Food Lab Fellowship 2027

The Jan van Eyck Academie welcomes applications from food artists or designers for a Food Lab Fellowship in 2027. We are seeking artistic practitioners whose creative work critically explores global food systems and the communal histories around food. Applicants are encouraged to reflect on the journeys of food across cultures, borders, and histories, bringing situated and innovative knowledge and practices to the fore. Candidates will demonstrate radical imagination and present evocative research, cultivating sustainable and regenerative approaches to food. The selected Fellow will have the opportunity to undertake a residency from 15 January to 15 December 2027, engaging with a vibrant community of some 36-40 artists, designers, curators, writers, and other creative minds, sharing perspectives on the complexities of a world in transition and contributing to transformative understandings of food, culture, and ecology.

Jan van Eyck Food Lab 

Since 2018, the Food Lab at the Jan van Eyck Academie stimulates artists and designers to experiment, develop, and nurture their food focused projects. The Lab facilitates experimentation and artistic endeavour that places artistic research in the wider context of food production and consumption systems. It gives space to practices that revolve around food security and sustainable agriculture, food in relation to a community, culture or country; that investigates the links between food and eco-social issues; food and (geo-) politics; or that researches food and plant matter as a renewable, circular source, the nutritional value of different food sources; as well as sustainable, slow farming, or food as medicine. 

The selected Fellow will be supported by the Food Lab and can also employ the expertise of the other Labs and departments at the academy: Future Materials, Material Matters, Printing & Publishing, Photography & Audiovisual, Nature Research, Education & Development, and the library. Additionally, the Fellow can tap into the regional network of research institutes, workshops, and start-ups pioneering in circular and bio-based material research and production, an edible plant specialist, and local farmers. 

System Earth Science, Maastricht University 

For this Fellowship, the Jan van Eyck Academie is teaming up with System Earth Science (SES) at Maastricht University, located in Venlo. The SES focuses on understanding how Earth’s environmental systems support sustainable and healthy food production. Its research connects soil processes, biodiversity, water management, and planetary health to the resilience of agro-ecosystems and circular food systems. Through field studies, modelling, and experimentation in its food gardens and greenhouse facilities in Venlo, SES develops scientific insights that advance regenerative agriculture and sustainable food futures. 

The selected candidate will have access to the expertise and facilities of SES in Venlo. SES can provide the scientific foundation for the Food Lab Fellowship, offering the Fellow access to advanced research methodologies, analytical tools, and interdisciplinary knowledge on the interactions between ecosystems, food, and human wellbeing. 

The Venlo campus serves as a site for (applied) research on sustainability and food innovation of which the Food Lab Fellow can make use of. Its experimental food gardens and greenhouse facilities enable empirical investigation of plant growth, regenerative food systems, and food psychology and behavior. Next to the field sites, Campus Venlo offers contacts with local partnerships in the Venlo region, including regenerative farms, food forests and circular food enterprises. 

Institution(ing)s 

The Fellowship is embedded in the European Cooperation Project Institution(ing)s, that encourages contemporary art and cultural organisations to co-create innovative institutional models that, through experimentation, co-creation, speculation, and advocacy of sustainable futures, contribute to social inclusion, environmental, economic, and artistic transformation.  

Composed of 8 organizations of different scales, impacts and target audiences, in 7 European countries, Institution(ing)s represents the diversity of the ecosystem of the cultural sector. It establishes a sustainable cooperation between 1 museum (CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian), 1 konsthall (Tensta konsthall), 1 higher-education institution (Faculty of Human Sciences of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa), 1 publisher running an art Biennial (Errant Bodies/ The Listening Biennial), 1 local network (tranzit.ro/ Iași), 1 arts-in-residency post-academy (Jan van Eyck Academie), and 2 non-profit art-organizations (MOCA NGO and Museum of Impossible Forms).

Based on artists’ socio-environmental engagement and growing interest with nature and food-related research, for the last 7 years, the Jan Van Eyck Academie has been working on the intersection between these fields. The Nature Research department, the Food Lab and the Future Materials Lab support the participants in their research into contemporary, urgent topics such as the future of our food and the (source) materials we use. This ongoing research will be developed further within the context of Institution(ing)s. The Food Lab Fellowship is part of this European project, and the Fellow is welcome to reach out to its partners across Europe.

Eligibility 

Applicants with a sound artistic practice in food related research are welcome to apply with a new or an existing project to further develop during the residency period at the Jan van Eyck Academie.  

Opportunities and Requirements  

This Fellowship, co-funded by Maastricht University and Institution(ing)s, a project funded by Creative Europe, focuses on learning, development, and knowledge sharing. The Fellow will participate in the Institution(ing)s project and collaborate with SES researchers and students at Maastricht University. Participation can take shape in presentations and/or workshops by the Fellow. Fellowship results will be showcased at the Jan van Eyck Open Studios in October 2027 and documented for the Institutionings project.

Calendar 

Application deadline: 4 June 2026 
Announcement of the selected candidates: beginning of July 2026 
Fellowship period: 15 January 2027 – 15 December 2027 

Conditions of the Fellowship 

• The selected candidate will receive access to a private studio and the expertise of the Labs, in-house experts, and (guest) advisers and will be able to participate and contribute to the academy’s public programme.  
• The Fellow will receive a monthly stipend of €1,750 and an annual working budget of €2,250. The stipend is 80% exempt from income tax.  
• Maastricht University will cover local transport costs to and from Venlo, up to €750. 
• The Fellowship can only host individual candidates. 
• The Fellow is expected to reside in Maastricht or direct surroundings (within a radius of 10km) during their stay at the Jan van Eyck. 
• The Fellow will search for their own accommodation; the institute can provide guidance. 
• The Fellow is exempt from paying an annual enrolment fee.  
• Jan van Eyck alumni are not eligible to apply for these fellowships. Alumni of Rijksakademie or De Ateliers, two fellow Post-Academies in the Netherlands, are also not eligible if they have been enrolled as full-time participants in one of these institutions. 

Application format 

To apply, please submit a single pdf (max. 10 MB) via the online registration form consisting of the following materials presented in English: 

• A motivational letter and project proposal (max 500 w. each); 
• Documentation of previous work (max 15 pages with 1 – 2 images per page). The presented material should not be older than 5 years; 
• A curriculum vitae (max 2 pages) 

APPLY

Please make sure that all hyperlinks in the application portfolio function well and are valid. Please don’t forget to make clear any necessary passwords to access materials via Vimeo, YouTube or other channels. Make sure to rate your Vimeo videos. 

The application fee amounts to €50 excl. VAT.  When finalising the online application form, you will be redirected to Paypal. If you don’t have a valid PayPal account, and are not able to register for one, please contact us well in advance of the application deadline. 

**The application fee is waived for applicants from and living in the Least Developed Countries, Low Income Countries and Lower Middle Income Countries and Territories on the DAC list for ODA recipients and Palestinian artists. Please find the current DAC list here. 

Selection Committee

The selection committee is composed of Hicham Khalidi (director Jan van Eyck Academie), Pim Martens (Scientific Director System Earth Science,  Professor of Planetary Health), Marente van der Valk (Food Lab – Jan van Eyck Academie) and Reinier Hoon (grower, plant breeder and MERIAN PhD candidate).  

Contact

Questions? please reach out to us: application@janvaneyck.nl 

Institution(ing)s is a medium-scale collaboration project co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.