Graduate Chun Chang was an artist-in-residence at the Françoise van den Bosch Foundation

Chun Chang, a graduate of the Master’s programme in Gemstones and Jewellery at the Idar-Oberstein Campus, was selected in 2026 for the Artist-in-Residence programme run by the renowned Françoise van den Bosch Foundation in Amsterdam. Since 1980, the foundation has been committed to promoting and raising the profile of contemporary jewellery art, and each year invites an international artist to undertake a working residency lasting several months. Chang thus joins a line-up of renowned artists who have taken part in the residency programme in recent years.

For Chang, the invitation also marked a return to a familiar place. She had previously studied jewellery at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam from 2013 to 2017 and had therefore been familiar with the foundation for many years. Whilst on an internship at the Estonian Academy of Arts, she came across the call for applications for the residency and decided on the spur of the moment to apply. The fact that she was actually selected came as a complete surprise to her: “I read the email three times to make sure I’d understood it properly – and then did a little dance of joy in my room,” she says.

For the residency, Chang developed an independent artistic concept that deliberately broke away from her previous work with gemstones. As it was not possible to work with stone on site, she opted for wood as her material and devoted herself to small-scale carvings. The starting point for her research was Japanese netsuke, as well as Dutch woodcarving traditions, such as the making of wooden clogs or historical shipbuilding. She was particularly interested in the cultural links between the Netherlands and Asia, as well as the stories embedded in materials, craftsmanship and trade relations. She also conducted further research in museums and archives in Amsterdam.

In addition to her artistic work, the residency programme also included a public lecture for the Jewellery Linking Bodies department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, as well as an exhibition at the Achter De Ramen project space on Borneo Island in Amsterdam. During her stay, Chang worked continuously on new pieces, visited museums, exhibitions and events in the art scene, and used the time to gain fresh inspiration for her artistic development.

“The residency gave me the time to slow down, observe, and rethink my practice through a completely different material. I wanted to combine my studio work with new impressions from the outside world,” she says, describing her approach. She found the diverse Amsterdam art scene and the exchange with other artists particularly inspiring. At the same time, returning to her former university was also an emotional moment: “It made me reflect on my own path. It was a meaningful moment, and I felt very grateful for the opportunity.”

Chang completed her Master of Fine Arts in Gemstones and Jewellery at the Idar-Oberstein Campus of Trier University of Applied Sciences in 2025. Prior to this, she studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and at the National Taipei University of Education in Taiwan.

Her selection for the Françoise van den Bosch Foundation residency highlights the international calibre of the graduates from the Gemstone and Jewellery Campus and strengthens the programme’s close links with the international jewellery and art scene.