The Contemporary Culture, Art & Politics (CCAP)  was formed in 2003 to promote research into the impact of visual culture on debates concerned with contemporary political themes and issues.

The CCAP produces works by art and cultural theorists, artists, and curators responding to issues shaping and emerging from the contemporary global political climate, including globalism, terrorism, violance, migration, displacement, postcoloniality, feminism and the political impact of digital and new media technologies. Researchers investigate the relationship between art and politics, identifying new forms of  art and approaches to aesthetics in the context of globalisation and contemporary political conflict. The CCAP program includes publications, exhibitions, conferences and symposia addressing diverse forms of political and social engagement.

The CCAP program includes publications, exhibitions, conferences and symposia addresing diverse forms of political and social engagement. It is especially concerned with working with community groups to investigate the social impact of art.

The CCAP facilitates the formation of research clusters comprised of staff and postgraduate students, and establishes national and international networks that connect leaders in the field of visual culture and politics studies. CCAP researchers collaborate with a number of international institutions across the Netherlands, Germany, China and South Africa.

Research strands within the CCAP include:

• Globalisation
• Contemporary South East Asian Art 
• Art of Trauma and Conflict
• Migration and Mobility studies
• Culture and Technology
• Art and Affect
• Indigenous Art and Politics