Introduction

In 2020 and 2021, cases of contemporary and historical abuses of power in Dutch art—both in art schools and the culture sector at large—received widespread public and legal attention. This scrutiny largely came about because of 20 cases of alleged sexual assault, stalking, harassment, violence, and rape by Dutch artist Julian Andeweg over 14 years. These alleged incidents were proven to be systemic because they happened in multiple art schools and institutions in the Netherlands.

In the aftermath, a number of the Dutch art schools, whether directly implicated or not, realised through a combination of self-reflection and student activism that the reporting, protection, and guidance frameworks that they had in place did not adequately support safe environments. As a result, most art schools have launched processes aiming to establish parameters for responsible and accountable spaces in both administration and student-teacher spaces in a number of different ways.

Even before these allegations came to light, I had already been working with forms of codes of conduct, agreements, and safety frameworks, and had been looking at what tools are in place in funding bodies and other practitioners’ processes for best practice and safe social conditions.

I work on projects that often involve a mix of young people and adults, professional artistic collaborators, and members of the public who have no formal training in cultural practices. With these collaborators, I engage with how groups of people use their attachment to culture to build community, and we experiment with ways of representing their practices of community. I work with video on these projects, and also make books, photographs, and performative and educational programs.

In 2021, the Base for Experiment, Art, and Research (BEAR) department at ArtEZ University of the Arts in the Netherlands invited me to propose an elective project for undergrad students on collaboration, ethnographic film, and representation. I started this project by looking with the students at collective agreements of agency and behaviour, and led the class in writing a Code of Conduct to guide and critique our learning and working process.

Following this elective project, Priscila Fernandes and Edward Clydesdale Thomson, who were newly installed as the heads of BEAR, invited me to work with tutor Anik Fournier and a research group open for all students and staff on a year-long programme of ‘Open Rehearsals.’ Together we considered the role and potential of codifying behaviour in art schools, critically considered existing propositions, and learned from different models for community agreement building, with the aim of writing a living document for BEAR, to provide guidance, security, and critical tools for learning spaces and arts education.

In this publication, curated by ArtEZ Studium Generale, we want to share some of the learning that has happened over the past couple of years. Many spaces and communities have been addressing the question of how to construct the social spaces they need to do what they do. Here we reflect on some of these experiences and processes, and bring together some of the learning that has been taking place in response to the need to critique and re-build accountability and trust.

You will find a conversation between Anik and me about our process at BEAR ArtEZ, and a document containing questions and suggestions to consider if you are trying to formalise a code of conduct on behaviour in your space. These suggestions are brought together from the findings of the BEAR research process, workshops held with art educators in the Netherlands, workshops on participatory theatre such as the Theatre of the Opressed, Non-Violent Communication, and from conversations with other participants in the culture field.

They are accompanied by conversations with seven people about how some other institutions have approached or experienced the need to codify accountable learning spaces. The interviews cover an art school in a high-security jail in Norway (Thora Dolven Balke), an art student and corporate compliance lawyer who works with Engagement NL and the European Whistleblower Directive (Silvia Giardini), educators from other art schools in the Netherlands (Carmen Martinez [WDKA], Danny Giles [Piet Zwart Institute], Manju Sharma [HKU]), and a Social Safety Officer at the post academic body Rijksakademie (Niels Andree Wiltens).

While the suggestions and questions have been derived from the specific social and professional needs of working in art schools, they offer questions and considerations that I believe are relevant across contexts, and may be useful when attempting to formalise social conduct and behavioural structures in your own organisations or communities.