The Vos Method

After four decades of teaching, Ellen Vos is retiring as an educator at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. To honour her legacy, a team of alum and colleagues has collaborated on a publication to preserve and share her teaching approach. Ellen started teaching before the invention of the digital camera and now navigates the TikTok era. She continues to teach timeless lessons that can be applied in both professional and personal contexts. This book gathers over forty assignments to inspire both students and educators, displaying what education can mobilise. Order book here.

This book is not a tribute, but a tool: a reverse-engineering of Ellen’s teaching practice. Co-created with Medina Rešić, it captures a method that is structured yet flexible, personal yet shareable. Ellen Vos’s approach invites dialogue, risk, and transformation. She teaches how to learn, how to relate, and how to become. She creates spaces of trust where students move from self-expression to precision, from individual voice to shared understanding. Her legacy is not style, but a mindset. 

Published by Art Paper Editions, the book looks both to the past and the future. It preserves the methods and energy that defined Vos’s classes, making them accessible to future educators and learners. The project was realised under the art direction of Jurgen Maelfeyt and written by Medina Rešić.

As Ellen Vos retired in 2025, The Vos Method offers a record of her influence and a resource for anyone interested in how art education can change perspectives and open creative paths. Order book here.

Writing: Medina Rešić, Ellen Vos / Art Director: Jurgen Maelfeyt / Graphic Design: Jurgen Maelfeyt and Marika Seo / Project team: Herman Verkerk, Zsofia Kollar, Kornelija Trocko Kang.