Students have faced a wretched few months of isolation, loss and anxiety in confronting new ways of making art, doing research and studying. Artmaking is an essential human need; it speaks to the creative powers of the human spirit.

I congratulate all 2020 graduates of the Maastricht Institute of Arts on their graduation during this challenging year.

The class of 2020 is the first to get its spot in The Braid: a platform that gathers the names—and works—of all graduates of our school since its foundation in 1823. This platform will expand in the coming months and years, connecting the school's thousands of graduates in a long braid, and serving as a stage for new projects to come.

Edwin Jacobs, director