Aart van der Maas
Aart van der Maas studied social work and musicology and has been working as a lecturer at the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht since 2002. Since 2007, he has also been a researcher at the Research Centre for Social Innovation at HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. Over the coming years, Aart hopes to obtain a doctorate at the University of Antwerp, on the subject of Utrecht’s neighbourhood cultural centres, cultural commons and the inclusive city.
Since September 2015, Aart van der Maas has been the programme manager of the degree programme Cultural and Social Development, Social Work. As of 2018, he was appointed as the programme manager of the Community Development master's programme. He also coordinates the Art and Creativity research line within the Research group Participation and Urban Development. In this way, Aart expresses his passion for connecting societal issues in the social domain with art and creativity.
Aart has remained active in the professional field and has years of experience with students and practice, when it comes to community art projects, art education and cultural and artistic interventions in social work. He is also chairman of two foundations that facilitate music and theatre productions and documentaries that give expression to themes with a strong social involvement. Aart is a member of the Culture Common Research Quest (CCQO) research group, an interdisciplinary research team based at the University of Antwerp.
Fields of expertise
- Community art
- Commons
- Musicology
