The importance of culture is undeniable, especially in a time when the question ‘what makes us human?’ is so critical. This was evident during the COVID-19 crisis, but equally in times of accelerated digitalisation and AI, we must dare to reflect on this question. Culture is essential for answering this question; it is fundamental to ‘being human’. As a knowledge institution, UGent has a mission not only in knowledge creation and sharing but also in offering opportunities for personal development, both for students, staff, and the broader community. Therefore, we are placing the formative and critical value of culture back at the centre of our university’s mission.
Historically, our university has been a significant leader in culture, in the broadest sense of the word. This applies both within the UGent community and for society in general, and the city of Ghent in particular. For the future, we do not consider culture as something ‘additional’ or as the ‘cherry on top’, but as an integral part of UGent’s DNA. Specifically, the domain of culture offers distinct possibilities to further stimulate imagination, nuance, and critical reflection across the university, with an emphasis on the core tasks of the university. The goal is to make UGent a prominent cultural player, both within Ghent and beyond. We do this in two complementary ways:
- Stimulating culture through our public mission and societal engagement
UGent is already actively involved in several leading cultural public initiatives, such as GUM & Botanical Garden, the Vandenhove Centre, the ‘Boekentoren’, De Krook, and the Winter Circus. Together, these places form a clear and present cultural axis that connects the university with the broader community. For example, De Krook has been an incubator for innovative research into culture, media, digitalisation, communication, and technology for eight years now. The recently opened Winter Circus is also an important place for collaboration between researchers and businesses as an innovative technology hub. We continue to support these tasks and further strengthen public engagement with societal impact. This is done in collaboration with various partners such as the societal valorisation trajectory COMON, and by actively involving students from various programmes in educational and research activities developed in this cultural context.
GUM & Botanical Garden has quickly become an international reference for what a university museum can be. It is not a museum that places science or scientists on a pedestal, but a space where doubt and the trial and error inherent in research are shown to a broader audience. The cross-pollination between art and science is central here, with both scientific and artistic research considered complementary ways of knowledge development. We continue to support GUM and the Botanical Garden to realise these (inter)national ambitions.
The ‘Boekentoren’ and the Vandenhove Centre also offer enormous opportunities to further unlock the university’s cultural heritage for a larger audience. The unique atmosphere, historical location, and heritage collection of the Book Tower deserve to be continuously highlighted through targeted public engagement. The Vandenhove Centre manages a unique and dynamic art collection. It provides a platform to present the research of lecturers, researchers, and students to a broader audience, for example, through exhibitions or experimental forms of science communication.
- Connecting culture with education and research
We want to establish a cultural dialogue with all our students from the university, as part of a joint search for imagination, nuance, and critical reflection. We want to create opportunities at the university to make UGent a breeding ground for culture and experimentation. This will contribute to a more integrated and dynamic culture that not only enriches the university itself but also the broader community of Ghent. Various initiatives already exist for this purpose, such as the recently started UGent Reads. Another initiative we want to build on is Universitas. The goal of Universitas is to promote interdisciplinary exchange, with culture as the starting point, so that students have the opportunity to develop new perspectives through culture.
In line with the Universitas concept, we are working on a university-wide elective course or Studium Generale on culture at UGent. The premise is that students, regardless of their discipline, receive an active introduction to cultural current affairs in close collaboration with various cultural players in Ghent. This initiative not only leads students to the rich cultural offerings in the city but also stimulates broader reflection on societal issues. This exchange of ideas can make a fundamental contribution to the formation of students, not only as academics but also as critical citizens who are part of a complex and increasingly polarised society.
We also provide (renewed) support for initiatives by UGent members that link research, education, and culture, and bring them together around these themes. An example of this is the university film club Film Plateau, which deserves new impulses. Film Plateau serves as an essential pedagogical tool within the context of various film-related courses. Additionally, we want to support students and staff in their role as full-fledged cultural partners by continuing to support and expand initiatives such as the Cultural Convention, the Ghent University Choir (GUK), the Ghent University Harmony Orchestra (GUHO), the Ghent University Symphony Orchestra (GUSO), the student radio Urgent.fm, the cultural platform Tumult.fm, and the MUST team in GUM & Botanical Garden.
In terms of research, we aim to promote collaboration and cross-pollination between scientists and artists. This happens in their joint search for new knowledge, insights, and the formulation of new questions. GUM and the Botanical Garden serve as an ideal platform where different disciplines can meet over science, doubt, and art. The concept of an artist-in-residence or writer-in-residence, as exists at other universities, can help further stimulate this cross-pollination and develop new creative collaborations.