Joke Alkema strengthens knowledge exchange between art education, research and society at HKU

As of 1 September 2026, Joke Alkema will join HKU for a period of one year. Through a secondment, she will contribute to the further development of knowledge exchange between research, art education and society.

Alkema brings extensive experience in knowledge sharing, public programming and research. Since 2009, she has been affiliated with ArtEZ, where she led ArtEZ Studium Generale for sixteen years. Under her leadership, the programme developed into a platform for meeting and exchange around art, science and social issues.

She is also co-initiator of APRIA, the online platform for research in and through the arts, and developed the podcast channel Radio ArtEZ together with Dennis Gaens. After ArtEZ Studium Generale came to an end in 2025, she worked for the ArtEZ Research Centre, conducted research within the professorship Art Education as Critical Tactics and was active as co-editor-in-chief of APRIA.

In the coming period, she will remain involved in a publication on the history of ArtEZ Studium Generale. The book, which will be published by ArtEZ Press in October 2026, looks back on almost fifty years of programme development: from the founding of Kunst Aktualiteiten Arnhem in 1979 to the final years of ArtEZ Studium Generale. The publication shows how generations of students, makers, researchers and audiences were brought into conversation with one another around current artistic, social and scientific themes.

With her temporary new role at HKU, Alkema continues her work in an area that also remains of great importance to ArtEZ: making knowledge and research accessible and strengthening the connection between art education and society.

'I hope to contribute to the development of knowledge dissemination at HKU and to establish a sustainable collaboration with ArtEZ, so that, as universities of the arts, we can show even more powerfully how valuable art and research in and through the arts are.'

The secondment offers opportunities for further collaboration between the two universities of the arts and contributes to the joint development of knowledge sharing within art education.