save the dates!

20 apr · 18 may · 22 jun · 21 sept · 19 oct · 16 nov · 14 dec

 

info

location: resort HQ – Nieuwe Sint Jansstraat 35, Groningen

entry: €3,– (free for students)

language: English

accessibility: wheelchair friendly

 

 

monday 18 may

artist talk + workshop:  Rules We Invent

Maze de Boer

 

18:45   doors open

19:00  start

21:00  end

 

On Monday, May 18, studium resort will be dedicated to the hobby of playing board games. That evening, visual artist and scenographer Maze de Boer will be a guest. During the program, we explore how play is not only a subject, but also a way of working, thinking, and seeing.

The evening opens with a conversation between host Ellis Kat and De Boer about his practice and about play as a creative driving force. What role do board games play in his way of working? And how does the tension between rules and freedom translate into his artworks?

The second part of the evening consists of a workshop in the form of a collective board game session. Participants are invited to invent, adapt and test rules themselves using different game boards from De Boer’s ‘Play’ series.

 

about

Maze de Boer is a multidisciplinary artist working with sculpture, installation, painting, film/video, photography and sound. His work results in installations that transform space into a field of meaning, behavior and imagination. In his practice, the viewer is often asked to take an active role.

 

 

 

about studium 2026

In 2026, the program of studium resort revolves around the year theme of het resort: I <3 HOBBIES. Almost every month, we invite an artist for an evening where conversations, lectures, workshops and performances flow into one another. Together with the audience, we assemble a new tasting of hobbies each time.

From flower arranging to birdwatching, from football to dungeons & dragons: studium resort explores how personal passions shape artistic practices. When does something stop being a hobby and become work? And what happens when relaxation, play and dedication begin to edge closer to professionalism?

Each evening offers a low-threshold opportunity to try something new and perhaps discover an unexpected fascination.

 

 

about the programmer: Ellis Kat

A new year also brings a new program maker. In 2026, Ellis Kat will curate studium resort. Ellis is a curator, writer and moderator. Until 2025, she was director of the art space Nieuw Dakota in Amsterdam. As a freelance curator, she has worked with institutions including the Cobra Museum, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam and Kunstinstituut Melly.

In her exhibitions and programs, Ellis Kat explores the boundaries of what art can be and who it is for. As program maker and moderator of studium resort, she continues this approach by challenging both artists and audiences to look differently - at art, at each other and at the world around us.

 

 

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april 20 – birding w/ annelein pompe

On April 20, studium resort took a hobby as its point of departure. The evening focused on the hobby of birdwatching together with artist Annelein Pompe.

The evening opened with a screening of her film The Shadow Workers, in which a pigeon, acting as narrator, guides the viewer through a dreamlike world that moves between fiction and documentary. In conversation with host Ellis Kat, Pompe spoke about her fascination with birds as a mirror of human behavior, and about how a hobby that develops into work does not always stem from a clear passion, but can also emerge simply out of circumstance.

The evening concluded with a workshop in which participants drew a taxidermied bird using charcoal. By drawing a bird, a portrait of a person emerged, as if they were transformed into a duck, pheasant, or another bird-like alter ego.

 

 

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march 23 – this is not about football w/ maurice van es

Studium resort explores, through the theme I<3HOBBIES, how hobbies can shift from casual pastimes into artistic practices. The latest edition focused on collecting 1990s football images with artist Maurice van Es.

In conversation with host Ellis Kat, Van Es shared how his fascination grew into a professional practice while retaining its playful nature. Through his publications - featuring themes like footballers as fathers, intimacy in football and Maradona - he showed how collections can connect sports history, visual culture, and emotion.

After the talk, participants created their own collections in a hands-on workshop, ranging from players with receding hairlines, singing crowds and teamphotos.

 

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februari 23 – accidental florist w/ bart eysink smeets

During the first edition, flower arranging took center stage, featuring artist Bart Eysink Smeets in conversation with host Ellis Kat.

Eysink Smeets showed how hobbies - from birdwatching to flower arranging - appear as a recurring thread throughout his practice, while his working method itself is strikingly obsessive. His advice: if you want to keep the joy, don’t turn your hobby into an artistic practice. Once it becomes an obligation, its freedom disappears.

After the talk, flower arranging transformed into flower arranging Xtreme: with glue guns, pinking shears, and stickers, bouquets grew into almost sculptural artworks.