On the 13th of November, our Dutch Contra team came together with a diverse group of stakeholders at Theater De Boemel to launch our Dramalab Toolkit and exchange ideas on the immense potential of art to shape new conversations about the future of the city. Attendants ranged from artists, to urban planners and participation experts. Dramalabs facilitate conversations that engage different skills, senses, and registers compared to ‘traditional’ forms of participation. In Tilburg, we experimented with this through a collaboration between theater makers (Taco van Dijk) and researchers, who in ‘Dramalabs’ explored how theater can help create space for conflicts and differences in opinion or perspective.

Researchers Eva Wolf and Barbara Koole held a presentation on our experiences with Dramalabs, after which we conducted blindfolded conversations between participants about their expectations of the role art could play in participation. Additionally, we had a panel discussion with Mayke Derksen, Thijs van Mierlo, and Felix Wolf.

Two key insights emerged from this afternoon:

• New forms of participation can inadvertently exclude people in different ways, for example, when there’s less room for physical limitations, but they can also include people in new ways. Perhaps this is an argument for ensuring a good mix of forms through which people can make their voices, feelings, or presence heard throughout an urban development process.
• Art is already being used as a form of participation in neighborhoods, whether it’s graffiti or other forms of street art. This method could connect even more effectively to ensure these voices are heard

If you’re curious to read more and gain further insights into how such a collaboration might unfold, feel free to check out our beautiful toolkit (Thanks, Jeroen Van Diesen!), now available online: https://lnkd.in/e_mbNb3a