Free Saturday Workshops & Collective Learning
Since the opening of our Education & Participation Space, Kunstinstituut Melly has become a vibrant place for workshops, lectures, and collective learning experiences. Every Saturday, we organize free workshops open to everyone, where creativity, connection, and personal expression are at the heart of the experience.
Our Saturday workshops provide a space for experimentation and connection. In January 2026, during Nurdan Ariöz’s workshops, participants engaged with storytelling, visual arts, color, drawing, writing, and movement, contributing to a collective story archive: a living artwork that preserves each person’s presence and voice.
In February 2026, during Sabrina Schoop’s workshops in Poetic Diaspora, participants explored language, words, and personal memories, creating poetic fragments that weave together identity, memory, and multilingual expression.
In March 2026, the workshop series Tip of the Tongue, led by Veronika Babayan, explores multilingualism, migration, and memory through dried fruit. Participants create fruit chains inspired by expressions from different languages, reflecting on care, loss, humour, and change. Language becomes something you can see, touch, and assemble. Come experience a language that cannot be expressed in words!
In April 2026, the Saturday workshops were once again led by Nurdan Ariöz with What You Haven’t Said Yet. This new series invited participants to work with spoken word, collage, and personal objects to give shape to stories that often remain unspoken. Through writing and image-making, participants contributed to a growing digital archive of personal narratives.
During the Saturday workshops in June, led by Thijmen Burgerhout, participants create race numbers, banners, medals and trophies that celebrate non-performance – something of great value, particularly in today’s results-oriented society, where speed, productivity and visibility take centre stage. In a playful, sporty setting, the pressure to perform is turned on its head, creating space for doubt, calm and the rediscovery of one’s own worth and meaning.
The space itself acts as a hub for learning, encounter, and collective imagination, where participants meet, share ideas, and experiment together. Whether through individual or collaborative practice, the workshops make the city’s unseen stories visible and memorable.
Alongside the Saturday workshops, the Education & Participation Space hosts CLiP Open sessions, community-led projects, and other creative learning opportunities. It functions as a hub for encounter, exchange, and collective imagination, where participants explore, share, and connect through creativity.
Free Saturday Workshops with Thijmen Burgerhout — June 2026
Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM | Location: Education & Participation Space, Kunstinstituut Melly
WORKSHOP SERIES - THE ART OF LOSING
Failure is the new winning! During the workshops in June, led by Thijmen Burgerhout, participants will create race numbers, banners, medals and trophies that celebrate non-performance – something of great value, particularly in our results-oriented society, where speed, productivity and visibility take centre stage.
In a playful, sporty setting, the pressure to perform is turned on its head, creating space for doubt, calm and the rediscovery of one’s own value and meaning.
The workshops constitute a playful and critical exploration of failure, loss and the pressure to perform within contemporary society. In a setting reminiscent of the world of (elite) sport, participants are invited to focus precisely on what is normally avoided: not being able to do something, stopping, doubting or failing.
Through three creative activities, participants redefine what success can mean. They create race numbers for a competition they would never win, design banners that encourage failure, and create prizes for small achievements or failures. This shift creates space to view yourself and your actions differently.
The workshops are accessible and sensory, with an emphasis on doing, making and experiencing rather than verbal explanation. A temporary environment is created in which the pressure to perform is released, making way for kindness, humour and a re-evaluation of losing.
Workshop Schedule — June 2026
Workshop #1 - False Start: Saturday 6 June 2026
During this workshop, participants reflect on something they are completely unable to do, have never tried, or would actually prefer to avoid.
Workshop #2 - Encouraging Losing: Saturday 13 June 2026
In the second workshop, participants will create a banner that encourages failure and leaves room for stopping, doubt, and the choice not to participate.
Workshop #3 - Prize for Messing Up: Saturday 20 June 2026
Participants create awards (medals and trophies) for small, often overlooked achievements—such as getting through the day, starting something without finishing it, or simply being present—reframing failure and discomfort as value.
Free Saturday Workshops with Nurdan Ariöz — April 2026
Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM | Location: Education & Participation Space, Kunstinstituut Melly
Nurdan Ariöz will once again lead the free Saturday workshops in April 2026. What You Haven’t Said Yet is an open spoken word workshop in which personal stories are made visible through image, text, and voice. The workshop series consists of three sessions that can be followed independently, in which participants explore different ways of writing: from collage, from a personal object, and through an ode to an unseen talent.
The project is based on the idea that everyone carries a story that rarely finds a stage. Participants are invited to shape and share this story. Each workshop results in a finished work — a combination of text and image or audio — which is added to an online publication. This website functions as a growing archive of voices that would otherwise remain unseen. Spoken word is approached as an accessible tool for self-expression and for connecting visual art, language, and personal narratives.
These workshops are open to all ages and require no prior experience.
Workshop Schedule — April 2026
Workshop #1 – Image as a Beginning: Saturday 4 April 2026
Explore what often remains unseen through intuitive collage and spoken word.
Workshop #2 – The Object That Carries You: Saturday 11 April 2026
Write from the perspective of a personal object, uncovering hidden stories and unexpected connections.
Workshop #3 – The Voice Not Yet Heard: Saturday 18 April 2026
Write an ode to a younger self, a hidden talent, or a quiet presence, giving attention to voices that rarely find a stage.
Free Saturday Workshops with Veronika Babayan — March 2026
Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM | Location: Education & Participation Space, Kunstinstituut Melly
Language is transmitted from mouth to mouth, from tongue to tongue. In March, the workshop series Tip of the Tongue, led by Veronika Babayan, invites participants to explore multilingualism, migration, and memory through collective and sensory processes of making. By cutting, layering, assembling, and working with images, drawings, collected materials, and dried fruit, participants translate expressions from different languages into visual and tactile forms. Language becomes something you can see, touch, and assemble, moving beyond literary fluency. Multilingualism is approached as non-linear, interrupted, and constantly adapting, while participants reflect on what is preserved, what changes, and how language survives across time and distance.
These workshops are accessible to all ages and require no prior knowledge.
Workshop Schedule — March 2026
Workshop #1 – Transmission: Language as Inheritance: Saturday 7 March 2026
Free Saturday Workshops with Sabrina Schoop — February 2026
Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM | Location: Education & Participation Space, Kunstinstituut Melly
In February, the Saturday workshops led by Sabrina Schoop in Poetic Diaspora give participants the space to experiment with language, words, and personal memories. Participants work with words from multiple languages, as well as personal, imagined, or inherited memories, exploring how language moves between worlds and creates new meaning. Contributions are transformed through writing, cutting, rearranging, and visualizing into poetic fragments, weaving together language, identity, and memory.
These workshops are accessible to all ages.
Workshop Schedule - February
Workshop #1 – Language as Home: Saturday 7 February 2026
Workshop #2 – Fragmented Memories: Saturday 14 February 2026
Workshop #3 – Language in Form: Saturday 21 February 2026
Workshop #4 – Multilingual Poetry: Saturday 28 February 2026
Free Saturday Workshops with Nurdan Ariöz — January 2026
Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM | Location: Education & Participation Space, Kunstinstituut Melly
In January, join a special Saturday series led by Nurdan Ariöz, exploring the unseen stories of the city. Participants bring personal memories and fleeting moments—sounds, scents, conversations—that are transformed through collage, drawing, color, writing, and intuitive movement. Contributions come together in a collective story archive—a living artwork that preserves each person’s presence and voice. Each session also offers the chance to create a small personal keepsake, a symbolic “key” reflecting your own experiences.
These workshops are accessible to all ages and participants with limited language skills.
Workshop Schedule - January
Workshop #1 – Personal Story Archive: Saturday 3 January 2026
Workshop #2 – Key to a Memory: Saturday 10 January 2026
Workshop #3 – The Colors of Silence: Saturday 17 January 2026
Workshop #4 – A New Key Story: Saturday 24 January 2026
Workshop #5 – Letter to Yourself: Saturday 31 January 2026
Meet the Artists & Educators
Sabrina Schoop investigates language as a living, shifting medium that connects identity, memory, and imagination. In Poetic Diaspora, she guides participants to experiment with words, visual forms, and multilingual expression, encouraging playful, reflective, and collaborative approaches to storytelling. Her practice emphasizes accessibility, creativity, and the creation of meaningful collective and personal archives.
Nurdan Ariöz is a multidisciplinary artist working across photography, text, ceramics, textiles, and screen printing. Her practice explores “in-between spaces”: moments where courage arises, silence whispers stories, and unseen talent shines. She works in museums, classrooms, and public spaces, creating opportunities for participants to find their voice and explore their own creative paths.