Katja Gruijters at Biodesign Challenge

Tue, Jun 20 - Fri, Jun 23  2017

On June 22nd and 23rd, 24 student teams from 22 universities around the world will gather at the Biodesign Challenge Summit at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. The teams, chosen from more than 400 participating students, will showcase their projects and compete for prizes including the Glass Microbe*. 

School of Visual Arts will host a gallery opening of the projects on the evening of June 22. Stay tuned for more details.

Katja Gruijters is a tutor of the Biodesign Challenge together with Sander Luske. Throughout the spring semester, the students have been developing their projects in collaboration with artists, designers, and scientists across disciplines. The students have been supported by the professors WigardKloosterdam and Jeroen de Ridder from the University Medical Centre in Utrecht. June 20th she will visit New York with her students to present their work at MoMA.

The Biodesign Challenge (BDC), a program of Genspace NYC, is a university competition that offers art and design students the opportunity to envision the future applications of biotechnology. ArtEZ product design was chosen as a representative to compete with 22 universities from seven countries around the world. To learn more visit biodesignchallenge.org.

About Katja Gruijters

Katja Gruijters is a Designer and tutor of Biodesign Challenge. Katja’s work always centers around people and their environment. Since 2001, she has worked in her own studio, designing food experiments, concepts, tasting events and products. She has been commissioned by companies in the Netherlands and abroad and she is involved in education. Katja graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven, where she began to specialize in food and drink design and developed food concepts for many clients for over 18 years with companies and manufacturers in the industry. Recently she published the book Food Design, Future food elaborating on her experience and vision on the realm of biodesign, food and nature. Katja’s work has been exhibited worldwide; she also gives workshops and works as a visiting lecturer and tutor biodesign at ArtEZ Arnhem.

*About the Glass Microbe Prize

The overall winner of the Biodesign Challenge will take home the Glass Microbe. Each year, it will be passed to the winner. Created by UK artist Luke Jerram, the Glass Microbe is a unique artwork and symbol of the intersection of art, design and biology. 

Jerram’s Glass Microbiology sculptures have been shown in museums around the world, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Corning Museum of Glass in New York and the Wellcome Collection, London. In 2014-15 his sculptures were presented at ArtScience Museum, Singapore alongside Leonardo Da Vinci’s Codex Atlanticus.