GINKGO, ”Growing In Kabk Green Office”, is a student-led initiative established in February 2023 at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK), currently consisting of 5 members. Together with staff members, GINKGO implements actions to accelerate the prioritisation of sustainability within the Academy. We stand for biodiversity, circularity and regeneration, with equal respect for human and more than human beings. Our aim is to promote responsible ways of art-making and living, as well as a culture of sharing and communality.
Our projects are organised across four interconnected areas of work: community, education & research, communications and collaboration. Current activities include: the rehabilitation of outdoor spaces; the creation of a recycling system and the coordination of events to highlight sustainability concerns and discuss potential solutions.
The exhibition aims to bring forth current projects by the Green Office over the past year. It consists of three main elements which together offer a broad insight into the wide range of actions implements by the initiative.
The Manifesto was built collectively over the course of a year through a participatory process at the KABK. It expresses community voices around regenerative education, and the changes that need to be made in the academy. Conveying a sentiment of urgency shared by many, it pushes for a plan for action as an institutional commitment. The document was presented at the Green Office’s General Assembly in 2025.
The Timeline of the Garden is first and foremost a visual journey through the history of the Prinsessegracht courtyard of the KABK building. By tracing a chronological story of the space, using images from the KABK library archive and insight from many staff members, the highly intricate and rich legacy becomes apparent. The symbolism, significance and function of the space speak the evolving socio-political contexts of each period.
The samples exhibited offer a representation of the complex layers of strata that make up the ground upon which one stands today, both physically and metaphorically. Artefacts, soil types, construction waste are all witnesses of the long-lasting impacts of particular events or actions. The regeneration of the space being the focus of today, seeds and pods grown in the Garden speak of the the current work to restore biodiversity.