Femke Deckers on PERSPECTIVE

An inspiring performance on change, self-innovation and creativity!

Femke Deckers will perform her Theatre College exploring the journey of change and self-innovation.

As a Creative Thinking Facilitator, Femke guides you through a journey of “self-innovation”, inspired by an intensive surgery she went through. In this theater college, Femke will walk you through the 7 creative attitudes essential for both innovation and daily life. Perfect for individuals navigating life changes and businesses undergoing organizational shifts!

Femke Deckers, the owner of De Creatieve Werkvloer and author of the book “Unscrew Yourself,” embodies the creative mindset. For her, creativity is not just a talent; it’s a mindset. Her personal experiences with physical challenges have motivated her to specialize in applied creativity.

Joyce Overheul on NATIVE

Imagine working with textiles and craft techniques such as handicrafts, things that used to be often labelled as women’s hobbies rather than art forms. Why is it that one work is worth more than another?

Joyce will take us behind the scenes of her art, showing you how she creates her works and how everything is connected.

Joyce Overheul is an artist growing up in an environment where not everyone was equal to each other. From that starting point, she now makes art about feminism, women’s rights, emancipation, equality and inequality.

Joyce also made the statue for Truus van Lier, a sculpture that at first glance does not fit into her oeuvre at all.

Fedor van Rossem on Rise

The way to ease out difficulties by visualisation.

In this talk we push creativity and surprise ourselves with our unknown capabilities.

Fedor van Rossem is director, artist and educator.

Besides his work as an illustrator and visualizer he works for educational television. He is also an Educator at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Het Utrechts Archief and Museum IJsselstein.

Belle de Gast on Endurance

Utrecht has a new Bicycle Mayor: Belle de Gast. Belle is an ex-professional cyclist. Nowadays she is a   physiotherapist besides her role as Bicycle Mayor. Her  agenda for the next two years is a combination of these two; Get out of your car and onto your bicycle. Because cycling is healthy, in so many ways.

Belle is also active for Team Fiets at Sport Utrecht. There she focuses on education about safe cycling in schools, giving cycling lessons in the different neighbourhoods to refugees or people who have never learned to cycle.

In this CreativeMornings talk she will talk about the endless opportunities that lie ahead of us.

Samuel Beltman on Simplicity

Samuel is a well known figure in the Utrecht world of sustainability and cycling. Not only does he run a marketing company with focus on sustainable organizations, he is also the co-founder of the Cycling 4 Climate Foundation. The main event of the foundation is the annual bike ride Climate Classic. A one day event where hundreds of cyclists ride the (potential) new coastline we will have when the sea level keeps rising.

In this CreativeMornings Samuel will talk about his trip to Rome and what he learned about connection. And how he found his calling in organizing the Climate Classic.

Martine Mussies on Reverie

Martine Mussies is an artistic researcher & autistic academic. Through text, music and visual work, Martine uses her art to explore new worlds and ideas. In doing so, she often combines analogue and digital techniques.

Through her autism, Martine has a unique - and dreamy - view on the world around her. She is fascinated by stories about the medieval king Alfred, as well as by mermaids and other hybrid creatures from fairy tales, mythology and fantasy literature.

She regularly publishes about her research in academic journals and speaks at international conferences. Besides her research, Martine is a chorister, practices Japanese martial arts, and is the founder of Japan Fans.

In this CM Martine will talk on how she combines her dreams with an internet connection in order to create creative movements.

Marco Mout on Movement

After travelling the world by bike, Marco Mout moved to Zutphen. In the Kruittoren 1328 (!) he started WALHALLAb. For young people where anything is possible. Imagine not doing so well at school, or maybe you haven’t been there for a while. After all, why do you even need to learn?

WALHALLAb is a place where young people can be themselves. Where they can do things and learn from and with the coolest teachers you can imagine. Build a plane with a pilot. Design your room with a real designer. Compose music with advice from the best producers in the world. Or just have fun with peers and guys who are young (in spirit) themselves and give you every opportunity.

Imagine you are crazy about fashion, music, engineering, 3D or just about anything else. At WALHALLAb, you have come to the right place!

Anyone who has ever been in or studied at an art / design school will recognise many aspects of WALHALLAb. Learning by doing, making things!

Marco takes us into the world of WALHALLAb and what makes this place so special for young people.

Sharon Sciammas on Corruption

Communities help us to avoid corruption. Period.

It seems like we are losing our ability to trust each other. Fake news, SM algorithms, political polarization, global warming - our inability to solve global issues is stagnating. Those complex problems require a new kind of collaboration and reestablishing our trusted social contracts.

In this talk Sharon will take us on an exploration; What are communities anyway? How will communities shape our future? and; How can communities help us solve global issues and re-enable trust?

Sharon has been working in tech since 2004. For the last 5 years his  focus is on community and platform design. Passionate about bringing people together in a fun, meaningful way.

Sharon is also co-creating W3B Lab - a web3 entrepreneurial community in Madrid, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Lisbon. 

Martijn Haan on Touch

Petting concrete: I know people who do that and I sometimes commit it myself. Concrete - especially rough textured concrete - invites you to touch. My love for concrete stems from my love for Eastern Europe, where raw concrete is never far away. There is also a lot of ‘brute’ in the Netherlands. On Twitter I came into contact with other concrete petters. Our wild idea to write a book about brutalism in the Netherlands quickly became concrete.

In this talk you will see the most beautiful brutalist buildings in Utrecht, the Netherlands and worldwide. Hear how Brutalism fans met on Twitter and how their idea for a book became reality.

Martijn Haan is a geographer by training, content manager for an NGO and blogs about architecture and Eastern Europe on Oostblog.info.

[This tak will be in Dutch, however we are confident the pictures will inspire all, so please don’t let language be a barrier to join.]

Joris Roovers on Sanctuary

Did you ever have a (crazy) idea? A great wild thought that could change things around you. Or a silly little thing you came up with in a bar having laughter with friends? The answer is probably ‘yes’. But how often do you actually pursue one? The answer is probably ‘none.’

Why not? You can come up with a million reasons. But what will happen if you follow your guts more often? In this Creativemornings session, Joris wil talk about creating a sanctuary for creativity. For crazy ideas.

About Joris

I like to do what others say ‘you can’t do that’, or 'you’re crazy’. 

Joris once spent 6 months driving around Italy on a 40-year-old Vespa, devised an abnormal·restaurant, developed an oldskool newspaper (when everyone was going digital), was the co-founder of a pitchnight for new ideas, and wrote a book about ordinary things in five lines.

Joris learned to look differently at the Art Academy, to think differently at the University, to dare to do differently at the Hello© Academy, and to act differently by being an entrepreneur.