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Workshops



SAAC
Creatieve
workshops

Sittard


16 march
30 march
13 april
11 may
2025


Four of these SAAC artists are giving workshops during the exhibition at Het Nieuw Domein, and you can participate! Read more about the workshops below and register via this link.

Note that workshops are mainly in Dutch, contact the museum if you are English speaking and want to particiapte.


Levi Jacobs - Mixed media workshop for adults
Sunday 16 March

During the workshop, you will visually investigate how an event from the past has shaped you in the present. You will use different materials for this.
You choose an event (positive or negative, whatever you want) that you remember from your past, and investigate how it still influences or shapes you today.

The theme is your own childhood memory and may tie in with that of the exhibition (sexual abuse), but that is not necessary. People can bring a photo or object symbolising the memory for inspiration, which will be taken home intact afterwards. Should someone not be able to find or think of anything, that is no problem.



Rebecca Simons - Collage Workshop for adults
Sunday 30 March

In the workshop, participants experiment with creative collage using personal archive material. Participants will be given creative tools by Rebecca to edit personal images and documents. Letter writing can also play a role in the workshop. In this workshop, participants can reposition themselves to memories and take back control by adapting their history to their own preferences. 

Participants bring a photograph (digital or print) that represents a person, place or location that has impacted their lives. The theme of this can be sexual abuse, but it can also be something else, positive or negative.


Alma Mathijsen - Writing and drawing workshop for adults
Sunday 13 April

During the workshop, participants will learn to put memories on paper. Everyone has a story that wants to be told. Often people struggle to start and to give it proper structure. Alma teaches you how to ignore your inner critic and write with some distance, for instance by writing from the perspective of an object. At the end of the workshop, you will have been given tools to come up with a story, making small drawings that give some air and life to the stories.

The theme of your story can tie in with the exhibition, but it doesn't have to.


Valentijn Hoogenkamp - Workshop Visual poetry for adults
Sunday 11 May

In the workshop, we will combine language and images to create a visual poem. A visual poem (or visual poem) is a poem in which language and images are used in equal measure to express an experience or a feeling. In this way, something can be expressed that is difficult to capture in language or images alone. During the workshop, you will learn which phrases or images weaken or strengthen the expressed experience. The materials paint, pencil and ink are combined. In the workshop we do writing exercises on style and rhythm and painting and drawing exercises. We will create two proofs of poems and finally one image poem.

This workshop ties in with the theme of the exhibition: childhood sexual abuse.


Number of participants
Max. 12 participants

Costs
Participation in one of the workshops costs €25
When registering for all workshops, you pay a total of € 85

Location
Museum The New Domain
Ligne 5
Sittard

The workshops can also be booked for groups, if interested please send an e-mail to
jerika.vertegaal@dedomijnen.nl.




Exhibition


Het Nieuwe Domein

18 February- 18 May  Date: 18 february until 18 may 2025
Location: Ligne 5, Sittard
Opening times: Tue to Sun 11:00-17:00

Museum Het Nieuwe Domein presents work by 15 members of the Sexually Abused Artists Collective -SAAC- from Amsterdam. This is the first time we exhibited as a group.
In 2021, Jan Hoek initiated SAAC, which consists of starting and experienced artists, including painters, filmmakers, illustrators, performers, writers and photographers. The members of the collective are all living with the consequences of sexual abuse before the age of 18.

The work of many members of the collective was already connected to sexual abuse and power dynamics before they joined the group. For others, joining SAAC provided new insights about the deep interconnectedness of this experience with their lives in society. They experienced a growing awareness about how impactful sexual abuse can be in shaping one's ‘doings’ and worldview.
Through art, SAAC gives a voice to the complexity of abuse experiences and makes societal stigma and shame around it visible and discussable.

More than just an art collective, SAAC is a community that understands the impact of sexual abuse and supports the ongoing process of healing. While the collective is not a therapy group, the environment it provides can be very healing. The shared experiences create a safe space for individuals to express themselves and their feelings without judgement. The group allows members to connect with others who have had similar experiences and offers a sense of understanding and connection that can be hard to find elsewhere.

As a visitor, a presentation of diverse work awaits you that can be confronting but also carries a certain lightness. In doing so, the exhibition reflects the character of the collective: diverse, warm, chaotic, open and understanding. Each member has their own story and lives in their own world, yet is connected to the collective.

The New Domain aims to put socially relevant issues on the agenda. Sexual violence affects many more people than we think: 1 in 3 people come into contact with it. Abuse cuts deep into the lives of everyone involved.
SAAC draws attention to this complex subject through artistic imagination. The New Domain is happy to provide a stage for this.

Participating artists: Josefina Di Cesare, FBVG, Mieke Hessels, Jan Hoek, Valentijn Hoogenkamp, Levi Jacobs, Ankie van Kasteren, L., Ted van Lieshout, Sanna Martha, Alma Mathijsen, Mandy Nijhof, Ronald Ophuis, Papa Oyeyemi, Frederique Pisuisse and Rebecca Simons.


For more info 
visit the museum website 






Article



When it came to sex, this artist had ‘rather screwed-up’ preferences. He thinks that is  because of something that happened in the past.


28 November 2024




The fact that artist Jan Hoek had sex with adult men as a 14-year-old was, for a long time, his depraved but conscious choice. Until he started thinking about sexual abuse and embarked on a quest: how do you learn to live with it?

read Jan Hoek's article in de Volkskrant





Security Conference #1:



Sexual violence
in the
queer community

26 November 2024



People in the queer community face significantly more sexual violence than those outside of it. Why is that? And what can we do about it? During this evening, which is part of a series of safety conferences organized by the Queer365 alliance, we will dive into this topic and search for solutions. Amsterdam should be, and remain, a city of sexual freedom and experimentation for queers, and for that reason, we must stand up against all forms of sexual violence and boundary-crossing behavior!

Therefore, we will discuss the following topics: How do we deal with consent in places of sexual freedom? Why are queers more often sexually abused, even as children? How can we ensure queers are able to report sexual abuse more effectively? How can Amsterdam better protect queer refugees from boundary-crossing behavior? And why do we never hear anything about sexual abuse in the lesbian scene?

We will be talking to Levi Jacobs (Sexual Abused Artists Collective), Ira Kip, Mani Nezami, Michael O’Dea (Menaswell), Anne Rodermond (Club Church), and we will have a performance by Didi Kruike. The evening will be hosted by Jan Hoek and Valentijn Hoogenkamp.

Date: Tuesday 26 November

Walk-in: 20:00-20:30

Program: 20:30-22:00

Follow-up: Drinks

Location: Club Church

(Kerkstraat 52, Amsterdam)

Respond or send an email with the number of people to info@nolimitsartcastle.nl to register.

On behalf of: No Limits! Art Castle, SAAC-Amsterdam (Sexually Abused Artists Collective), Queer Currents and the new queer institute Queer 365. On 26, 27 November and 2, 3, and 4 December, five LGBTQI+ safety conferences will be organised in Amsterdam. For the full programme, visit
queer-365.com




Book Launch


Onderland, van Alma Mathijsen 

12 May 2024




On Sunday, May 12th 2024, De Bezige Bij, in collaboration with the Amsterdam Museum, presented "Onderland," the new novel by Alma Mathijsen. A captivating narrative about the inner world of nine kindred spirits. With various performances and letters from, among others, SAAC members Levi Jacobs, Mieke Hessels, Jan Hoek, and Ted van Lieshout, we momentarily immerse ourselves in Onderland.

The book presentation took place at Sexyland World. The Amsterdam Museum serves as the program partner.

Read more about this book presentation here.

Read more about Alma here.