Academic and Public Programs

Participate in an exceptional opportunity for emerging experts in the field of Netherlandish art to connect, learn, and develop! In Summer 2025, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the RKD–Netherlands Institute for Art History, the Center for Netherlandish Art (CNA) at the Museums of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Harvard Art Museums will co-facilitate the Summer Institute for Netherlandish Art, a unique international program open to 16 participants. 

When: July 12–25, 2025
Where: Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Boston, Massachusetts, United States (travel days between the Netherlands and the United States: July 19–20)
Focus: Netherlandish Art of the long 17th Century (roughly 1560–1715)
Language: English
Open to: M.A. students, Ph.D. candidates, and emerging professionals with fewer than five years of experience working in either a university or museum setting. Open to candidates of all nationalities with a background in art history or related field within the humanities, as well as conservation and conservation science.

About the Program
Over two weeks in and around Amsterdam and Boston, participants will closely interact with an interdisciplinary team of researchers, curators, conservators, educators, and scientists from the four organizing institutions. Participants will emerge from the Summer Institute with enhanced tools and perspectives for conducting innovative object-based research, and for using their expertise and enhanced collaborative and interdisciplinary outlook to increase the public appreciation for Dutch and Flemish art. They will be able to safeguard existing knowledge and share it in new, engaging ways that meet the needs of contemporary audiences. Important components include but are not limited to gallery visits, hands-on sessions in conservation studios, panel discussions, creative art making, and other activities that build a lasting international network among peers and established experts.

How to Apply
Applications must be submitted through the online application system by February 3, 2025. Candidates are encouraged to apply at their earliest convenience. Application materials must include: 

• General information about yourself 
• Responses to five prompts (200–300 words each)
• Résumé (in PDF form, no more than three pages)
• One confidential recommendation (submitted through an online portal) 

Apply Now 

Only 16 participants will be admitted to the course. All applications must be submitted online and in English. Applicants selected for the Summer Institute will be notified by the end of February 2025. Only selected applicants will be contacted.

As we jointly amplify our efforts toward becoming truly inclusive, ensuring that diversity and equity are lived values, we actively encourage candidates from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds to apply to the Summer Institute. 

Participation Fee
Payment will be processed by the Rijksmuseum in euros. The full course program is offered at a subsidised fee of €1,250 (including VAT) per person. The fee covers participation in the program, including accommodations, sessions with experts, museum admission fees, field trip travel expenses, welcome drinks, a networking reception, lunches, coffee breaks, and a joint dinner. Air travel is not included in the course fee, and participants will be responsible for making their own travel plans.

Financial Aid
Thanks to generous funding partners, the Summer Institute is able to offer some financial aid. There are no limits on what the aid can be used for, including to partially or fully cover tuition, travel, childcare, or other needs. The number of grants and the per-grant amount will be established on a case-by-case basis.

Financial aid is an important part of our commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity, and access. Individuals applying for financial aid will be considered identically to individuals who are not, and there is absolutely no penalty for applying for aid.

If you wish to apply for financial aid, please include a request with your online application with a brief explanation regarding your financial needs. Additional documentation, such as a letter from a professor, can also be seen as appropriate evidence. Financial aid rewards, however, are not guaranteed. Candidates are also encouraged to apply for other funding sources through their schools, employers, and outside sources.

Background
Since 1993, the Rijksmuseum and RKD–Netherlands Institute for Art History have organized a biennial summer program. Both institutions’ extensive holdings—of art and archives, respectively—have formed the basis of the course, with the goal of offering the next generation of art historians the opportunity to enrich and deepen their knowledge of 17th-century Netherlandish art.

In 2017, thanks to a transformative gift from Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo and Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, the Center for Netherlandish Art was founded at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. That same year, the Harvard Art Museums received a major gift of 16th- to 18th-century Dutch and Flemish drawings from the esteemed collection of Maida and George S. Abrams.

With Boston as a new hub for Dutch and Flemish art in the United States, the existing Rijksmuseum and RKD summer program has brought the CNA and the Harvard Art Museums on board as partners, expanding its international outlook by establishing a transatlantic collaboration. This is the second program representing this new partnership.

Please e-mail cna@mfa.org with questions.

Sponsors
Supported by the Class of the Museum of Fine Arts Fund for Emerging Scholars, the Kingdom of the Netherlands Fund for Dutch Scholars, the Fonds Beukenhorst/Rijksmuseum Fund, the RKD Friends Society, the Stanley H. Durwood Foundation Support Fund, and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

Organized in partnership with the Rijksmuseum, the RKD–Netherlands Institute for Art History, the Center for Netherlandish Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Harvard Art Museums.