collaborate and share’ (Vissers, 2016). To start a discussion on the future of the workshop, Vissers recently organised a meeting for workshop assistants and tutors of the KABK on the desirable position of the workshop within the art school for the coming ten years. This resulted in a set of recommendations presented to the board of the KABK. The report advocates a redesign of the organisation in a way that acknowledges the process of ‘making’. […] The organisation of the school should follow from the pedagogic, didactic vision, in which the workshops have a natural, logical and content-related place’ (Schwab, 2016). Vissers is also investigating the possibility of sharing expensive machines with other art schools and institutes like the Textile Museum with its extensive Textile Lab in Tilburg, by initiating meetings with a variety of stakeholders across the country. He argues that ‘it is just not efficient and affordable to buy expensive machinery which probably will not be used on a daily basis’ (Visser, 2016). That at the KABK textile and fashion workshops are shared creates opportunities for interaction and creative cross-pollination, which is not necessarily true for the mere fact that traditional and digital crafts are facilitated side by side. This actually does not seem to be enough to generate a comprehensive added value to the existing programme. The conditions to create synergy between ‘old’ and ‘new’ crafts revolve mainly around motivated staff and tutors who technically and artistically can support students in the exploration of new machines and their possibilities. �.�
Central Saint Martins, London (CSM) Visited: 12 April 2016
CSM, which ranked as the best bachelor fashion design school in the world (Business of Fashion, 2015), is part of the London University of the Arts. Like the KABK it is a traditional art school which offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in art and design disciplines. CSM has approximately 120 undergraduate fashion design students and six different specialized BA pathways on fashion and textiles which all share the workshops, such as the combined print and dye workshop, which consists of a print workshop, wash-out areas,