27 November 2025 - Middelheim Museum
ARIA HeARTS (University of Antwerp) and CORPoREAL (Royal Conservatoire Antwerp) are pleased to invite you to the symposium 'The Forest School: at the intersection of drama, neurodivergence and psycho-education', which will take place on Thursday, 27 November 2025 (10:30 – 16:00), at the Middelheim Museum (Antwerp).
During this symposium, theatre maker Thomas Janssens brings together artists, researchers and care professionals to discuss the following questions:
- How can art, health and education strengthen one another?
- What role can artistic research play in understanding neurodiversity?
- What does inclusion mean as both an artistic and scientific experiment?
Programme
- 10:30 – Reception
- 11:00 – Welcome
- 11:15 – Invited Talk: Emma Asselman (PhD student at the Explora research group, FPPW, UGent) on her research "Krachtbronnen en sterktes bij mensen met autisme"
- 11:45 – Invited Talk: Liene Van den Brande (medical doctor in training to become a child and adolescent psychiatrist) on psycho-education for people with autism
- 12:15 – Lunch + knowledge sharing table (feel free to bring flyers, publicaties or other materiaal)
- 13:00 – Invited Talk: Dr. Mieke Cardol (Lecturer in Disability Studies, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences) on inclusive collaboration in theatre
- 13:30 – Invited Talk: Dr. Leni Van Goidsenhoven (Assistant Professor of Critical Disability Studies, University of Amsterdam) on creators with autism as artists and researchers
- 14:00 – Theatrical intervention (The Forest School)
- 14:30 – Coffee break
- 14:45 – Panel discussion: Stefan Perceval (artistic director Het Gevolg), Anna Püschel (artist and researcher, LUCA) and Prof. Dr. Geert Van Hove (Professor of Disability Studies, Ghent University), joined by the four invited speakers
- 15:45 – Q&A
Organisation: Thomas Janssens in collaboration with CORPoREAL (Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, AP University of Applied Sciences and Arts) & ST_ART HeArts cluster of Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (UAntwerpen)
Image: (c) Ivan Baetens
Please note that the symposium’s working language will be Dutch.