Teaching Artistry #2
TEACHING ARTISTRY: DIMENSIONS OF CO-CREATION
​
One year research project
Promoter: Bob Selderslaghs
​​​​​
Image: The Forest School
This research project explores three dimensions of co-creation in the context of teaching artistry:
​
1. Methodologies and practices of theatrical co-creation with children and young people (in collaboration with the VOLT festival of Het Paleis, Bronks and Kopergietery);
2. “The Forest School” as a methodology for exploring with neurodivergent young people how they contribute to artistic forms of expression in theatre and what role theatre can play in psycho-education (in collaboration with UKJA – University Child and Youth Psychiatry Antwerp – and Middelheim Museum);
​
3. Teaching Artistry and cross-sectoral collaboration: What stories about the impact between artistic and social actors can a professional learning community of teaching artists, art teachers and actors from other disciplines create and share (internationally)?
​
The output of the research will include at least one article, a symposium, various graphic stories that will be shared at ITAC8 (the International Teaching Artist Conference in Antwerp in August 2026) and follow-up research.
Thomas Janssens
researcher
Annika
Serong
researcher
Thomas Janssens is a theatre maker, writer, teacher and researcher. He graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp with a Masters in Drama (2011) and subsequently obtained his teacher's diploma (2012).
​
As co-founder of WOODMAN, he creates interdisciplinary performances that explore the boundaries between fiction and reality. His work is invariably based on true stories and testimonies, which are transformed into hybrid theatre forms through complex dramaturgy and collective forms of play. Recent creations include 'Het Koninkrijk van Henry Darger' (The Kingdom of Henry Darger), 'Op zoek naar de verloren tijd' (In Search of Lost Time) and 'Adjusting Hope'.
​
Thomas worked as an actor in various film and television series and as a creator and performer with companies such as 't Arsenaal, De Tijd, Toneelhuis, Theater Malpertuis and Maelstrom.
​
From 2014 to 2018, he taught acting and stage performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. Since 2025, he has been working on The Forest School, an inclusive, participatory production about neurodiversity. This performance, which will premiere in January 2026, marks the starting point of a broader project at the intersection of art, education, health and research.
​
​
​
​​
Annika Serong is a theater actress and maker. Born in 1975 in Germany, she came to Belgium to be educated at the International Theatre School Kleine Academie in Brussels. Based on the physical method invented by Jacques Lecoq, the school focussed on creative theatre that uses languages in which the actor's physical performance is central.
​
Since then Annika has been working for Agora Theatre, the theatre of the Germanspeaking community of Belgium next to working as a freelance actress in various productions and for tv and film.
In 2022 she finished a master's degree in theatre-and filmstudies at the University of Antwerp.