Erik Viskil is academic director of ACPA (Academy of Creative and Performing Arts) and professor of Research and Discourse in Artistic Practice at Leiden University.

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Erik studied Museology in Leiden and Speech Communication, Argumentation Theory and Rhetoric in Amsterdam. Since receiving his PhD for research on the theory of definition in 1994, he has worked primarily as an independent researcher, writer and adviser to cultural institutions. In this role he served the interest of a wide variety of institutions, especially in the field of art and design. These include art and design schools (Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Sandberg Instituut, Royal Academy of Art The Hague, ArtEZ Arnhem, Amsterdam University of the Arts, Design Academy Eindhoven – DAE), museums and platforms (Stedelijk Museum, De Appel), scientific organisations (Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, The Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research NWO), and government institutions (City of Amsterdam, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science).  

Erik was an executive board member and director of education at Rietveld Academy and chaired the examination board of DAE. His interest in writing as a medium and an attitude in the visual arts lies at the basis of the department of Writing | Image & Language at Rietveld Academy, which he founded in 2002, and has led to film programmes, lecture series, seminars and articles on themes ranging from the depiction of political violence to the camera as instrument of thought and the film essay as auto-ethnographic research tool. 

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