HISK - Higher Institute for Fine Arts

HISK - Higher Institute for Fine Arts Advanced Studies & Practice-based Research in Visual Arts

The HISK offers a post-graduate course in visual arts and provides young artists from Belgium and abroad with a workspace of their own and pedagogical guidance for a duration of two years.

The emphasis at the HISK lies on individual practice and close contact with a community of distinguished visiting lecturers - artists, curators, critics and scholars. Based on diversity of artistic practices and positions, the unique HISK concept gives the artists every opportunity for critical research within a broader aesthetic, social and cultural context.

The strength of the HISK is its unique model of cross-fertilisation of visiting lectureships, studio visits, exhibitions, Open Studios, seminars, master classes, public lectures, technical workshops, study trips within Belgium and abroad, etc. that are devised to respond to the artists’ needs. The HISK provides a safe haven for experiment and research with a small and flexible structure.

At the end of the two years, the participating artists receive a certificate as a ‘Laureate of the Higher Institute for Fine Arts.’ Since 1997, 269 laureates from 45 countries have graduated from the institute. The majority of them are now pursuing successful professional careers in the international art world.