This document summarizes information about the Minerva Academy of Pop Culture and its approach to education. The key points are: 1) The Academy of Pop Culture has 250 students and offers bachelor's degrees in Music & Design and Popular Culture that take an interdisciplinary, student-centered approach without curriculums or marks. 2) Students learn through hands-on work in the community and sharing knowledge informally. They are prepared to solve real-world problems through entrepreneurship. 3) The Academy values cooperation over competition and believes education should be fun and connect students locally and internationally through shared projects, festivals, and conferences.

1. Connections
8th International Week Tampere
Albert van der Kooij
May 2015

2. Minerva Academy of Pop Culture
• Hanze University of Applied Sciences (situated
in Groningen) – 24.000 on Campus
• Minerva Art Academy (situated in Groningen)
• Academy of Pop Culture 250 students
(situated in Leeuwarden)

3. The Academy of Pop Culture
• Two bachelor degrees: Music & Design
• One program/no curriculum
• Since september 2014 one bachelor: bachelor
of Popular Culture: the only one in the world
• April 2015: Special Quality Charactaristic
Entrepreneurship as second bachelor in the
Netherlands

4. Art is Changing
• How can arts contribute to society and
business in a social economic way?
• Artists are not supposed to act in de side line
• Intercultural thinking and acting

5. Education is Changing
• Interdisciplinarity as new standard for solving
problems
• Student centered education
• Prepared to solve problems of tomorrow
• Entrepreneurship
• Internationalisation

6. • We believe in the capacities and capabilities of
people

8. Networking, Education &
Entrepreneurship
• Values, not money
• Sharing instead of competing
• Learning takes place in practice
• The society is the place where we live:
– Participating
– Cooperating
Students work in the outside world

9. Basics for our actions
• On the corners of the triangle you will find the charactaristics
of of our Academy. In the middle the underlying values
Sustainable
Innovation
Connection
Trust
Dialogue
Authenticity
Grass roots
Social
economic
Regional/International
(glocal)

10. The Academy of Pop Culture
• No Curriculum, no marks, just competences
• Ambitions of the students as starting point
• No difference between digital and analog
media
• Learning and producing community

11. Share
• Students learn from each other, sharing and
playing, informal and formal networking
• Looking for ‘free’ education: lectures,
conferences etcetera.
• Just In Time Education…
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/13807898
3238/?ref=ts&fref=ts

12. What do we need?
• Be present in society
• Independent and open
• Always sharing and willing to cooperate
• Local and international
• But be clear in your values
• Education is fun
• Research as skill for exploring knowledge

13. Welcome to the Village
• Welcome to the Village Festival based on co-creation
• We and our students are involved in production,
program, house style design, communityprojects,
activities for children, performances,
mediaprojections duurzaamheidsontwikkeling,
videoproductie)
• Hey, that’s a bio-battery
Connected to a soundsystem 

14. Not just a festival
• Into The Great Wide Open
• a festival of Music, Arts and Community, based on the
island Vlieland
• Students work in production, as artist, volunteer,
developing community activities, workshops, art programs,
video production
• Not based on cooperation contracts, but on the initiative of
the students themselves
• Sustainable, focused on their future and the future of the
community on that Island
• https://vimeo.com/75027784
• Aftermovie: product from students AV-Company

15. • Shawn Buckles: musician that sold his
personal data to stimulate the discussion
about the relation ship between privacy,
marketing, social media and politics
http://www.shawnbuckles.nl/privacypamphle
t/

16. • Florian Wolff: sustainable artist who
developed a self supporting stage
http://florianwolff.com/green/
• http://www.entertainandsustain.nl/

17. Geschikte Gasten
• From musicians to video production
Stuart Mavis
https://vimeo.com/79191347
• Welcome to the Village
https://vimeo.com/101749949
• Smart Citizens
https://vimeo.com/98742307

18. Thomas Azier works and lives in Berlin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQo_kBN1k2k&list=RDcQo_kBN1k2k#t=115
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9dz8pcd_P8
http://www.gigwise.com/photos/90888/2/6-exclusive-shots-of-berlin-electro-star-
thomas-azier-live-at-the-great-escape#gallery
http://pauwenwitteman.vara.nl/media/312851

19. More to come
Cesqeaux
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj5vzbxP
dNs
• Mendel:
https://mendelian.bandcamp.com/track/sum
erian-sun-cd2

20. • Wild Street Parade Amsterdam: Community
Art
• a parade to bring the citizens from the district
Oud West in Amsterdam together.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubpinjdv7
xM&feature=relmfu

21. • Jair Wassink started a concepting and
communication business with people with the
syndrom of Down
• http://www.jongenbelegen.com/ikdenkhetver
schil/

22. IslandCQ- http://islandcq.nl
• http://www.kulturpart.hu/mozgopart/34558/
masfel_het_karanten
• http://islandcq.nl
• https://www.facebook.com/IslandCQ
• IslandCQ: students, artists, lecturers and researchers that
research urgent questions of nowadays society. In an
isolated situation, but always connected to the surrounding
environment

23. Island CQ
• Island "Creative Quarantine" is an intensive,
location based, interactive workshop week for
students, teachers, scientists and artists.
IslandCQ is traveling through the participating
countries of Latvia, Hungary, Finland and the
Netherlands. Workshops on art, music, media,
technology, and sustainable development are
at the heart of the creative laboratory.

24. The development of the concept
• From a festival about sustainability and self
supporting into an event that researches
social and political sustainabilty

25. Crisis! Re/Constructing Europe

26. Komárom, Hungary

27. Erasmus+, the plan
• Combination of themes and activities in the
coming 5-6 yrs
• Application Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership in
2015
– Broadening international collaboration between
local communities, students, work field, business,
governments from a social perspective
– Informal learning,

28. Connected Neighbourhoods
• Follow up Island in 15/16
• Partners & Research Centre
• 6 cities, 6 neighbourhoods, 6 Citylabs
• Researching the questions of the neighbourhouds
which should lead to new ways of democratic
participation
• Participatory research
• Connection Leeuwarden Capital of Culture 2018

29. Connected Neighbourhoods-project
• is an innovative communication and media
project on generating democratic processes
from bottom up in order to create democratic
engagement and civic participation by social,
cultural and artistic means.

30. The Partners
- Hanze University of Applied Sciences (Academy of Pop Culture),
Netherlands
- Tampere University of Applied Sciences/School for Art Music & Media,
Finland
- University of Liepaja (MP-lab), Latvia
- Budapest University of Applied Sciences (BKF)
- University of Vic, Spain
- University of Lincoln, United Kingdom
- Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania
- City of Tampere
- Leeuwarden Capitol of Culture 2018
- City of Liepaja
- Frequency festival Lincoln

31. Invitation to our International week
22nd - 25th (26th) september 2015
Leeuwarden
• This year: Conference of Popular Culture:
• (Inter)national speakers and active participation
from audience and speakers
• The Event: Here We Are Everywhere, showcase
festival at the new pop venue Neushoorn (Rhino)
• Workshops from our partners (that’s you!)
• Erasmus and project meetings
• Dinner and activities
• On Saturday 26th for those who stay: free tickets
for the Freeze Festival in our local theatre.