Max Bouwmeester

I am Max Bouwmeester. Over the past year, I have developed a strong interest in developing socially engaged work into arteducational methods. This page provides context for how these methods emerged from processes of exchange within three different contexts.

Letters to Presikhaaf University

Working in the context of social work in the neighbourhood of Presikhaaf, Arnhem, I became a writer, describer, and reporter of the work Presikhaaf University carries out on the streets and in schools. I was introduced to how diverse youth work is and can be. In these dialogues, the issue of limited education in art and culture arose.

Through letters addressed to the social workers of Presikhaaf University, I shared my perspective on how art and culture are embedded in their approach within social work. These letters were both a reflection and a proposal to look, even if only for a moment, at their work differently. By being open to me as an artisteducator, they were already engaging with the integration of art and culture in their workplace. 

The Darna Performances

Working in the context of Tangier, Morocco, I took on a diverse set of roles: director, performer, teacher, artist, and welder. I approached metal as an unknown material, as I had never worked with it before. In Tangier, under the wings of Association Darna, I worked as a sculptor, making houses. “Darna” means “our house” in Darija, the Arabic language of Morocco.

These houses became material for engagement with the beneficiaries: a group of young men between the ages of 16 and 25. All had histories in which having a home was not always a given. Through experiments working on the stage, together with my co-creator Fintan O’Hara, we created ten performances with the beneficiaries around these houses.

These performances served as a way to document our process of shared understanding, as we did not have a common spoken language with beneficiaries to rely on. Through the houses and the experiences we shaped together, we developed a shared visual and movement-based language. This became a medium through which we could express and share our imagination by showing and performing.

The Pedagogy of Curiosity

The final assignment at IMAE is to write a preamble about your identity as an artisteducator. It reflects what shapes your practice and your ambitions regarding the field of work that will unfold. My contribution is The Pedagogy of Curiosity, a research project embedded in my site-specific practice.

Curiosity is the term I use in my site-specific work because, within the limited timeframes I often work in, remaining curious is essential. In this paper, curiosity is distilled into the three innate psychological needs described by Ryan and Deci (1992): competence, autonomy, and relatedness. By asking the context you work within to engage with these needs, you are able to lead and learn through curiosity. It becomes a practical method for engaging with precarious contexts and experiences.

These three methods are connected through a shared pedagogical approach of reciprocity.

The project concludes a three-month artisteducator residency in Tangier, carried out within the framework of the International Master Artisteducator (iMAE) program at ArtEZ University of the Arts, in collaboration with the Darna Association (Tangier), and supported by the educational, research, and dissemination activities of the UNESCO Chair’s Centre for Arts and Learning (UCAL).