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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.

Iets Eten: a community for and by autistic students

The community 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, an average of five in-person meetings have been held per academic year. 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 with the group.

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.

Societal impact

The research group also studies the societal impact of an experience-based community such as Iets Eten. 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)