After Summer School 2026: ThursdayAfter Summer School 2026: Thursday

The After Summer School explores the potential of a city-based Curriculum for Change. It comprises a series of classes, talks, workshops, and encounters that showcase and explore a multi-facetted, plural, inclusive and post-disciplinary approach to the city. Classes will take place in various locations across the city, including community centres, gardens, gyms, libraries, streets, public squares, bunkers and islands.

This edition of the After Summer School coincides with Peace Week, an annual nationwide event organised by PAX that promotes social inclusion, active community involvement and dialogue. As with previous editions, the focus is on the qualities that foster peaceful coexistence, such as empathy, curiosity, imagination, listening, resistance and resilience.

Empathy / Curiosity
Workshop by In-Depth-Space

What if you could dive into the deeper history of the port of Rotterdam – exploring both the human and non-human dimension, and the present and the distant past? During this workshop with Di Fang (In-Depth-Space), you will experiment with role-playing and collective world-building. Using archive maps, historical material and the concept of ‘oceanic thinking’, you will learn to adopt a non-linear, post-human perspective and move beyond rigid frameworks towards archaeological and ecological viewpoints. No prior knowledge is required, just a sense of curiosity and a willingness to think differently.

Thursday 24 September, 10:00 – 12:30 | In-Depth-Space | English

Empathy / Curiosity
Role-playing game by Varia

A fictional collective of cultural workers attempts to make decisions. But how do you actually do that as a group? By playing Dissenting Decisions, a game developed by amy pickles, you will discover how our social dynamics and interactions influence and shape one another. Take on the roles of various characters, each with their own social influence and attitude, and experience a range of chance cards and situations that impact your communication and the outcome for the group. What can these outcomes tell us about practices surrounding self-organisation and collective action? The programme concludes with a communal lunch.

Thursday 24 September, 10:00 – 12:30 | Varia | English

Imagination
Workshop by Buitenplaats Brienenoord

Philosopher Bruno Latour argued that, in order to act in the interests of a liveable future, we must first thoroughly map all the beings that inhabit the Earth. This idea serves as the starting point for mapping the ecosystem of the Island of Brienenoord during this workshop. By physically exploring the island and using various techniques to document our findings, we will ultimately create an associative and artistic representation, rather than a traditional map. This workshop forms part of an ongoing research project, in which a group of artists map the island every week. How might this alternative approach to mapping help us move towards a liveable future?

Thursday 24 September, 13:00 – 15:00 | Buitenplaats Brienenoord | English / Dutch

Empathy / Curiosity
Workshop by Niels Spaans & Rotterdam Library

The city is full of stories hidden away in private collections belonging not only to individuals, but also to families and entire neighbourhoods. Over the years, we all collect meaningful items and memories, both consciously and unconsciously. These personal collections can enrich existing (city) archives. In this workshop, you will connect your own collection to the wider story of Rotterdam by exploring the Atlas van Stolk, a heritage collection comprising prints, photographs and posters. Working alongside Niels Spaans and the Rotterdam Library, you will link your stories to historical collections and explore how new connections emerge between people, times and places. You're encouraged to bring an object or story from your own collection.

Thursday 24 September, 13:00 – 15:00 | Rotterdam Central Library | Dutch

Imagination
Workshop by OMI

Join visual artist Kees van Leeuwen, who is fascinated by nuclear bunkers, for a descent into a Rotterdam bomb shelter. In this workshop, we will learn from the bunker structure — a radical architectural response to fear — by exploring it spatially and sensorially. How does fear influence the way we shape the future? While bunkers provided collective protection during the Cold War, today’s crisis response increasingly focuses on individual self-reliance. How can community and solidarity offer an alternative to rising individualism when dealing with uncertainty?

Thursday 24 September, 15:30 – 17:30 | starts at OMI | Dutch

Empathy / Curiosity
Conversation by Vers Beton & WARM Rotterdam

Before and after the municipal elections, the online magazine Vers Beton collaborated with WARM Rotterdam — the organisation representing 90,000 Rotterdammers living in poverty — in a community journalism experiment. Experts by experience shared their insights and knowledge, actively contributing to research and publications. Now that a new municipal executive has taken office, we reflect on the past and look to the future with journalist Saskia Klaassen and other experts. How does the new policy measure up against the ‘WARM Rotterdam benchmark?’ And what is needed to raise poverty’s profile on the political agenda?

Thursday 24 September, 15:30 – 17:30 | Post West | Dutch

Listening
Walk by Stadspark West

You don’t have to leave the city to experience the healing power of nature. As you seek tranquillity and wander through Stadspark West — an ‘unofficial park’ of contiguous green spaces in the west of the city — you’ll discover ways to develop a more optimistic outlook on what already exists. Inspired by Donna Haraway’s relational philosophy, Anne Karin ten Bosch encourages us to pause, share thoughts and feelings, and connect with others. By bringing together people of different ages and backgrounds, you’ll discover new connections with one another, the city and nature.

Thursday 24 September, 18:00 – 20:30 | Volkstuinvereniging Tot Nut en Genoegen | English / Dutch

Listening
Podcast by Stine Jensen

In the chaotic times we live in, philosophy often fulfils the role that religion used to play. Without religion, the wisdom of others can provide guidance on how to think and how to live. In the daily podcast Zin van de dag ('insight of the day'), philosopher, writer and podcaster Stine Jensen offers new wisdom, based on a particular insight into life. This special series, prepared for the After Summer School, features two new episodes with special guests Saskia Klaassen and Romy Rockx.

Thursday 24 September, all day | Online / Nieuwe Instituut | Dutch

The After Summer School is a Rotterdam-based programme of the New Academy where a wide variety of knowledge producers teach their methods. How can we change the city by looking, listening, writing, archiving, collaborating, activating, researching, designing, and walking differently?

If you have any questions regarding the programme, please contact Ania Molenda. If you would like to request a free solidarity ticket for financial reasons, you can contact us through Laura Lakam.