Receiving the Jan Roëde Award 2024

In June 2024, shortly after graduating from the Fine Arts department at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, I was awarded the Jan Roëde Award 2024 for my graduation project.

The award came at an important moment in my practice. My graduation work brought together textiles, drawing, installation and research into the relationship between women and textile making. At its centre was something that had been part of my life since childhood, the knowledge, techniques and stories I inherited from my grandmothers in Greece.

The Jan Roëde Award

The Jan Roëde Award was established by the Jan Roëde Foundation to encourage a graduating artist from the Fine Arts department to continue developing their artistic practice after graduation.

For the 2024 award, the jury assessed graduating students and their works and presentations. The jury consisted of Isa van Lier, Louw van Sinderen, Dick Stapel, Huub van Wersch and Daphne Verberg.

I was very grateful to be selected for the award and for the jury’s recognition of my graduation work.

My graduation work

My graduation project grew from my fascination with textiles and the complex histories held within them.

I was particularly interested in the relationship between textile making and women. Techniques such as embroidery, crochet and knitting are often passed from one generation to another, carrying practical knowledge but also memories, stories and forms of invisible labour.

My own relationship with these techniques began with my grandmothers. As a child, I learned embroidery from them and later spent time learning crochet, knitting, repairing and altering clothes.

This personal history eventually became part of my artistic research. I became interested in what textiles could reveal: the people who made them, the histories attached to them and the stories that might remain hidden within an object.

My graduation installation brought together different materials and techniques to explore these ideas.

After receiving the jury report, I read how the jury had connected my installation with the histories and experiences behind it. The report recognised my fascination with textiles and the role women have played for centuries in their production. It also acknowledged the influence of my grandmothers and the relationship between textile making, patience, precision and artistic skill.

Read the full jury report (PDF, 718 KB, opens in a new tab)

One sentence from the jury report reads:

“Hara's layered installation stood out for the jury because the artistic eloquence of her creations transcends the craft of the subject.”

The jury described the work as revealing stories of strength, energy, resilience and pride. They recognised the installation as a way of bringing attention to women’s creativity and labour.

Looking back

The jury also mentioned my intention to collect and document stories from women of my grandmother’s generation. I think there is something particular about knowledge that is passed from one pair of hands to another. Sometimes it happens without anyone formally recording it. A technique is shown, repeated, remembered and eventually transformed by the next person.

Perhaps this is why textiles continue to occupy such an important place in my practice.

The objects themselves can be subtle and quiet. But the histories inside them reveal resilience and strength.

Receiving the Jan Roëde Award gave me an opportunity to see my graduation work from another perspective, through the eyes of a jury encountering it for the first time. Their words made me think about the distance between what an artist puts into a work and what another person discovers within it.

Jan Roëde Award 2024 · Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Fine Arts Department
Graduation project: Threads of Timeless Tales