ArtLab brings together research activities devoted to technical studies, digital methodologies, citizen science, and heritage and is a hub where students, researchers and faculty from humanities and the sciences can come together to research, teach, discover and engage with art, cultural heritage, and its historical techniques and materials.

The ArtLab aims to be the first space of its kind both in the Netherlands and internationally that brings together material and digital methodologies for the study of art and culture under one space, with a focus on learning by making.

The ArtLab caters to the variety of projects and research interests of the university community surrounding arts and culture. These range from digital capture and analysis to immersive interaction with cultural heritage objects or sites, research into material techniques, such as ceramics glazes, dyes, painting materials; to finding alternatives to our use of plastics.

Aims

1. Provide a space for hands-on exploration with materials and new technologies for the study of artistic practice, historical materials and techniques, visual and material culture (heritage).
2. Incubate cutting-edge research projects and foster creative research design.
3. Stimulate and facilitate multidisciplinary collaboration in and outside Utrecht University (community building).
4. Provide a space for teaching demonstrations that engage with materials/digital equipment, open to students and staff across faculties.
5. Provide training for the university community on the use of these techniques and their integration in research.
6. Run a continuous series of outreach activities that interface with the wider public, and tackle societal issues together with society.