OUTSIDER ART, ARTIST COLLECTIVES AND ACTIVISM

From the ancient sculpture workshops of the Classical Antiquity to the recent Documenta 15: artist collectives have always played an important role in art history. From shared ownership to a shared ideology: collectives can bring change on various levels and in various places. How do artist collectives use art to fight for human rights? What makes them so extraordinary in the art world? And can the concept of an artist collective also apply to outsider art studios?

The Museum Dr. Guislain will host the 2024 annual conference and general assembly of the European Outsider Art Association (EOA). Welcome in Ghent!

PROGRAMME

Two-days visits through Belgium
Thursday 23 and Saturday 25 May 2024

Visits to:

• Kunstwerkplaats De Zandberg: extraordinary art studio with a fashion designers collective

• Créahm Liège: the first art studio in Belgium

• LaM: French museum that houses, among other collections, the legendary L’Aracine collection

• Art et Marges museum: the Brussels outsider art museum

• Trinkhall museum: outsider art museum in Liège, strongly linked to the Créahm studio

• The tower of Eben Ezer: collective monument for peace conceived by Robert Garcet

• Art studio Centre La Pommeraie and Fondation Paul Duhem: renowned art studio and a foundation that aims to manage, conserve, study and promote the original creations as well as archives and all other documents relating to the works of the studio.

International Conference
Friday 24 May 2024

Speakers and panelists:

• Thomas Röske: director of the Prinzhorn Collection (Heidelberg, Germany) and President of the European Outsider Art Association

• Project Art Works: a collective of neurodiverse artists and activists working from a studio in Hastings (United Kingdom)

• Art Centre Wit.h: organises art expeditions beyond the boundaries of outsider art

• Monika Jagfeld: director of Open Art Museum (Sankt Gallen, Switzerland) and EOA board member

• Marc Steene: director of Outside In (Chichester, United Kingdom) and EOA board member

• Carl Havelange: director of Trinkhall museum

• Michiel De Jaeger: collaborator of Créahm Liège

• Villa Voortman: artist collective

• Lucinda Ra: artist collective

• Monika Perenyei: art historian and chief curator of the Psychiatric Art Collection of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

• Bart Marius: director of the Museum Dr. Guislain

With a special focus on artistic collectives and activism in Latin America, in collaboration with the University of Cologne (Marileen La Haije and Bieke Willem):

• Marileen La Haije: postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Cologne

• Sofía Lanusse: director of the Outsider Art Fair and EOA board member

• Florencia Rodríguez Giles: artist, part of the artistic collective CAOs (Argentina) (online)

• Alfredo Olivera: founding member of Radio La Colifata (Argentina) and Colifata France

• Beatriz Liebe & Verónica Rodríguez: founding members of the performing arts festival L’Altre Festival (Spain) and El Otro Festival (Argentina) (online)

• Santiago Barugel: part of the recreation team at the Dr. C. Tobar García children’s hospital for mental health (Argentina)

• Larisa Zmud: artist, part of the artistic collective Belleza y Felicidad (Argentina) (online)

Visits of the exhibition Off-Comics (in collaboration with the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne and curator Erwin Dejasse) and the exhibition with outsider art works from Japan in collaboration with Kunsthuis Yellow Art and Mizue Kobayashi.

General Assembly
Sunday 26 May 2024

Only for EOA members.

Ticket price Total Package (23-26 May): 130 euros

The ticket price includes:

• Two-days visits through Belgium: entrance fees and lunch included

• International Conference: coffee, lunch and dinner (dinner exclusively for EOA members) included

• General Assembly

The European Outsider Art Association (EOA) operates as an umbrella organisation devoted to the promotion of art and artists outside the mainstream art world.

With the support of

In 2023 and 2024 Dr. Guislain Museum will organise with several partners a series of international training events in three European cities with a rich textile heritage: Ghent, Leeds and Tilburg. Although each edition will have a specific focus (communities, co-creation and making/makers) the red thread will be arts-based engagements using textile heritage. The participants of the three editions will be connected through the development of an art engagement using a textile source under the guidance of artist and researcher Claire Wellesley-Smith.

 For third and final edition of this series, Dr. Guislain Museum will team up with City Museum Tilburg, TextileMuseum and Arts & Sciences University College London. Together they’ll deliver the International Spring School Cultural Heritage & Wellbeing: Textile Cities from Monday 3 until Friday 7 Juni 2024 in Tilburg (NED).

For five days the participants receive a theoretical underpinning and are going to be guided in developing a wellbeing offering. The participants will encounter a wide range of inspiring cases where making is used for the improvement of the wellbeing.

The Spring School is to be delivered by a highly experienced team of experts who are leading in different fields connected to heritage, community engagement and wellbeing:

-      Bart De Nil, expert wellbeing, culture and community engagement, Belgium
Developed training programs and published several books about cultural heritage, health and wellbeing based on this own experience as a practitioner and researcher. Organised and delivered many international training programmes.

-      Bart Marius, artistic director Dr. Guislain Museum, Belgium
Is leading an internationally renowned museum about mental health that uses its museum grounds as a place of care. Their focus is on creative community engagement in co-operation with neighbourhood health centres.

-      Claire Wellesley-Smith, researcher and artist, United Kingdom
She specialises in long-term engagements in post-industrial textile communities across the north of England. Her research explores connections through textile-based activities that link health, wellbeing and heritage.

-      Petra Robben, City curator and director City Museum Tilburg, The Netherlands

-      Tamira Waszink, Program maker TijdLab City Museum Tilburg, The Netherlands

-      Thomas Kador, lecturer in Creative Health, University College London (UCL) Department of Arts & Sciences, United Kingdom

Is a material culture specialist with research interests in the health and wellbeing potential of (cultural) spaces, collections and their objects. He convenes UCL’s MASc Creative Health programme, which focuses on non-clinical, asset based health interventions.

Organised in Tilburg
From Tilburg, Stadsmuseum Tilburg and TextielMuseum have joined the Spring School as the objective is closely aligned with the policy plans of their own organizations and the municipality of Tilburg. “Art and culture with social impact must be perpetuated,” the Cultural Plan states. After all, projects based on art, heritage and identity can contribute to solving various social challenges.

Who is this training course for?

·        Professionals working in cultural heritage organisations (museums, archives, galleries,

libraries with special collections)

·        Practitioners working with heritage in community engagement and creative health

·        Students and researchers in the field of creative health, museum studies, etc.

At the end of this training course, you'll be able to develop a resource for a specific targetgroup or context, design wellbeing activities, make a detailed plan of a resource and present the rational of a resource to the group.

Practical information

Location: Different locations in Tilburg
Fee: 500,- EUROS (VAT excluded). Reduced fee for students: 350,- EUROS (VAT excluded). For this you will get lunches, refreshments and snacks during the sessions and breaks, course materials.

 All other expenses are borne by the participants. Attending the social program is not mandatory. There’s a very large variation of accommodation in Tilburg.

 Participants are expected to bring their laptop.

Maximum 20 participants. Places in the spring school are limited to ensure the quality and depth of the interactions and discussions. The organisers also aim to ensure a diverse group of participants.

How to register

Send an email stating your name, position and /or institution to: textilecities@gmail.com
You’ll receive confirmation. If your registration is accepted, you’ll receive an email with more details.

The invoice for the registration fee will be send to the participant after the confirmation. Your registration is only final after payment of registration fee.

The participants will receive in advance a briefing document with a detailed schedule of the spring school.

Welcome to Dr Guislain Museum

Conference aim

The second Culture & Mental Health international conference will take place in Ghent, Belgium on 28 and 29 November 2024. This conference seeks to promote learning, discussion and debate around cultural interventions aimed at improving the wellbeing of people recovering from mental health difficulties or people in vulnerable situations. The focus of this edition is on supporting the mental wellbeing of forcibly displaced people through art and culture.

In a report in 2022 the EU and WHO call for support for the mental wellbeing of forcibly displaced people through art and culture : “People displaced because of natural disasters, persecution, conflict, generalised violence or human rights violations invariably experience significant loss, physical hardships and other stressors that can lead to psychological distress. A large body of evidence shows how forcibly displaced people contribute positively to society. This potential can be further enhanced by ensuring that they are in good physical and mental health. Therefore, according to the report, it is important to support the arts, as investing in the field is an investment in the mental, physical and social health of forcibly displaced people.”

This conference wants to bring together individuals from the public, academic, third sector and voluntary sectors, to share experiences, practices and knowledge about the importance and impact of the arts, reading, heritage and creativity on improving mental health, wellbeing and resilience of refugees.

 A symbolic venue

The Dr Guislain Museum is an obvious choice as a venue for this conference. Housed in the oldest mental asylum in Belgium, which dates back to 1857, surrounded by a mental health hospital. This museum aims to break down the many prejudices that still define what is mental illness and what is ‘normal’.

More than a conference

A journey to the amazing city of Ghent for this conference is more than worthwhile. But as an extra we’re going to offer the participants exclusive pre-conference events organised in unique locations in Ghent and an exciting social programme.

3 Strands

The overarching theme of this conference is to explore the role of culture and art in promoting mental health and wellbeing among people who have been forcibly displaced. Within this theme we have defined three key strands around which all the contributions for this conference will be structured in the programme.

Lived experience of displacement

Individuals who experience forced displacement navigate a range of challenging experiences that can impact their mental health; from being forced to leave their homes, embark on long and exhausting journeys to navigate complex asylum processes and settle into new cultures. Yet, despite all these challenges, they demonstrate a tremendous amount of resilience to rebuild their lives anew. Refugees' contributions to society and culture should be widely recognised and celebrated.

We are looking for arts, reading, heritage or creativity-based offerings, projects and engagements that:

-        are led by, co-created with or delivered in partnership refugees;

-        reflect on the lived experience of refugees;

-        are suitable for refugee children or young adults.

Communities and resilience

There is a strong relation between mental health and social inclusion. Being part of a community allows for meaningful connections to take shape and can help foster a sense of belonging and acceptance. Connections between newly arrived communities and more established residents at the local level, help to increase understanding and create more resilient communities.

We are looking for arts, reading, heritage or creativity-based offerings, projects and engagements that:

-        are community-based and/or are oriented at the neighborhood level;

-        center community voices, lived experiences and histories;

-        highlight the experience of the hosting society in order to obtain a nuanced picture and also to contextualize initiatives;

-        explore infrastructures of community care and support;

-        demonstrate creative ways that public bodies such as libraries, museums and arts/cultural initiatives play a role in bringing about greater social inclusion and cohesion.

Place and language

Language can be seen to be both a key and barrier to navigating a new environment. Language is a central aspect to one’s identity and culture. It is also an important factor in navigating daily life, accessing services and information. Learning a new language can often be a challenge, but also necessary to gain a shared language for connecting with others and self-expression. Yet, language can also be mobilised to give rise to hostile rhetoric against refugees and newly arrived communities.

We are looking for arts, reading, heritage or creativity-based offerings, projects and engagements that:

-        demonstrate the role of cultural projects or arts-based services in tackling information poverty;

-        engage various modes of storytelling involving first languages and multilingualism and craft narratives that center lived experience and work towards dispelling dis/misinformation;

-        explore other modes for self-expression and communication that move beyond spoken and written language to bring about greater participation;

-        co-create safe and brave spaces with refugees to explore stories and heritage in an empowering way  acknowledging feelings of pride and commitment  (in order to connect to the new environment).