Dorothea van der Meulen steps down as director after seventeen years

After seventeen years, Dorothea van der Meulen is bidding farewell to Minerva Art Academy. As the longest-serving director of an art academy in the Netherlands, she played a key role in developing Minerva into the international and socially engaged academy it is today. Her departure coincides with the formation of the new Art, Design & Built Environment cluster within Hanze, with Ingeborg Walinga as director.

For this occasion, artist and writer Dinnis van Dijken wrote a reflective account of the evening and of Dorothea's years as director. In his text, you can read more about the often invisible work that is necessary to safeguard the uniqueness of art education within a large organization. 

Seventeen years of Dorothea van der Meulen as the figurehead of Academie Minerva 

By Dinnis van Dijken

An art academy is not easy to categorize as an institution; it operates within educational structures, but resists imposed rules. Within the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, there is talk of timetables, square meters, and regulations that must be applied evenly across all schools under its auspices. But then there is Dorothea, who has to explain to Henk Pijlman, Annemarie Hannink, or a whole string of directors of other Hanze departments that this logic often does not apply to studios or workshops, and that art education is by definition more unpredictable than other disciplines. This means that she was constantly defending exceptions in a field where standardization is the norm. But these are not stories that students or staff hear about. Nor are they stories that quickly garner applause. However, they form the foundation on which the visible things rest and which ensure that the Minerva Academy has been able to retain its unique identity with all its peculiarities. What kept coming up at Dorothea van der Meulen's farewell party, sometimes explicitly, more often between the lines, was how much work it takes to keep that tension from derailing. How many conversations are needed, how much lobbying, how much explanation, how many parties knock on her door, and how many times she has to reposition herself.   

Seventeen years is a long time to be director, and much has changed during that time, both inside and outside the academy. Lieselot van Damme is perhaps the best example of this. As a student at the time, she was the VJ at Dorothea's first speech, and now she gave a speech as director of Kunstpunt Groningen. Dorothea took over the leadership of the Academie Minerva at a time when little was stable. After the financial crisis of 2008 and the disappearance of safety nets for artists, the art world was in transition and the field was changing rapidly. Art education also had to change, even though Dorothea herself had no background in art and therefore no obvious connection to the field or the academy. This is something she was always open about, and which at the same time gave her an open view of the role that an art academy can play in the bigger picture. During her tenure, she opened the academy to more international students, encouraged collaboration between different institutions and programs, brought the final exam exhibition to Scheemda and the Niemeijerfabriek, among other places, and played a key role in setting up and strengthening knowledge centers, in which she tried to give unheard voices a voice. 

That way of thinking was also reflected in the work that was on display that evening. In Framework by Jildau Nijboer, doors around Hereplein served as frames of transition; places between inside and outside, between what has been and what may yet come to be. Seandy Achthoven's installation emphasized intelligibility and encounter. Movement, hesitation, and discomfort were not obstacles, but conditions for contact. With their ecologically and folkloristically inspired work, the artist duo ZOLT brought in a different kind of knowledge, in which care for the landscape, history, and female power come together. All these works of art were not illustrations of policy or farewell, but representations of an attitude that Minerva continued to cultivate under Dorothea: leaving room for connection between disciplines, voices, and worlds. 

During her speech, Sieta Maring (Head of Fine Art and Design in Education) aptly pointed out that an art academy is also a vulnerable institution that needs someone with staying power and a cool head. Someone who is combative enough to keep an academy with a history of more than two hundred years afloat in turbulent times. Because at all levels within such an institution, egos, personal interests, and divergent idiosyncrasies play a role. You need someone who knows how to build connections, who remains calm and balanced. Someone who stays in dialogue with all parties, and that is what Dorothea did. The word ‘crisis’ was mentioned several times, and there have been plenty of crises over the past seventeen years, but without drama. Rather, they were seen as something that presented itself and called for calm, for consideration, for continued cooperation. The same applied to social tensions, to questions surrounding inclusion, geopolitics, and polarization. Not everything can be solved immediately, but nothing can be ignored. As Dorothea herself pointed out in her speech, she is not someone who looks back a lot, but someone who keeps looking ahead. Perhaps that is also why many of those who spoke used the word ‘figurehead’ to describe her: someone who has to endure all kinds of weather, keeps looking ahead and yet remains steadfast. 

Although she is stepping down as director of Academie Minerva, Dorothea will remain associated with Hanze University of Applied Sciences for the foreseeable future. Until her retirement later in 2026, she will work as programme director for the new cluster, where she will build bridges between the Research Centre Art & Society centre and the Research Centre for Built Environment NoorderRuimte, which she has directed for the past ten years. She will also become chair of the Supervisory Board of De Nieuwe Kolk cultural centre in Assen.

On behalf of the entire team at Minerva Art Academy, we would like to thank her for all her hard work, her tireless dedication and her vision. We will miss her greatly and wish her success in her work as programme director at both knowledge centres.