2023 - Creative workshop

The Creative Care Dinner is a workshop that my partner (Mandy van Pelt) and I created on behalf of culture house RAUM Utrecht. The workshop took place during RAUM'S "Huisfeest" event, and was created in order to make place for neurodivergent creatives, their personal struggles and art practices.

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Being an artist naturally comes with certain challenges; financially, socially and emotionally we are faced with struggles in a society that favours fast over slow and money over time. Especially for us neurodivergent makers, creating amidst a world that is driven by exponential growth, overstimulation and "fitting in" can be very difficult to navigate. Being in community and finding ways to navigate these struggles in a way that feels safe, is therefore an important part of staying sane and healthy.

 

"The Creative Care Dinner" was created out of our own experience as neurodivergent makers (ADHD & Autism) and as a means to serve our community, while simultaneously taking care of ourselves as well.

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About the workshop:

During the workshop our visitors were served a four course "meal", each representing a part of our practice: self - community - care - creation. Each dish came accompanied by a journalling question, in which our guests where asked to reflect on their own ideas and behaviour around this subject. But, authentic creativity not only comes from the mind, it also lives in the body.
Something a lot of us are not very familiar with (hence: disregulation, perfectionism, stress, overthinking etc.). To support this embodiment, we created three small herbal dishes to accompany the questions that were served, creating a more holistic experience around our practices.

 

During the main course the visitors and us co-created a large community mural together: an outlined "colour-in piece" created by Mandy beforehand, which we finished together as a group, making way for our creative inner child to create without the pressure of "getting it right".  The mural is still being showcased at RAUM at the moment.

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Below you will find the documentation of our workshop & mural.