development. Students at the last year of their BFA together with MFA students attend the research-based Open Practice and writing courses that aim to further the investigative and verbal part of art practice.
Situated among laboratories, studios and auditoriums within the spaces of art making itself makes a crucial point for the institute. Artistic practice is the place from which the theoretical, historical and research-based teachings and investigations take place. Instead of focusing on a separation between practice and theory, the institute is founded on the knowledge that they presuppose one another and the institute's task is to help making the theoretical components strong within the artistic practice.
Academic researchers with external research funding hosted by the academy are all based at the Institute for Art, Writing and Research. In the past years, the institute has grown to become a vibrant environment across ages and disciplines such as art, art history and art theory. Two to four times a year we host master classes chosen and organized by the research fellows, who also in most cases teach an Open Practice course based on their current research project. Research fellows are granted a shared office space, which supports this active research environment where interests meet despite differences in research projects.
Read more about Institute for Art, Writing and Research here.