10 Years of RASL

A Leap into the Unknown
In RASL’s early days, Liesbeth Noordegraaf-Eelens, Tamara de Groot, and Martijn van Berkum were among those shaping its direction. Today, they sit down together and look back, smiling like people who know that the greatest breakthroughs often emerge from chaos. “It actually started as a leap into the unknown,” says Liesbeth. “We had three months to sort out contracts, convince examination boards, and build an educational structure that didn’t yet exist. The reason it worked is that everyone, from students to board members, got behind it. And ten years later, we still talk about it as if it were yesterday.”

Equal Footing
RASL has always refused to reduce either art or science to decoration or service. “We start by considering them as equals,” Tamara explains. “It’s not about an artist who just prettifies a graph, or a scientist only providing statistical input. Here, you enter the space together — without hierarchy — and search for new ways of making, learning, and researching.”

Martijn nods. “A university and an art academy — those are truly two different worlds. Bring them together, and sparks fly. Students discover that things don’t come easily; sometimes the friction is intense. But it’s exactly in that discomfort, that in-between space, where innovation happens.”

The In-Between Space
That in-between space is explored in the RASL minor Re-imagining Tomorrow, open to students from Erasmus University, Willem de Kooning Academy, and Codarts. “It’s confronting,” Tamara says, “because you suddenly realise your way of doing research isn’t the only one. You come to understand the limits of your own approach and that you need others.”

Curiosity, openness, and the ability to tolerate uncertainty are skills you don’t learn from books but through collisions and collaboration. Students describe it as both confusing and liberating: a space where certainty dissolves and new questions appear. The minor teaches them to work with doubt, to see ambiguity not as failure, but as fertile ground for creativity. Alongside this, the RASL module In-between Spaces of Learning, designed exclusively for dual-degree students, invites them to reflect on the space between art and science and how they can position themselves within it.

That in-between space is explored in the RASL minor Re-imagining Tomorrow, open to students from Erasmus University, Willem de Kooning Academy, Codarts, and beyond.

Beyond the Numbers
RASL’s social impact isn’t always measurable in reports or statistics. It often lies in tangible moments. Liesbeth recalls a project with the Municipality of Rotterdam about water: “Students created a beautiful model, but they represented the water as a black mass. When an artist pointed that out, the entire conversation shifted. Suddenly, it was about water, what it means and what lives in it. Those shifts in perspective are pure gold.”

RASL’s impact is visible where art and science meet — in hospitals and policy departments alike. One alumni is researching how artists can enrich palliative care at Amsterdam UMC, using art to help patients make sense of illness. A local stakeholder reflected: “I look at policy files differently now. I don’t see one solution, but five.” Their stories show that RASL’s influence extends far beyond the classroom.

Obstacles and Openings
Of course, the journey wasn’t without obstacles. The dream of a full master’s programme ran into the hard walls of legislation and bureaucracy. “We poured years of energy into it,” says Liesbeth, “but you realise some ambitions clash with government regulations. Then you have to be creative enough to find other paths.” Martijn adds: “The scaling up of higher education makes experimentation difficult. Protocols exist to move large numbers of students through efficiently. We didn’t fit that mould. But thanks to dedicated people, we managed anyway.”

A Living Community
What remains after ten years isn’t just the award-winning minor Re-imagining Tomorrow or the national teaching prize. It’s the community. Tamara puts it well: “RASL isn’t a project; it’s a living community of students, teachers, alumni, and partners. Boundaries blur, people take their experiences elsewhere — and then return. That movement, that ongoing search, is our success.” It’s a cycle of giving back — proof that education can ripple far beyond the institution itself.

Improvising the Future
After ten years, RASL is still not a finished model, but an ongoing improvisation. A jazz session where artists and scientists challenge each other, clash, and still manage to play together — sometimes off-key, often surprising, always creating a new chord you couldn’t have heard anywhere else. Each new generation of students adds a rhythm of its own, reshaping what RASL means now and in the future. Its melody keeps changing — and that’s the point.