Impressive Opening of HKU’s academic year 2025/26

24 September 2025

The packed hall where HKU celebrated the Opening of the Academic Year on 18 September in TivoliVredenburg, was the stage of an impressive event. The urgency of art was expressed and emphasised by everyone who walked upon the stage.

Show host Yahmani Blackman, teacher at HKU Theatre, guided the guests through a stage programme that was livened up by HKU’s resident band EIK, starring Sam van de Heuvel and a poetry performance by Kees Moore, who poetically divided the opening ceremony into Present, Past and Future.

What art promises

Art comes with a certain promise: that of young new makers who reflect on the world; of teachers and lecturers who are ambitious to keep developing their artistic quality; and of art making an impact on people and society. With those words, Judith Meijer, interim chair of the HKU Executive Board, opened the new academic year. Society, especially our current one, requires artistic imagination! These opening words also came with a call upon the national government in The Hague to invest in higher vocational education and artistic talent for the benefit of tomorrow!

Lots of interest for the productions of HKU's recent graduates.

Interim chair of the Executive Board Judith Meijer (right) in a talk with the soon-to-be Award winner Anne Cappendijk.

The works on display garnered differing reactions.

'Well-attended' was almost an understatement...

In her speech, Judith Meijer underlined the promise of art.

Sohna Sunbunu, the overjoyed winner of the HKU Utrecht City Prize.

Uliyana Gromyko is also content with winning an HKU Award.

The four jubilant winners with their newly gained HKU Award.

Resident band EIK impressed the audience with their clear vocal harmonies and warm sounds.

Drinks in the lobby to the opening ceremony on a social note.

HKU Utrecht City Prize and HKU Awards

Utrecht’s Councillor for Culture, Eva Oosters, emphasised the importance of HKU specifically, and art and culture in general, for the city of Utrecht. “Creating, discovering and disrupting is what art does. Utrecht needs you for this! Creators who fill our streets with colours, liveliness and stories. Makers who help us see each other and the world in a different light.” Oosters also handed out the HKU Utrecht City Prize to recent graduate Sohna Sumbunu.

Anne Cappendijk, Uliana Gromyko and Iyanla Etnel also received the HKU Awards, for this year’s most impressive graduation works. Each of them took home an Award and a financial sum of 5,000 euros. You can see the Award-winning works, and those of the other nominees, plus the jury reports here.

Stage spectacle

In a stage decorum further animated with moving live puppets, the audience was treated on interviews, music performances and poetry. Caspar Nieuwenhuis, director of HKU Theatre, spoke about the necessity of making art, even in times of crisis. He showed a video to introduce us to Hassan: a fellow theatre maker in Gaza who continues to make theatre plays with children.

Yahmani Blackman interviewed the promising video artist Inne Feenstra, writer and film maker Falun Ellie Koos, and the students Mari van Hooydonk (IMT) and Nathan Heuker of Hoek (Games) about. Their expectations from HKU. Jury members Femke Rotteveel and Nonna Hoogland talked about the process through which the jury selected the winners of the Awards.

With this lovely opening ceremony, we have positioned ourselves to start off a new year of collaboration between students, staff and partners of HKU. For the arts, through the arts, and with the arts!

Impressive Opening of HKU’s academic year 2025/26

What art promises

HKU Utrecht City Prize and HKU Awards

Stage spectacle

Photos: Christine van Rooijen