In the Netherlands, postgraduate institutes are quite common. The four mentioned here are not the only ones but perhaps the most well-known. On a regular basis, 'RAAD VOOR CULTUUR' rates the institutes. This rating is also accompanied by the question, whether three large institutes of this kind aren't too many, something which intensifies the pressure on the institutes to sharpen their image.

de ateliers/ studio 63, Amsterdam, NL [http://www.de-ateliers.nl]

'Dissatisfied with the mass-oriented and formula art education of that time, the initiators aimed to create a structure that would meet the need for beginning artists to have direct contacts with colleagues in a professional working environment.'(3)

Founded in Harlem in 1963 by, among others, Edgar Fernhout, Jan Dibbets, Stanley Brouwn, and Carel Vissier, de ateliers has become well-known over the years, especially as a postgraduate institute for painting. Since 1993, the institute is located in Amsterdam in the former building of the Rijksakademie. De ateliers is a foundation which is mainly funded by the 'Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences'. The 20 students have plenty of room in the 23, up to 100-square-metre studios. Technical equipment, on the other hand, barely exists: a wood and metal workshop, b/w dark room, a video camera, and - as is stated in coquette modesty - a coin phone. (1) The administration - one secretary and a caretaker - is very small. A scholarship is offered to all students, and an apartment is available for foreign students. If one chooses to do so, the residency can be ended with an exhibition; there is, however, no practice of 'open house' or 'open studio'.

The teaching model of 'de ateliers' is based on an intensive master-student relationship which, due to the low number of students, claims to be of a more personal nature than is the case at German art academies, for example. A corresponding 'authoritarian' moment is, however, also retained here. As opposed to most other postgraduate institutes, the 'students' here do not choose their 'studio visits', i.e. the teachers available for dialogue. Each Tuesday, between 11:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., the students' studios are open and the present teachers (from a total of ten 'permanent' and 'visiting' teachers) can decide themselves who they want to visit and judge, when, and how often. These potential studio visits exert enormous pressure in regard to productivity; student absenteeism is immediately noticed.

During the remaining week, the 20 students are amongst themselves. The house rules do not allow inviting guests, artist friends, gallery-owners or art mediators from outside. This 'isolation' to oneself and one's work is part of de ateliers' program and the reason it received the nick-name 'monastery'. 'The artist must suffer' could be the maxim describing de ateliers' approach to teaching.

• (1) http://www.de-ateliers.nl/eng/fac.htm
• (2) http://www.de-ateliers.nl/eng/profiel.htm
• (3) http://www.de-ateliers.nl/eng/achtergrond.htm

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