My research focuses on SKARlokaal, of which I am one of the initiators. SKARlokaal is a concept based on a form of ‘embedded artistry’: artists occupy a studio (rent it through SKAR, Stichting Art Accommodation Rotterdam, hence the name) in or near a school and from there start a relation with this school and its surroundings. As a pilot, SKARlokaal has been in operation for about two years at the former (vacant) kindergarten pavilion of De Toermalijn primary school in Zuidwijk, a neighbourhood in the southern part of Rotterdam.

SKARlokaal’s mission is the development of a ‘free space’ at the intersection of art, education and area development. The underlying concept is that there is shared ownership with everyone involved, including the children. Art (social aesthetics) and the artists stimulate this process. SKARlokaal offers room to experiment in a practical situation with various forms of collaboration between the children and the artists – with, but also apart from, the school. This position provides access through the school to the children and parents, but it also requires careful consideration in the development of the methodological approaches that are taken.

My research focuses on the role of children in SKARlokaal, and how they can become co-owners (gaining control over their working in the studio) of Kunstlab. Kunstlab is the children’s territory at SKARlokaal. It is both a physical space and a mental space. Working in Kunstlab comes about in collaboration between the children and the artists-teachers. The concept of ownership, based on democratic pedagogy, underpins my research, in combination with the strategies and methods that the artists participating in Kunstlab deploy. How can these strategies contribute to the development of ownership for the children participating in Kunstlab?

One important source of my insights into these topics is the recent dissertation by Marike Hoekstra, Artist Teachers and Democratic Pedagogy: Drakakas and Thirdspace (2018) in which she historically situates the democratic reformations within education and the role of the artist-teacher in these endeavours. Also, the term ‘heterotopia’ coined by Michel Foucault (1984) and the interpretation of this concept by Carol Wild (2011) is theoretically inspiring in this context of the studio occupying a semi-autonomous position in relation to the school and the home situations.