Join a small group at Studio Margret Wibmer and explore today’s most urgent social and environmental questions through a unique art-based practice of reflection, dialogue, and exchange.
Art for Impact brings together people from different backgrounds to explore complex questions through art, conversation, and shared reflection.
There are no specific requirements. Participants from different backgrounds are welcome. Previous editions have included participants from fields such as sustainability, social equity, green finance, human rights, education, psychology, research, arts, and culture.
During the summer session on June 27th, participants will be introduced to the work of Singaporean artist Amanda Heng, who represents Singapore at this year’s Venice Biennale.
For more than three decades, she has explored themes of identity, the body, care, memory, and human relationships through performance, photography, installation, and participatory practice. Her work will serve as our starting point for dialogue and reflection on perception, ecology, social change, and collective imagination.
Participants in the Summer Session will receive priority access to registration for the September course. For those who would like to continue with the full September series (1, 8, 15, 22 September), the participation fee for the Summer Session will be credited toward the course fee.
Join a small, intimate group at Studio Margret Wibmer and experience a unique method that uses art to explore today’s most urgent social and environmental questions.
Through a guided process of encounter, reflection, and positioning, you will engage with powerful works by internationally renowned artists, unpack how art creates awareness and drives change, and develop your own informed perspective through dialogue and exchange.
Along the way, participants strengthen attention, perception, and critical inquiry while exploring how personal insight can translate into civic and ecological responsibility. The experience also reveals practical ways creative thinking can be applied in everyday life, work, and community contexts.
This is not a lecture-based course, but a space for deep thinking, questioning, and connection, using art as a catalyst.
There are no specific requirements. Participants from different backgrounds are welcome. Previous courses have included participants from fields such as sustainability, social equity, green finance, human rights, artists, art educators, curators, researchers, psychologists, and others.
Artists whose works will be introduced include Amanda Heng, Ibrahim Mahama, Arthur Jafa, John Halpern & Emily Harris, Margret Wibmer, alongside selected works by Carolina Caycedo, Guadalupe Maravilla and others.
Participants will leave with renewed clarity, expanded perspective, and practical tools for engaging with the world with greater awareness, imagination, and agency.
This course is offered by Studio Margret Wibmer in collaboration with the Institute for Cultural Activism International.
Week 1
Introduction to a unique method of thinking through art rather than simply looking at it. Through selected works from artists, some are currently featured in the Venice Biennale, we will explore how art can guide us in reflecting on the condition of our world, open space for new perspectives, and imagine alternative ways of relating to the social and environmental challenges of our time. Together, we will begin building a shared space for dialogue, reflection, and constructive exchange.
Week 2
The artists introduced in this course focus on process rather than final outcome, revealing the close connections between people, community, and the environment. Through a deep exploration of a selected artistic practice, we will reflect on themes such as the body, slowness, ritual, materiality, and togetherness, and consider how art can shape new ways of relating to the world around us.
Week 3
We will focus on our relationship with images and the role they play in shaping how we see the world around us. Through selected artistic practices using photography and video, we will reflect on perception, awareness, memory, and the ways images influence our understanding of social and political realities.
Week 4
For the final session, Margret Wibmer will introduce one of her own long-term projects. Combining installation, sculpture, costume, conversation, hospitality, and participatory elements, Salon d’Amour explores perception, relation, play, and social conventions through artistic practice and collective experience. Participants will have the opportunity to handle and closely explore original materials from the project – including masks, costumes, objects, and manuscripts. The session will conclude with shared reflections on themes and questions that emerged throughout the course.
ABOUT MARGRET WIBMER
Margret Wibmer who runs Art for Impact since 2022, in her studio in Amsterdam in collaboration with ICAI, is an internationally exhibited artist, participatory art producer and art educator, with a broad knowledge in contemporary arts and breaking developments in the field. She has many years of teaching experience in The Netherlands and beyond. Since 2020 she is adjunct lecturer at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore. In 2022 she joined the Institute for Cultural Activism International (USA) as collaborator, performer and board member.