'Towards New Schools' is an essay series published by the Editorial Board around recent epistemic shifts in art and design education in Northwestern Europe. Practitioners, researchers and teachers have been invited to reflect on the knowledge systems that shape educational programmes and the power structures they replicate.

The starting points for this collection are the various critical positions inside and outside the Gerrit Rietveld Academie that unsettle and challenge dominant methods of knowledge production and possession. Actively challenging the underlying epistemologies leads to a repoliticisation of the academy, redefining its direction and that of art and design education in general. Based on which theories of knowledge do we remodel the academy? How can an academy of art and design meet the current needs and urgencies of students, tutors, and practitioners alike?