Five graduates win the 2026 Academie Minerva Awards

This morning, no five graduates from Minerva Art Academy were rewarded for their work with prizes ranging from €500 to €1,500.

This year’s Award for Fine Art has two winners: Emma Stranáková and Kyrah Klemme. The jury felt that both nominees stood above the rest and that choosing between them would do the other a disservice. Both artists expand upon everyday actions, rendering them extraordinary and tangible.

Emma Stranáková receives the prize for her work Sorela Archív. Stranáková transforms archival images into large-scale objects of hand-sewn smockwork. Through her work, she poses the question: how can material processes preserve and transform collective memory? The jury noted that she has given careful thought to the workings of memory, the retelling of stories, and what is lost and added in the process.

Kyrah Klemme receives the prize for her textile work. Klemme’s art is deeply rooted in her cultural memories, stories and history. In her work, she explores the complex intersection of migration, culture, identity, race and gender. The jury recognises how she carefully uses textiles to make visible her heritage, family rituals and memories of the past.

The winner of the Award for Design is: Bente van Spijk for her work Mien Dörp. The installation, comprising tapestries of various sizes, won over the jury with the overall impression it creates. She draws inspiration for her work from her childhood in the village of Bedum and old archive photographs, translating this into illustrations and tapestries. The jury praised her exploratory approach (ranging from paintings to tapestries, archive images and old films), her playfulness and the joy she demonstrates in the creative process.

The winner of the Art Education Prize is: Yasmin Hasan with her work But where are you really from? The jury praised her for her beautifully poetic texts, a live integration course and a film. In a playful way, you are confronted with the absurdity of what is meant by integration: “Do you know what vla is? Explain.” She questions this process in an original way. In her film, too, she gives space to different perspectives. 

The Minerva Award for Research in Art/Design goes to Miruna Matei. Her work is driven by a clear research question: she focuses on an aspect that is barely visible to most people, yet is extremely important in the life of a music student – namely, the environment in which they spend many hours each day studying. Her research has resulted in a design: acoustic panels that lend a study room or concert hall an attractive appearance whilst also being sound-absorbing and thus protective. To achieve this, she researched sources and materials, made choices and, in doing so, demonstrated courage.

View all nominees here

About the Minerva Awards

Each year, graduates from the four bachelor’s programmes are nominated for the four Academie Minerva Awards. A total of four prizes are awarded. For the programmes in Fine Art (Award for Fine Art), Design (Award for Design) and Fine Art and Design in Education (Art Education Prize), one prize of €1,500 is made available for each programme. Artistic research is recognised with a research prize (Award for Research in Art/Design) of €500. 

Jury
The jury for the three academy prizes consists of: Anna van Houwelingen (Artistic Director, Hongerige Wolf festival), Tammo Schuringa (Designer), Ellis Hendriksen (Head of Education, Groninger Museum), Alban Kartsen (Visual artist). The research prize is awarded by: Jaap Olthof (Ethnographic researcher at Hanze), Lieke Wijnia (Senior researcher at the Knowledge Centre for Art & Society). With chair Jennifer O’Connell (Head of the Academy for Pop Culture) for the Fine Art and Art Education prizes, and chair Ingeborg Walinga (Director of the Art, Design and Space Cluster, Hanze) for the Design prize and the research prize.