Friends and Sponsors Celebrate Design Academy Eindhoven During Dutch Design Week

The early morning began with opening speeches from Educational Director Raf De Keninck and Relation Manager Tessa Blokland. De Keninck spoke of the academy’s ongoing partnership with its sponsors, underscoring the crucial role they play in empowering students and enabling DAE to remain at the forefront of design innovation, and paid special thanks to all past and current friends and sponsors.

Tessa Blokland thanked supporters for encouraging creativity in DAE and the wider city, then invited the attendees to split into groups and join tours led by students.

As the friends and sponsors split into groups and moved around the show, they were brought to students’ works, in which some sponsors had directly helped or were connected to outside communities and organisations.

One of the groups was brought to MA Grad Lucas Garvey’s project which was made with DAE’s longterm connection to the European Ceramic Work Centre (EKWC) for Masters students. With this connection, graduating Masters students are given the space and freedom to spend two months at the EKWC.

The EKWC said “Lucas was wonderful to work with at EKWC and brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm” DAE are very thankful to be able to continue to work with EKWC to allow students to develop graduation projects that go beyond what’s normally possible.

The event concluded with friends and sponsors wondering around on their own accord, returning for refreshments, where attendees could network with one another.

This celebration of DAE’s friends and sponsors highlighted the academy’s commitment to building a supportive and engaged design community, one that thrives on collaboration, creativity, and shared vision.