PROGRAMME
CULTURE & MENTAL HEALTH: REFUGEES
The second International Conference on Culture & Mental Health will be held in Ghent, Belgium, from 27-29 November 2024. The event focuses on using art and culture to support the mental well-being of forcibly displaced individuals. Participants from the public, academic, and non-profit sectors will exchange knowledge and experiences on how the arts, reading, heritage, and creativity can boost mental health, resilience, and well-being in refugees. Join the conversation!
OPENING EVENING
27.11.2024
An evening with music, performances and film screenings.
16:00 | Opening of the conference by Bruno Vanobbergen, Chair of the board of Directors Dr Guislain Museum / Chair Flanders Refugee Action
16:15 | Performance by Hardi Kurda, sound artist
16:30 | Common Frames
Common Frames is a Dutch organisation that develops and organises film and media literacy projects for (young) newcomers. Media plays an important role in how we view the world and they are convinced that making media teaches us to look at this more critically. They will screen a movie they've co produced with young refugees and tell more about their work afterwards.
17:15 | Performance by Hardi Kurda, sound artist
17:30 | Extract from "Moving Silence"
At the centre is the inspiring story of Hewan, Sabir, Ram and Dawit, four people who had to leave their homeland. From January to May 2024, they worked together to depict their individual experience of loss. The film camera provided a safe and familiar framework to portray a shared concern and their personal experience around war and its impact on human beings. The project took place at S.M.A.K . and the Fedasil pontoon, Ghent and was supervised by Maïté Baillieul, filmmaker and artist, who will tell in what way the film can be supportive (therapeutic) for people who have fled.
18:15 | Drink
DAY 1
28.11.2024
10:00 - 12:00 PLENARY 1
Host: Bart De Nil, conference chair
Welcome by Sylvie Dhaene (Iedereen Leest)
Keynote by Marit Törnqvist
Marit Törnqvist (1964) is a Swedish-Dutch writer/illustrator of children's books with an award-winning oeuvre and a large audience far beyond the Netherlands and Belgium. In addition to her work, she has initiated numerous book projects for refugee children around the world. Next to illustrating, writing and book promotion, Törnqvist regularly stands on the barricades to give a voice to people on the run. For example, in 2021 she spent three days with an art installation The big loss in front of the parliament building in Stockholm to confront politicians with the failed asylum policy in Sweden.
Keynote by Sulaiman Addonia
Sulaiman Addonia is a British-Eritrean-Ethiopian author based in Belgium. His novels The Consequences of Love (2008) and Silence is My Mother Tongue (2019) have been translated into numerous languages; the latter was a finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Awards, the Firecracker (CLMP) Awards, and the African Literary Award from the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Fransisco. His third novel, The Seers, has been published in the UK in June 2024 and in Belgium & the Netherlands in September 2024. He currently lives in Brussels, where he has launched a Creative Writing Academy for Refugees and Asylum Seekers and the Asmara-Addis Literary Festival (In Exile). In 2021, he was awarded Belgium's Golden Afro-Art Prize for Literature, and in 2022, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Panel about cultural programmes for refugees, their importance and challenges
Panellists: Vandermeulen (Globe Aroma, Belgium), Matea Šafar (De Vrolijkheid, (Netherlands).
Moderator: Karen Moeskops (Red Star Line Museum)
13:30 - 15:15 SESSION 1: PLACE & LANGUAGE
Chair: Thomas Kador (UCL)
“Feeling at home in the Red Star Line Museum: Homesickness project”
Nadia Babazia and Winny Ang (Red Star Line Museum)
Homesickness, between comfort & pride. From reflections to practice in the Red Star Line Museum.
"Gardening to create new assemblages with people, places and, and, and.”
Nele Buyst (University Antwerp)
We will present TOMAT: a new learning project at ligo (the center for elementary education for adult newcomers in Ghent) that takes students and teachers outside of the school to allow for different types of knowledge and relationships to grow.
"The Scratch Band: how co-creating songs facilitates representational equality for young refugees”
Tina Reynaert (Ghent University)
As research-facilitator, I want to elucidate how my participatory music practice "The Scratch Band" delivered representational equality for young newcomers and hands-on tools for responsive and inclusive facilitation.
"Opening sensitive conversations through cultural heritage”
Celien Stevens and Diederick Nuyttens (TOON, L.D.V. Heritage and care)
In 2023 TOON collected the stories of caretakers who are the children of the first migrant workers in Belgium. They acted as interpreters of language and culture for the medical staff. As such they testify about the impact of migration and the struggle of growing up between two cultures.
SESSION 2: LIVED EXPERIENCE OF DISPLACEMENT
Chair: Bart Marius (Dr. Guislain Museum)
“Asylum: Refugees and Mental Health during WWI”
Jozefien De Bock and Christophe Declercq (University Utrecht)
In this paper, we present the AHRC-funded project Asylum, which seeks to give voice to the mental health struggles of refugees in the past through a case-study of Belgian refugees in British asylums during WWI.
“Co-collaboration with refugees -- photos, videos, and texts”
Vincen Beeckman & Aimee Kelley
Vincen Beeckman and Aimee Kelley will present their work on a collaborative arts project with young refugees in Brussels, sharing videos and images and highlighting themes of participation, wellbeing and belonging.
"Putting people at the heart of care"
Loes Kuijpers and Xavier Verhoest (Comitato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo dei Popoli (CISP))
CISP has been using innovative and integrative artistic approaches with internally displaced people in Somalia, Mali and Kenya. They will present two of the creative methodologies they use: Body Mapping with women and Photovoice, in Mali, with adolescents.
“Light after loss: The role of creative community engagement in guiding grief over the loss”
Katya Provornaya (Group for Education in Museums)
This presentation explores how innovative creative engagement programmes with a focus on object-based learning and co-creation can help people with a lived experience of displacement process their loss and build a sense of community and belonging as well as promote empathy.
SESSION 3: COMMUNITIES AND RESILIENCE
Chair: Dorine De Vos (Red Star Line Museum)
“Creative practice and refugees’ citizenship-forming: a refugee artist’s reflections”
Amadu Khan (The Welcoming Association / The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland))
This presentation shares my lived personal experience and those of other refugee creative practitioners to explore how refugee artforms and cultural productions are spaces for facilitating refugees’ feelings of belonging and identity and public empathy and acceptance among the host communities in the UK. The gaps in research to improve our understanding of the role of art and culture in facilitating refugees’ citizenship-forming will also be explored.
“Empowering Community Resilience: Emergency Smile at Nea Kavala Reception Centre”
Chiara Manavella (RED NOSES International)
In 2013, RED NOSES International launched Emergency Smile to enhance psychosocial health for people in crisis, exemplified by a three-week mission in Greece's Nea Kavala Reception Centre where five clown artists implemented different artistic activities to engage with the community, including children, mothers, aid workers, and camp management, to foster connections, collective resilience, and culminate in a final community celebration.
“How does an art therapy intervention cultivate resilience in migrant populations facing adverse circumstances?”
Natacha Pirotte (The Red Pencil (Europe)
The article examines the process of change as perceived by refugees who took part in an art therapy intervention aimed at building resilience.
“Digital Arts for Youth and Community Wellbeing”
Sofia Casas (UNHCR- UN Refugee Agency)
The “Digital Arts for Youth and Community Wellbeing” presentation highlights UNHCR’s pilot project that utilizes digital arts to improve mental health, community involvement, and global connections among forcibly displaced youth.
15.40 - 17.10 SESSION 4: CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
Chair: Simon Bequoye (Iedereen Leest)
This session will highlight some inspiring cases of how arts and culture support the mental, physical and social health of forcibly displaced children and young adults. This session is curated by the conference’s programme committee.
“Voice Notes”
Sarah Jackson (Northumbria University) and Leah Gayer (Compass Collective)
Sharing our AHRC-funded collaboration with young refugees from the UK and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, this creative workshop uses everyday mobile phone technologies to explore different modes of talking and listening across cultures.
"Art activities as psychological Intervention for young refugees and asylum seekers in Riau, Indonesia"
Tengku Nila Fadhlia (Lembaga Psikologi Terapan (LPT) in Universitas Islam Riau)
A testimonial about various art activities as psychological Intervention for young refugees and asylum seekers in Riau, Indonesia.
WORKSHOP 1: Walk a Mile in my Shoes
Thahmina Begum (Centre for Regional and Economic Social Research (Sheffield Hallam University)
An immersive Artist process led workshop using a various of art materials, the workshop will be a practical hands-on demonstration of how we can use arts methods to centre hybrid community voices and multifaceted lived experience. (max. 20 participants)
WORKSHOP 2: Cultural heritage-based activities for displaced people
Bart De Nil, University College London
This workshop draws on the experience from decades of cultural heritage-based wellbeing activities in different settings. It explores with the participants the skills you need to engage with displaced people using cultural heritage-based activities. (max. 30 participants)
WORKSHOP 3: small to xxxl spool knitters
Carolien Evers (Carolien Evers for bedtime for Bonzo in collab with de Vrolijkheid)
Punniken the way to make connections. Punniken is the dutch word for it , the translation spool knitting doesn’t cover it totally. (max. 15 particpants)
WORKSHOP 4: Exploring Homesickness in Movement and Dance
Sarah Kaerts (Workshop intangible heritage)
Your body moves, your heart stays behind, your soul longs. Prepare yourself to move, as this workshop gives a little taste of exploring in movement and dance what home and homesickness mean to you. (Max. 15 participants, comfortable clothes)
WORKSHOP 5: Shared Reading as a starting point for deep conversation
Ilona Plichart (in collaboration with Red Star Line Museum)
We will explain how the method of shared reading and deep talks have proven to be a beautiful starting point to connect with refugees and immigrants, to really meet each other, to bridge different perspectives and to enjoy beauty. (Max. 25 participants)
DAY 2
29.11.2024
9:30 - 11:00
WORKSHOP 6: Social theatre: Ghosts of the Past, Echoes of the Future
Alaa Altamimi (International Organization for Migration)
A workshop experience that blends the life-inspired narratives of refugees and migrants with the transformative power of social and documentary theater. Our session, crafted to engage and educate, will offer participants a unique insight into both the process and impact of using theater as a tool for social change and community integration. (max. 20 participants)
WORKSHOP 7: Best of both worlds
Bright Richards and Margriet Stuurman (Stichting New Dutch Connections)
New Dutch Connections supports (ex-)asylum seekers in the Netherlands in becoming the entrepreneur of their own future, wherever that may be. We will share methods that New Dutch Connections developed in the Future Academy (especially with youngsters) and their culture / theatre projects in the Netherlands.(max. 30 participants)
WORKSHOP 8: Expressive Painting: Abstract Visual Modality Community
Amani Ansari (University of Vermont)
Expressive Abstract Painting Workshop for Collective Trauma Mitigation - this workshop is a hands-on sample of a workshop designed for communities who have collectively undergone trauma from war, destruction and displacement.
WORKSHOP 9: Feeling at home in the Red Star Line Museum - Make your own homesicknessbag
Laura Vargas (Red Star Line Museum)
Make your own homesicknessbag with memories and the scent of home. (max. 30 participants)”
WORKSHOP 10: From Palestine to the UK: the art of displacement as a social practice
Gil Mualem-Doron (Freelance artist)
In the workshop, Decolonising Art Practices & Healing the Wounds of Displacement, Dr Gil Mualem-Doron will present several projects carried out with migrants and refugees in Palestine/ Israel and the UK and deliver two short exercises that were part of these projects. (Max 30 participants)
11:15 - 13:00 SESSION 5: COMMUNITIES AND RESILIENCE
Chair: Benji Jame (Solentra)
“Psychosocial support using drama and playback theatre”
Fayez Alabbas (HoGent)
Staging Resilience: How Theatrical Engagement Aids Refugees in Coping with Displacement and Change.
“MIITTI: Bridging Gaps And Creating Bonds in Helsinki”
Alaa Altamimi (Pro Lapinlahti mielenterveysseura ry)
Alaa Altamimi, human rights activist and co-founder of MIITTI, discusses how MIITTI fosters social connections and reduces cultural prejudices through shared activities at Lapinlahden Lähde, Finland’s oldest psychiatric hospital, now a vibrant community hub.
“From Here to Home: Constructing a Dialogue between Contemporary and Historical Migration Narratives”
Alison Luyten (collectief MOOS)
The local heritage project d r o o m |t| h u i s collects historical and recent stories about migration from and to the Kempen area, thus aiming to uncover how migration is part of many people’s history and to foster mutual understanding and connection between different communities.
“Body-maps as empowerment tool for refugees living with HIV”
Christiana Noestlinger (Institute of Tropical Medicine)
Body mapping as a creative self-reflection process powerfully demonstrates how structural factors (e.g. migration-related trauma, receiving an HIV diagnosis, requesting asylum, living without documents) influence individual agency of refugees living with HIV, while also supporting their positive coping strategies with HIV and migration-related stressors.
SESSION 6: LIVED EXPERIENCE OF DISPLACEMENT
Chair: Alexander Vander Stichele (FARO)
“Bridge stories or film projection”
Annabelle Van Nieuwenhuyse (Cinemaximiliaan)
Cinemaximiliaan is a platform with and by newcomers. We bring newcomers and locals together through film and sharing the untold… Because Europe needs to keep a human view on migration. We started in 2015 with an open air cinema in an improvised camp at the Maximiliaan Park in Brussels, Belgium. Our community quickly grew through the commitment of a vast network of volunteers, amongst them many newcomers.
“My Life on the Way of Moria Camp”
Rouddy Kimpioka (Rad Music International)
My Life on the Way of Moria Camp, we must raise up the voice of people who don’t have a voice, “”sharing personal experience to save the lives of people.
“To be a Muslim in Lithuania: the story of Hala and Ahmad”
Raimonda Agne Medeisiene (the Lithuanian Academy of Performing Arts /Applied Theatre 4ROOMS)
Forum theater perspective: the influence of context on audience insights in response to the changing geopolitical situation of Lithuania.
SESSION 7: LIVED EXPERIENCE OF DISPLACEMENT
Chair: Claire Wellesley-Smith (OU)
“Shelanu: Women’s Craft Collective”
Emma Daker (Craftspace: representing Shelanu: Women’s Craft Collective)
Shelanu is a collective of migrant and refugee women working with Craftspace to develop craft skills, confidence and well-being through a social enterprise model, demonstrating how craft narratives can support migrant and refugee women’s mental health.
“Threads of Hope: Nurturing Well-Being in Displacement Through Textile Art”
Henrike Gootjes (ArtEZ, school of Arts, Arnhem)
Making, stitching and mending; nurturing well-being in displacement trough regenerative textile practices.
“The Use of Art in the Exploration of Identity Formation of Asylum Seeker Children”
Elyse Steinfeld and Ephrat Huss
This research contributes practical recommendations for developing future art workshops with asylum-seeker children and a unique critical lens through which to understand their experiences and identity formation processes.
“Struggling to return to balance and psychological well-being in working with and for refugee artists from Ukraine and Belarus.”
Elżbieta Wrotnowska-Gmyz (Zbigniew Raszewski Theater Institute)
In my talk, I will tell how our work with them proceeded, which also included psychological assistance, since many of these people came to Poland with post-traumatic stress syndrome, and how they themselves talked about their measurement of this dramatic experience in person and in their theatrical works.”
SESSION 8: PUBLIC LIBRARIES AS PLACES OF CARE
Chair: Sylvie Dhaene (Iedereen Leest)
This session will highlight how public libraries function as ‘places of care’ for refugees. This session is curated by the conference chair supported by Iedereen Leest, UCL dept. Arts & Sciences and dept.
“Public Libraries for Immigrants and Refugees”
Jamie Johnston (OsloMet -- Oslo Metropolitan University)
Jamie Johnston is coordinator of Public Libraries for Immigrants and Refugees (PubLIB) an international research group dedicated to studying how public libraries address the needs of recently arrived refugees and immigrants. She uses the contact theory to explain how programming might support the social dimension of integration and the implications for the other aspects of integration such as the cultural dimension.
“Public libraries as social infrastructure for creative health?”
Bart De Nil (UCL)
An interdisciplinary research with in-depth qualitative field studies in the UK and Belgium that will explore the staffing implications of cultural heritage-based activities for displaced people in public libraries.
“Our Garden in Library Permeke, Antwerp”
Lieve Willekens (Library Permeke)
How stories of migration connect with soil and seeds in the reading garden of the library and create a new sense of belonging. Permeke is the central library in the city of Antwerp and functions as a third place for various groups and people. In cooperation with Red Star Line Museum and SAAMO Antwerp.
“Muntpunt in Brussels”
Roel van den Sigtenhorst (Director Muntpunt)
Muntpunt is a public library in the heart of Brussels that offers activities around integration and practice opportunities for refugees.
14:00 - 15u40 PLENARY 2
Host Bart De Nil, conference chair
Spoken word (throughout the plenary)
Welcome by Geert Serneels (Solentra)
Keynote by Nils Fietje
Nils Fietje is a Technical Officer within the Behavioural and Cultural Insights (BCI) Unit at the WHO Regional Office for Europe, where he is leading work on arts and health, having coordinated the first-ever WHO report on the evidence base for arts and health interventions. He is also a co-founder and co-director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, with a focus on policy development and research implementation.
Keynote by Sarah Linn
Dr Sarah Linn is a researcher based at the Manchester Centre for Youth Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She has extensive expertise working with refugee and marginalised communities in the UK, Lebanon and Jordan using creative, collaborative and community-engaged methodologies. She has recently completed work as the Research Associate on Ancient History, Contemporary Belonging, a UKRI funded project which partnered with migrant background young people, Manchester Museum and Sheba Arts to explore the relationships between the forced migration of people and objects (2021-23). She is currently the PI on a British Academy ODA project Surfacing Zarqa which explores the intersection of marginalised youth, heritage and space in Jordan.
Keynote: “Heritage Exchanges: Cultural Contexts of Health and the Contribution of Museums”
Manon Parry, Amsterdam University
Q&A & closing words by Bart Marius, Dr Guislain Museum