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The workshop Behind the Screens discussed a variety of topics relating to digital archives, such as acquisition, management and preservation, accessibility, usability and publishing.

In the autumn of 2021, Het Nieuwe Instituut will present MVRDVHNI: The Living Archive of a Studio. This exhibition explores the archive of architecture office MVRDV. Het Nieuwe Instituut displays the MVRDV archive as a living entity in office spaces, rather than in museum galleries. As a working environment, the office is the place where ideas and projects move fluidly back and forth between present, past and future.

With the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning as a point of departure, theatre and radio producer Naomi Steijger visits the Vreewijk neighbourhood in Rotterdam and talks to designers, archive experts and residents about greenery in this garden suburb. First in a series of podcasts under the name Green in the City.

A reflection by artist and working group member Hannah Dawn Henderson, contributing to the first TNL! Public Gathering of Collecting Otherwise.

Het Nieuwe Instituut is organising the second edition of Open Archive together with the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and the International Institute of Social History. Open Archive invites three makers to search for new narratives in the digital collections of these three institutions, resulting in three new media works. Halfway through the process, the selected artists are currently fully engaged in their research. Although they come from different disciplines, the theme of 'activism and archives' forms a common thread in their three projects.

In its most recent public presentation, Collecting Otherwise engaged with the Queering the Collections network, in an inspirational meeting that revealed points of connection across institutions and archives.

Het Nieuwe Instituut will present Who is We? at the Pavilion of the Netherlands at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, which will run from 22 May to 21 November 2021. As a response to the Biennale Architettura 2021 theme set by curator Hashim Sarkis, which is 'How will we live together?', Het Nieuwe Instituut asks a counter-question: 'Who is we?'. The team, led by curator Francien van Westrenen, argues that current social and ecological urgencies demand that architects and urbanists regard 'we' as a more pluralised pronoun that encompasses all humans and more-than-humans such as soil, plants and animals. The knowledge, values, and methodologies necessary for this transformation have been developed throughout history but are largely marginalised by the architectural canon.

Het Nieuwe Instituut is pleased to announce the appointment of Aric Chen as its new General and Artistic Director. He joins Josien Paulides, Business Director, on the institute's Board of Directors and will succeed current General and Artistic Director Guus Beumer, who will retire in May.

Het Nieuwe Instituut has acquired a model of an interior by Theo van Doesburg for the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning. It is a design for one of the most important architectural projects of De Stijl: the cinema-cum-dance hall in the Aubette building in Strasbourg (1928). It is also the only model by Van Doesburg to survive.

The advent of the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen depot has prompted the City of Rotterdam to make the outdoor space in and around the Museum Park greener, while reducing traffic. These initiatives have consequences for the accessibility of Het Nieuwe Instituut as well as the appearance of its immediate surroundings.