Art History & Visual Material Culture

The theme group Art History & Visual Material Culture develops transhistorical perspectives on art and heritage objects – from the medieval to the contemporary – including their socio-material agencies and the geo-political networks they exist in. Research interests include artistic & art-based research, care & repair, colonialism & decolonization, conservation & restoration, digital & technical art history, eco-criticism & extractivism, gender & diversity, heritage & documentation, inclusion & canon, making & materiality, pedagogies & literacies, practices & processes.

The group comprises 15+ researchers and 20+ PhD students, including Artistic PhDs. It is open to colleagues interested in art history & visual material culture and organizes the following activities:

• the bi-monthly Arts in Society PhD colloquium, announced in the ICOG newsletter and the AiS calendar, contact Eva Waterbolk, Ann-Sophie Lehmann
• a small-scale, internal research colloquium (contact Veronica Peselmann)
• the Talks & Drinks staff-student guest lecture series (see ICOG newsletter for dates and speakers, contact Jesus Rodriguez Viejo)
• the bi-annual Horst Gerson Lectures, contact Annemarie Kok
• themed conferences, lectures, and workshops

Past events include Artistic Research in the North, keynote Tim Ingold, 2017; “Art History Lectures Groningen” in collaboration with the Groninger Museum, featuring Paul Taylor (2017), Jan von Brevern (2018), and Nancy Turner (2019); a Webinar Series curated by Eelco Nagelsmit & Merel van Tilburg during the pandemic in 2021, with a.o. Joanna Woodall, Leena Crasemann, Dan Hicks, Aaron Hyman, Juliet Bellow, Mingyuan Hu, Brigitte Sölch. For more information on past events, see the Arts in Society Events Archive

A selection of ongoing research projects:

• Curious Hands. Moving Making to the Core of Education (NWO 2020-2026)
• Sharing and Caring. Collaborative Strategies to Make Ephemeral and Participatory Art Practices Last Post Doctoral Research by Annemarie Kok
• Residency by Artistic PhD Candidate Linde Ex

Participating researchers

• Prof. dr. Andreas Blühm
• Dr. J.P. (Joost) Keizer
• Dr. M.F.A. (Annemarie) Kok
• Prof. dr. A.S. (Ann-Sophie) Lehmann
• Prof. dr. O.J. (Oliver) Moore
• Drs. L. (Linda ) Nijenhof
• Dr. C.M. (Cleo) Nisse
• Dr. V. (Veronica) Peselmann
• Dr. D.U. (David) Shim
• J. (Judith) Spijksma, MA
• Dr. C.P. (Colin) Sterling
• Dr. M. (Merel) van Tilburg
• R.V. (Reinout) Velleman, MA
• Dr. J. (Jesús) Rodríguez Viejo
• E.P. (Eva) Waterbolk, MA

PhD candidates

• Sanaz Afshin
• Julia Alting
• Victoria Anastasyadis
• Vanessa Bakhuizen-van 't Hoogt
• Frederiek Bennema
• Jakob Boer
• Anna de Bruyn
• Imka Buurke
• Harm Heye Coordes (Page Hfk Bremen)
• Mirjam Deckers
• Linde R.O. Ex (Page Hanze)
• Ren Ewart
• Christian Andres Rosales Fonseca
• Anna-Rosja Haveman
• Esther van der Hoorn
• Emma de Jong
• Carlijn Juste
• Neja Kaiser
• Lyrene Kuhn-Botma
• Mingliu Lu
• Catelijne van Middelkoop (Page OSK)
• Icaro López de Mesa Moyano (Page Hfk Bremen)
• Joosten Mueller (Page Hfk Bremen)
• Dawoon Park
• Marc Prüst
• Victor M. Artiga Rodriguez (Page Hfk Bremen)
• Luuk Schröder (Page Hanze)          
• Hossein Tavazoni-Zadeh
• Lotte van ter Toolen
• Arida Yasmin
• Ioanna Zorzou