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Programme profile

Are you a future artist? At the Academy of Popular Culture, we will coach you to become an artistic professional and creative entrepreneur. To achieve your ambitions in the artistic world, you will create work as a performer, as a writer/composer or as a visualiser/ designer while forging connections with your prospective audience. You want to make an impact with the concepts you create. In order to do so, you will work with students of other disciplines to produce an interdisciplinary performance.

As a professional, you gain inspiration from your own ambitions as well as your engagement with your audience and with society in general. You want to contribute and make an impact with your story. This is something you'll rarely do on your own: to make your projects come to life, you'll need to work with others who can help you with things that you're not (yet) familiar with. You'll be learning as part of a community whose members inspire each other. The main focus throughout this broad, interdisciplinary degree programme is on the creation of products for an audience. Sharing your story with the audience is the key to making an impact. The Academy of Popular Culture is located in the bustling cultural hotspot that is the northern student city of Leeuwarden.

Programme content

First year

In the first year, you'll learn to tackle the various aspects of the creative process, such as artistic research, concept development, experimentation, creating an artistic product and sharing it with your audience. Your progress will be monitored by means of assignments and assessments. You'll be working on an individual project of your own choosing and a number of compulsory group projects in parallel.

Second Year

In the second year, you'll make a start with the core programme. This will introduce you to a number of different learning environments, in which you'll learn to elaborate a concept, conduct design research and apply for subsidies. In addition, you'll find out more about the theoretical background to these topics and how to apply them in your professional practice. The next step is to work on your specialisation. This is where you'll develop more in-depth knowledge and skills on the basis of your preferred professional practice. At this stage, you'll be choosing a career as a:

- writer/composer
- performer or
- designer

Third Year

In the third year, you'll be working outside the Academy of Popular Culture by doing an internship in the professional field under the supervision of professionals. You'll also take a minor. For the minor, you'll need to attend another Hanze UAS programme, a programme elsewhere in the Netherlands or a programme abroad (exchange) for six months (one semester)

Fourth Year

The entire fourth year is given over to preparing to graduate as a performer, artistic entrepreneur or artistic director with a project of your own choosing that you'll need to present to an audience. You'll run through every step of the creative process, from the development of a vision to its realisation and the creation of a plan for the future

Progression

Career opportunities

Graduates end up as artistic professionals in the cultural field. Some set up their own business, but most join a collective or a changing roster of partnerships. The main focus throughout this broad, interdisciplinary degree programme is on the creation of products for an audience. Graduates perform on stage, write songs, produce tracks, create short or full-length feature films or visuals, develop festivals, dress sets or host podcasts and websites where they present themselves or others. Sharing your story with the audience is the key to making an impact.

Entry Requirements