Koen de Graaf
Workshop Instructor in Graphics (Printing techniques)
As a workshop instructor, Koen teaches courses to students and offers them practical help when they want to experiment with certain techniques. Why did he choose this line of work, and what is it like to work with his students at ArtEZ? Below, Koen talks about his ArtEZ experience.
Enthusiasm in the workshop
As a technical skills instructor in the graphics workshop, I teach courses and guide students when they want to create something, such as an assignment with certain techniques or for self-guided projects. Usually, my day is one big surprise. Apart from our scheduled workshops, students walk in all the time. I am there to help them. Here, I can fully express my enthusiasm for art in my contact with the students. I like sharing what I know, and I feel the students pick up on it.
The urge to create
As an artist, I always have the urge to make things and to help others along in their creative process artist. My work as a workshop instructor fits in perfectly with that. In the first year that students study at ArtEZ, I give them a short course on working in the workshop. After that, they come to the workshop to work freely. I develop the short courses I teach tailored to whatever course the students are taking. To a group of Illustration Design students, I would explain several techniques with a substantial amount of drawing involved. For Graphic Design students, I would pay more attention to digital techniques, such as Riso. Because I have the freedom to shape the courses I teach myself, I stay fresh and enthusiastic. The last thing I want to do is repeat myself and teach in a routine way. That's not useful to students.
'Providing assistance, facilitating, allowing for discovery and experimentation in the technical process - that's what I'm here for.'
Technical guidance
I am naturally technically inclined, so I enjoy reviewing the technical side of my students' work, and exploring “what went wrong here? What can you improve on this?” Providing assistance, facilitating, allowing for discovery and experimentation in the technical process, that's what I'm here for. In that sense, I am in a different position with students than a lecturer. I'm not concerned with their study progress - that's what their lecturers are for. Students do ask me questions of course, because I know what it is like to be an artist and to be involved in a creative process. They ask me practical questions that I answer from my own experience, such as, how much should you charge for work? What should you do if you get stuck?
“My work at ArtEZ is a welcome complement to my work as a visual artist, and vice versa.”
Helping each other progress
During my studies at Minerva Art Academy in Groningen, I worked a lot with graphic techniques. By the end of my studies, I had my own workshop with printing presses, space to paint and much more. Lithography in particular is a graphic technique I’m interested in, and I am continuing my artistic practice here at ArtEZ too in my own workshop. The only difference is that it’s not just for myself anymore. Here, I also help the students progress. My work at ArtEZ is a welcome complement to my work as a visual artist, and vice versa. I enjoy the atmosphere here in Zwolle during my days onsite at ArtEZ; everyone knows each other and wants to help each other make progress. That is something precious, and the most beautiful things come out of it.
'I don't want to repeat myself or teach in a routine way. That's not useful to my students.”
Motivated students
Before joining ArtEZ, I taught workshops in secondary education on a freelance basis for a long time. What a world of difference that was from working here! Here at ArtEZ, everyone chooses what they do very deliberately. The students' motivation is enormous. I don’t police their work, but am truly professionally engaged in the techniques I teach: lithography, etchings and Riso. My workshop colleagues are there for the other techniques: screen printing, bookbinding, relief printing, typesetting and ceramics. Together, we offer our students the complete package.
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Can you identify yourself with the art education as valued by ArtEZ? If so, come and join our teams of support staff, academic staff or researchers.
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