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Neuroinclusive Arts Education

The research group Critical Creative Pedagogies is working together with the HKU community Iets Eten ('Let's Eat'), an autism specialist, and student ambassadors to explore the lessons that can be learned from five years of an experience-based community by and for HKU students with autism. The aim is to offer more inclusive higher arts education and facilitate a smooth transition towards the working field.

Let's Eat: a community for and by autistic students

The community Let's Eat (in Dutch: Iets Eten) was founded in 2019 by Gerard van Wolferen (retired HKU lecturer, researcher, and former autism ambassador) and Claudia van den Hoeven (autism specialist). Today, more than seventy students from different programmes (both bachelor’s and master’s) are members of the community, including alumni with autism. Since September 2021, about five in-person meetings per academic year are organised. Students themselves propose topics such as studying with autism and relaxation, the strengths of autism, over- and understimulation, autism and food, or the art of autism. Each meeting begins informally with soup and sandwiches; before an experience expert or guest speaker shares insights and sparks a conversation within the group.

On 2 April 2026, the afternoon event Neurosparkly Brains in Bloom was held at HKU and organised by the HKU professorship Critical Creative Pedagogies. During the event, a special issue of the APRIA Journal on neuro-inclusive education was presented in collaboration with APRIA, the ArtEZ Platform for Research Intervention of the Arts. This video looks back on the event. Produced by Coco Thiemann.

Inclusive higher arts education

What lessons can be learned from five years of the Iets Eten community? This is the central question in the research line of the Critical Creative Pedagogies research group. What does such a community mean for inclusive higher arts education and for a smooth transition into the labour market? Over the years, countless valuable tips and insights have been gained about more neuroinclusive education, which can be useful not only for the lecturers and staff at HKU, but also beyond. In 2025, the professorship was stakeholder and collaborative partner in the graduation research of Jana Wijnen, student of Design for Change and Innovation. In her advice (Dutch article), Jana presents multiple tips for making HKU more neuro-inclusive, which stem from the multiple co-creation sessions with students and staff.

Societal impact

The research group also studies the societal impact of an experience-based community such as Let's Eat. The community can serve as an example of the effects of empowerment and exposure, or as a way to make art more accessible to a wider group of neurodivergent people. Finding words for this may also inspire other educational or cultural institutions to establish similar communities. Moreover, an increasing number of students are choosing autism as a central theme in their artistic work. Such work, in turn, generates knowledge about what it means to be both a student and artist with autism, while offering others practical tools for how to relate to this.

Student ambassadors

Since 2022, two student ambassadors from different academies have emerged each year from the Iets Eten community. Their main role: to be a visible representative and conversation partner for students with (a suspected) autism diagnosis. Especially for the Public Lecture—the official launch—of the Critical Creative Pedagogies research group, two student ambassadors created this film about students and alumni who place autism and neurodivergence at the heart of their art.

Renske Tiemersma, alumna of HKU Fine Art (2022), created the interactive installation Room for Looking:
“Every day we observe others, or we ourselves are observed by them. Unwritten rules, shaped by social norms and personal boundaries, determine when and for how long we engage in looking. With my installation Room for Looking I aim to question and dismantle these unwritten rules. From the sidelines, people in the space become part of the artwork, while from within the installation the environment and the people in it become the subject of observation. The starting point of my work is often sensory experience—such as texture, weight, space, light, facial expressions, or pressure on the body. I experience both a desire for and an aversion to sensory stimuli, and I have learned that this is connected to my neurodiversity. With Room for Looking I want to open up a conversation about neurodiversity and invite everyone to pay closer attention to their sensory experiences.” (Photo: Thomas de Wit)