Art4Campus | Inspiring arts for students & staff
Framework within objective of the Arts Integration Support Centre

• ART4Campus?
• The six institutions of the KU Leuven Association aim to stimulate and inspire their students and staff in their everyday learning and working environments through art
• How does this project help promote the integration of arts and culture within our institutions?
• The relationship between agriculture and society is under tension. Global challenges and developments have a huge impact on our food system and on agriculture in particular. Urban organizations also leave their mark on the sector, for example in the debate on environmental animal welfare and consumer interests. New issues are emerging and it is important that the various parties continue the dialogue with each other. It is at this point where arts integration can be functional. After all, art and culture are the building blocks of the symbolic order. Structurally, this is an order that regulates interpersonal relations through language and the commandments and prohibitions; within the outlines of an agricultural and social policy not only legally but also as a framework of norms and values.
  
• In our project, we want to use ART objects to initiate the dialogue between agriculture and society and raise it to a level where the symbolic order can help to question itself and remain critical. At the end of this process, there may be room for a new identity resulting from an artistic and cultural integration process within the participating institutions. Concrete representation of integration at the level of KU Leuven and UCLL in function of the participating partner institutions.
• Health program, Gasthuisberg campus, with its faculty and team, is committed to a healthy body in relation to good nutrition. The issues that arise in the process are integrated in this project with those of the division of bio-economics of KU Leuven understanding shaping economic decisions by private and public actors to support the development of sustainable agricultural and food systems, and to improve ecosystem services and values. These issues from both institutions are intertwined in the present project FARM-MATE, with the artwork serving as a symbolic space to translate into a deeper understanding of the complexity and interconnectedness underlying the issues.
• How does this project link to research, teaching, campus operations or social services of the participating institutions KU Leuven & UCLL?
• The need for dialogue between actors in the chain also applies to research, education and social services, in particularly where it concerns food, agriculture and health are concerned. Research into developments in the food system are, quite rightly, increasingly interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary. Education increasingly recognizes the importance of critical dialogue, rather than the traditional transfer of knowledge. In the field of social services, knowledge institutions are increasingly being looked to in terms of is about facilitating dialogue between interest groups in climate issues. Our Project FARM-MATE establishes a link with already existing research projects at institution level. 
• How are students and/or staff actively involved in the development and/or implementation of the project?Participation of both students and staff members is sought in the creation of the art:
• 1. To manufacture the pedestal, agricultural earth should be collected from the world. Both knowledge institutions involved are already working closely with actors in both the northern hemisphere and the global South. In addition, the bioeconomy division has been collaborating for years young farmers, both in Flanders and at the EU and global level.
• 2. The sculptures stand on a pedestal in a decor. For the manufacture and design of this decor, we call on students and staff. It is created in direct relation to the artwork, during the dialogue: one adds the visual elements that arise at that moment arise in meaning.
• 3. The whole ART project will be exhibited both at the participating faculties and institutions, and outside them. In the spring of 2024 the whole of Belgium will hold the EU presidency. Agriculture and nutrition will be important themes during this presidency. The completed work will also be exhibited during Presidency events.