Clowning, Child Play & Nature - The Art of Re-Connection with your audiences and yourself

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz

Workshop Clowning, Child Play & Nature at the Institute Arts and Design Education (IADE), 14. - 15. February 2024

In today’s fast-paced world, professionals often forget the importance of truly connecting with their audiences and themselves. This workshop aims to provide a safe space to reconnect, rediscover core values, and develop essential skills through a combination of clowning, children, and nature-based activities. We invite any professional potentially interested in acquiring human connection skills to improve their performance: cultural professionals, social innovation entrepreneurs, mental health professionals, community leaders, team builders, mediators and activists, educators, trainers, coaches, etc.

Join us for a unique and transformative Winter Workshop focused on the art of connection. In today’s fast-paced world, professionals often forget the importance of truly connecting with their audiences and themselves. This workshop aims to provide a safe space to reconnect, rediscover core values, and develop essential skills through a combination of clowning, children, and nature-based activities.

This workshop is highly practical and organized around different activities aimed at developing specific skills. Participants can replicate these activities later with their colleagues, friends, or peers in various educational settings.

The workshop will include activities from different areas:

Joscha de Boever is a modern-day visionary born in 1968, known as a creator, dramatic designer, and theatrical researcher. Her journey began as a Montessori-educated school teacher, which ignited her lifelong passion for human development and learning. Embracing her unique teaching style, she empowers students to unlock their true potential, recognizing play as a vital conduit for knowledge acquisition.

However, it was a serendipitous encounter with clown improvisation that forever altered Joscha’s path. Captivated by the world of physical comedy, she immersed herself in the art, honing her skills as both a clown and a teacher at the renowned Cliniclowns Foundation in the Netherlands since 2001. Seeking growth and inspiration, she eagerly absorbed lessons from a multitude of mentors. Eventually, in 2008, Joscha established her very own theater atelier, the vibrant and eccentric STUDIO o A o A o P, where aspiring students delve into the realm of clown play and the broader theatrical landscape.

Driven by her philosophical perception of reality, Joscha developed her distinctive approach known as "The four dimensions of play"; Collaborating with fellow enthusiasts, she constantly explores uncharted territories, unveiling the boundless possibilities within this mesmerizing quantum field.

Surprisingly, the principles and essence of the stage play effortlessly translate into profound guidelines for life itself. Transforming empty spaces into dynamic "playgrounds"; she reintroduces individuals to their inner "Homo Ludens"; embracing the playful spirit within. Currently, Joscha’s innovative spirit thrives as a developer and trainer of a transformative program at Cliniclowns. This groundbreaking initiative revolves around fostering deeper human connections and establishing profound bonds through the power of play. Tailored for teams and organizations seeking to enhance their interpersonal relationships, this program invites participants to embrace the transformative potential of play, unlocking new dimensions of connection, communication, and understanding.

Diana Fehr Architect and innovation manager Diana Fehr is the founder of the first hour and a board member of MuseoSpace Foundation based in The Hague. She combines her professional perspectives in numerous fields and experiences in the cultural sector to support and promote inclusive cultural change in society. She has already found numerous cross-border allies for this endeavor. Making change makers visible, networking internationally, and accompanying the work of a lively innovation community - this is what the initiators of the MuseoSpace Foundation , founded in 2020, have put on their agenda. In doing so, they bring together expertise from numerous fields, countries, and sectors. Their vision: to trace the innovation power of the sector and to show how museums shape, enrich, and change people’s quality of life.

Diana Fehr is driven to build spaces of value, encouraging and enabling cultural organizations’ innovation potential, and creating strong communities of knowledge exchange. This network of the Culture Innovation Community is growing and is here to build and facilitate this powerful innovation ecosystem that can deliver societal impact and help to transform change in the sector, with the support of our partners like Nordmetall Stiftung (Das Relevante Museum), Cultural Inquiry, Eoh-for-Good, and many more. 

José Antonio Gordillo Martorell holds a Ph.D. is a well-inner child-connected professional with 23 years of experience exhaling and inhaling culture, who loves care and wave communities and catalyzes healing-oriented changes. Located in Zürich he is a member and advisor of the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force and Climate Action Community Task Force Member in Europeana Foundation. He is an Evaluator for EIT Culture, Author, and Mentor in the 7th cohort of the Museum Education Mentorship program of the American Alliance of Museums and cooperates with prestigious cultural hybrids distributed platforms such as MuseoSpace, Arkive, or RADAR. In 2022 Jose founded Cultural Inquiry , a disruptive Hub to provoke and shake worldwide cultural professionals with new future visions, nature-based narratives, and "in-between" approaches as children-centered. 

He likes to flourish indigenous and child stories through projects (called by him "one of kind encounters") following an organic approach called Mycellium Thinking created by Anab Jain from Ancillary Design:

"Mycelium travels the dark recesses of the Earth; it moves through unseen spaces and emergent conditions, and as it moves it finds and forges new connections and alliances. To the human eye, the soil is a space of unknowns. To mycelium, the dark is rich with possibility; through intuitive exploration, mycelium metabolizes such possibilities, making use of what is available while simultaneously nurturing all around it."

Es sind keine künstlerischen oder technischen Vorkenntnisse vorausgesetzt. Formale Voraussetzung ist ein Hochschulabschluss oder eine äquivalente Vorbildung/Berufserfahrung.

We invite any professional potentially interested in acquiring human connection skills to improve their performance: cultural professionals, social innovation entrepreneurs, mental health profes-sionals, community leaders, team builders, mediators and activists, educators, trainers, coaches, etc.

When participants complete five workshop weeks, each worth 2 ECTS credits, paired with subsequent one-on-one mentoring on their own project worth 5 ECTS credits, as well as five one-on-one 90-minute coaching sessions, they qualify for the "Artistic Literacy" Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) from the HGK FHNW.

Registration fee per workshop season: CHF 40.

Booking during a workshop season:
2 - 2.5 days: 500.-
2 x 2.5 days / 1 week: CHF 900.
2 weeks: CHF 1,700
3 weeks: CHF 2,400
4 weeks: CHF 3,000.
5 weeks: CHF 3,500

Mentoring project programme to obtain the "Artistic Literacy" CAS : CHF 3,500.
20% discount with a valid student ID. This must be sent in with the registration (pdf).
50% discount for HGK students.

Terms of participation (PDF)
Information on continuing education FHNW (fhnw.ch/DE)
Continuing education regulations of the universities FHNW (fhnw.ch/DE)

Institut Vermittlung von Kunst und Design (IADE)

Kunst, Design und deren Vermittlung eröffnen neue Perspektiven, die Welt wahrzunehmen und zu gestalten. Das Lernen in Kunst und Design ist geprägt durch die intensive Erfahrung der Selbstwirksamkeit und den Umgang mit differenten Zusammenhängen.

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Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel FHNW
Fachstelle Weiterbildung
Freilager-Platz 1
Postfach
CH-4002 Basel

Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel FHNW
Institute Arts and Design Education (IADE)
Freilager-Platz 1
Postfach
CH-4002 Basel

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel Institute Arts and Design Education (IADE) Ateliergebäude: A 1.18 Oslo-Strasse 3 4142 Münchenstein b. Basel

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