Amsterdam, June 30, 2009

To all those who are interested, and those who signed the petition,

"Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck once described the work of Gerrit Rietveld as 'squares with a smile', and smiling and pleasure are indeed first-degree relatives. Just how Rietveld achieved this effect is difficult to put into words, maybe even impossible. To understand Rietveld, one should wander around in his buildings, and experience the light and colours, the transparency and proportions. Sure, there might be flaws, but to focus on these flaws is to miss the point. Any possible flaw is completely redeemed by the atmosphere in Rietveld's buildings".
These words, written by K. Wiekart and published by Vrij Nederland in 1976, are as valid now as they were 42 years ago.

Hereby we would like to thank everybody for their feedback, and for signing the petition. We would also like to state that our actions will continue, as unfortunately the management of the Rietveld Academy is still determined to sign the final contract before the end of September.

Please keep the petition going, by signing it, and forwarding it to others.

A lot has happened since the online petition was launched. It became clear that interests other than high-quality education are playing a large role in the very nontransparent decision process surrounding the move.
As we stated before, the Rietveld building is a historical building, specifically designed by Gerrit Rietveld to accommodate high-quality art education, standing firmly in the tradition of Bauhaus. We still believe that everything should be done to preserve the Rietveld building, which is still functioning superbly, for the Rietveld Academy. Only very urgent reasons would justify to disconnect the building from the academy; we yet have to encounter these urgent reasons.

"I have a dream". These were not only the opening words of Martin Luther King's famous speech from 1963, but also the words which Tijmen van Grootheest used in his speech to open the academic season a couple of years ago. Van Grootheest's dream entailed a large-scale campus to house students, a total environment where students would live and work, including cinemas and restaurants. In the year 2009, this nightmare is about to come true. A future generation of students is in real danger of being burdened with the legacy of a management that is about to retire. The concept of high-quality education in a purpose-built school is about to be sacrificed to a megalomaniacal real estate project, involving a gigantic office building that's simply not suitable for art education, no matter how many cinemas, restaurants and students' rooms you cram in it.

We would like to stress that we are not against investments in so-called 'underprivileged' areas. But we do question the interests and motives that the city council, project developers and speculators (such as Rochdale, AM Real Estate and AWV) have in this project; interests and motives that seem far removed from the primary goal of high-quality education.
Five years ago, the former GAK office was granted a monumental status by the city. The owners of the building were actually planning to demolish the structure, and to build housing blocks on their property, something that became impossible when the building became a monument. The rest is history: the GAK office has been empty for five years now (and, as it happens, the Department of Justice is currently investigating the transaction that took place five years ago). The city council, who put the building on the list of monuments, together with the project developers and speculators (AM, Rochdale), seem understandably very eager to accommodate the Rietveld Academy in the former GAK office. The city council is even prepared to inject a sum of 20.000.000 euro into this scheme. An obscene amount of money, if one takes into account the fact that only four years ago, a sum of 15.000.000 euro (partly public money provided by the city council) was spent on the renovation and expansion of the original Rietveld building, with the specific goal to keep the Rietveld Academy on its original location, Amsterdam-Zuid. So what exactly does the city council want from us? Should the quality of education not be the main objective here, before everything else?

Furthermore, we are still disturbed by the relentless speed in which the management of the Rietveld Academy is trying to push their plans through, regardless of what students and teachers think of those plans. The management have neglected to properly inform the Representative Advisory Board (MR) and the teachers about their plans. They have also attempted to marginalize those who disagree with the plans, and refuse to seriously investigate alternative options to solve the problem of the lack of space, such as the option to relocate the Sandberg Institute.
And while we're at it, whatever happened to the existing plans to expand the academy on its own ground? Only a year ago, the district council of Zuideramstel even changed the zoning plan to enable this expansion. Now, the management suddenly acts as if expansion is too expensive, while in fact the academy has funds enough.
Added to this, there is within the academy a growing concern about the credibility of the non-independent investigation the management has just started, an investigation that happens to take place during the final critiques and graduation show.

In short, we will keep on campaigning! And we will keep you updated via the website (www.rietveldforrietveld.org).

Finally, we would like to invite you to visit the graduation show that will take place from July 1 to July 5, 2009, at the Rietveld Academy. It will be the perfect occasion to experience the ultimate function of the building: the accommodation of high-quality art and design education. Hope to see you there!

Kind regards,

Rietveld for Rietveld
www.rietveldforrietveld.org