The HGK FHNW Academy of Art and Design is a site of conceptualization, production and critical reflection for Art and Design.
The FHNW Academy of Art and Design in Basel with its five Institutes, 750 students and 200 faculty, sees itself as vibrant breeding ground for ideas, as a cultural- catalyser and as a seismograph detecting socially relevant fields in art, that are then refined, processed and communicated through a reflected practice. On the basis of differentiated perception and reflection, personal vision and understanding, the Academy sees its role as facing today’s challenges through a variety of creative spaces and professional perspectives.
The HGK FHNW is a site of diversity of attitudes and openness
Through integrative infrastructure and a transitional framework, the Campus of the Arts facilitates interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning, research and production. Students can currently choose from seven BA and four MA programmes. Project-based work forms the core of the programmes, combining experimental, creative, technological and scientific approaches. The Academy actively supports and promotes the potentiality of experimentation and networking in contrast to conventional knowledge production.
The HGK FHNW is a place for dialogue – between students and teachers, disciplines and cultures, academia and the public.
As part of an international network, the Basel Academy consciously seeks out exchange with leading partner institutions that operate within a similar critical discourse, pioneer solutions for future contexts and cultures, and are actively opinion-forming. Where teaching is lived and communicated as a synergetic process moving between society, art, politics and the economy. Central to the Academy’s social mission is the education of future generations of independently-minded and confidently competent artists and designers.
The Institute Digital Communication Environments / The Basel School of Design
The Institute Digital Communication Environments / The Basel School of Design is today one of five Institutes of the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), Academy of Art and Design (HGK). We offer curricula at the Bachelor and Master level in the field of Visual Communication with international accreditation (BA, MA, MDes, PhD). The faculty members are active participants in the design community and are involved in applied research projects. The central focus of all activities is the creation of images for analogue and digital communication channels. The Institute Digital Communication Environments developed out of the influential tradition of the Basel School of Design beginning in the 1960s. We have expanded this background to address the challenges of the 21st Century. We are part of an international network of Art and Design Schools that provides many opportunities for students and faculty.
The Basel School of Design
Today the Institute Digital Communication Environments / The Basel School of Design offers a Bachelor's Degree programme, a Master's Degree programme, an international Master’s Degree programme, international Winter- and Summer Workshops, and is involved in many national and international research and development projects. We are proud of what our institute has achieved during the past few years. The institute has a curriculum for today and tomorrow’s design world continuing the rich tradition of Swiss Design and Typography.
