Qualla: Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts

Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ron Maijen, CC BY-SA 3.0. Walk the long internal corridor of the Kunstkluster and you can hear the building's strange tenancy: a jazz quintet rehearsing behind one door, a contemporary dance class counting through a phrase behind the next, the muffled thrum of a rock drummer somewhere overhead, and, occasionally, the gasp of an audience watching a trainee circus performer take flight. The building is officially called the 'Art cluster.' In practice it is the most concentrated meeting of disciplines in Dutch arts education - the moment in 2005 when Tilburg decided to put music, visual arts, dance, theatre, and circus all under one roof and see what happened.

Image: Ron Maijen | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts: A Catholic Drawing Course That Refused to Stay Small

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Johan Bakker, CC BY-SA 4.0. The seed was planted in 1912 when Hendrik Moller founded the RK Leergangen, a Catholic teacher-training college that happened to include a drawing course. The institution moved from Amsterdam to Den Bosch to Tilburg, settling in 1918, and over the following decades it kept absorb...

Image: Johan Bakker | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts: From Monastery to Muzentuin

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wobuzowatsj, CC0. Architect Jo Coenen designed the Kunstkluster around an unusual constraint: parts of the site were already protected heritage. So he kept them. A 19th-century former monastery, complete with organ hall and library, became part of the building. A neo-Gothic chapel from 1895 was fo...

Image: Wobuzowatsj | CC0

Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts: The Conservatorium's Cold War Hiring Spree

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Loek Tangel, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Brabants Conservatorium did not become a serious institution by accident. In the 1950s and 60s, director Willem Goedhart used the Iron Curtain to his advantage, recruiting talented teachers from the Eastern Bloc who were looking for a way west. A regional Dutch conservatoire ...

Image: Loek Tangel | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts: Pop Music Moves In

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ton 1959, CC BY-SA 2.0. Most Dutch conservatoires guard the line between classical and popular music. The Kunstkluster does not. The Rockacademie, founded in 1999 by saxophonist Bertus Borgers and Gerard Boontje, originally lived near the 013 pop venue in the Veemarktkwartier. In 2005 it moved into the ...

Image: Ton 1959 | CC BY-SA 2.0

Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts: The 840-Seat Surprise

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gijs Franken, CC BY-SA 4.0. The most visible piece of the Kunstkluster is the concert hall, rising in a curved shell above the otherwise low square building. Eight hundred and forty seats - large enough for full orchestral concerts, small enough that students still get to play in it regularly. A footbridge ...

Image: Gijs Franken | CC BY-SA 4.0