Research visit with Michaelis Staff by the UNESCO Chair - Entrepreneurship in Higher Arts Education
(Left to right) Melvin Pather, Leonie Delaey, Ellis van Beijsterveld, Prof. Fritha Langerman and Prof. Dr. Annick Schramme.
At the end of May 2026 members from the University of Antwerp connected to the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Entrepreneurship and Policy, conducted a research visit to the Michaelis School of Fine Art.
Their aim was to gain a better understanding of how entrepreneurship is embedded in creative arts higher education as part of a broader global research project between Belgium and South Africa.
The research focuses on three dimensions:
• the internal ecosystem (education, support structures, institutional culture),
• the external ecosystem (sector context, policy environment, and labour market),
• and the interactions between these elements (networks and relationships).
Prof. Fritha Langerman (Head of Department) and Melvin Pather (Principal Technical in New Media) hosted a research discussion with the UNESCO team (Prof. Dr. Annick Schramme, Leonie Delaey and Ellis van Beijsterveldt) about the South African context and offered insights into the various entrepreneurial educational initiatives at the University of Cape Town.
Michaelis and the UNESCO team are looking forward to potential research collaboration in the future.