a / r asbl – art-recherche (art and research) - is a non-profit organization for the support, exchange, circulation and promotion of arts research in the Ecoles Supérieures des Arts (Higher Schools of Arts) of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB).
Arts research?
This platform came to life in acknowledgement of the diversity of emergent arts practices which, particularly in art schools, invent their own research methodology immanent to the questions at hand, thus creating new fields of inquiry and knowledge.
Artistic creation is fundamentally unpredictable, unexpected, and even unverifiable, thus evading all pre-defined notions of what research in the arts can mean prior to being practised. It similarly eludes all subsequent systematization, or all uniformity of procedure and methodology. So it is essential to establish evaluation and identification strategies that are tailored to these particular objects.
This task will be carried out , among others, in close collaboration with the FRArt (Fonds de la recherche artistique within the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) and its International Artistic Committee. The FRArt organises calls for projects which will be financially supported.
Artistic research dissemination
a / r asbl intends to help the dissemination of research in art by playing a role of archiving and making available to the public the various research projects that emerge within the Higher Schools of Arts.
It is important that this artistic research, like other research, does not remain confined to the places where it emerges, but is accessible to other artist-researchers as well as to the general public. For this reason, a / r asbl is committed to the dissemination and circulation of this research.
In addition to the dissemination and archiving of the research projects supported by FRArt, the platform also offers information about the theses in progress or completed in FWB within the framework of the doctoral programme in art and art sciences organised by the Universities in collaboration with the Higher Schools of Arts.
The platform is also a place for archiving and making available the various research conducted in the Higher Schools of Arts or by their artist-researchers and associate researchers, and their teacher-researchers.