A Tale of A Tub
A Tale of A Tub

Documentation of their first harvest during The Smallest Gesture workshop series. Photo: Analogue photo taken by the pre-schoolers on a disposable camera.

A Tale of A Tub’s educational initiatives employ art and artistic thinking in an accessible way as an invitation for dialogue and connection. In conversation with our educational partners, we develop experiential programs for each target audience or school group, with each exhibition offering a new focus. In addition, we offer partners the opportunity to propose specific themes or learning objectives, which A Tale of A Tub translates into inspiring workshops together with (international and local) artists and practitioners.

Our ongoing partners include: SBO Lucas, BSO Kasteel, De Betrokken Spartaan, Westervolkshuis, IMC On Tour, IMC Weekendschool, Voedselbos de Overtuin, Harbour International School, Cultuurtraject, Rotterdampas, Natuurlijk Spangen, BSO Speeltuin, Willem de Kooning Academie, WMO Radar and the Piet Zwart Institute.

We have previously worked with: Pelumi Adejumo, Bergur Anderson, Semâ Bekirović, Marie Ilse Bourlanges, Elena Braida, Lenn Cox, Yoeri Guépin, Clara Harmssen, Pavel van Houten, the Laboratory for Art and Research at the University of Cologne, Lili Huston-Herterich, Danae Io, Ash Kilmartin, Pita Kim, anne krul, Chryso Amaya Michailidis, Tabea Nixdorff, Hilde Onis, De Onkruidenier, Kate Price, Liza Prins, Aldo E. Ramos, Rachel Schuit, Stan Wiersma en Liza Wolters.

Are you interested in a collaboration between your school or organisation and A Tale of A Tub? Please contact educatie@a-tub.org.

Documentation of The Smallest Gesture workshop series. Photo: analogue photo taken by the pre-schoolers on a disposable camera

Documentation of Experimental Lino Workshop series. Photo: analogue photo taken by the students on a disposable camera

Documentation of Experimental Lino Workshop series. Photo: analogue photo taken by the students on a disposable camera

Selected projects

Cassette tape created during the Knock, Knock, Bird, Wind, Train workshop series

KNOCK, KNOCK, BIRD, WIND, TRAIN

Winter 2025

A workshop series by CHRYSO AMAYA MICHAILIDIS and STAN WIERSMA for after-school care KindeRdam BSO Kasteel Spangen

During a four-week workshop, the children from BSO Kasteel explored the sounds in and around them. They listened both far and near, created sound maps, made field recordings between their school and the Justus van Effencomplex, held listening sessions and created their own soundscape with the material they produced, which they then recorded onto cassettes, each decorated with graphic scores they created in the process.

Documentation of The Smallest Gesture workshop series. Photo: analogue photo taken on a disposable camera by the students of SBO Lucas

The Smallest Gesture

Spring 2023 – Summer 2025

A school garden and workshop series for preschoolers at SBO Lucas

In spring 2023, A Tale of A Tub, in collaboration with artist YOERI GUÉPIN, started refurbishing the already existing school garden at SBO Lucas, Primary School for Special Education during The Smallest Gesture. In several workshops, and with extra care by Lisanne Janssen and the caretaker, the garden has been transformed into a small lush oasis. With the help of BoTu Open Call from the Municipality of Rotterdam, it has been made possible to enter into a sustainable multi-year collaboration in which we doubled the area of the garden, increased the range of edible plants and offered additional lessons throughout the next school year, which were developed in collaboration with local artists. The themes dealt with are in line with the children’s world of experience, the seasons and also the exhibitions of A Tale of A Tub. There was room to work across subjects and schools, together with the local community around SBO Lucas and its preschool children. In addition to the garden, A Tale of A Tub also invited pupils to experience exhibitions during tailor-made workshops.

THE SMALLEST GESTURE has only been possible with the great support of: Yoeri Guépin, Yoeri’s mother Lotte van Baalen, Roeland Rooijakkers, Kate Price, Clara Harmssen, Antonina Iakovleva and a special thanks to Miriam Del Seppia who also helped producing this project in 2025.

Documentation of the Experimental Lino Workshop series. Photo: analogue photo taken by the students on a disposable camera

EXPERIMENTAL LINO WORKSHOP

Winter 2025

A workshop series by ASH KILMARTIN for after-school project TOP-klas CON Wereldschool Schiedam

Inspired by John Nixon’s Experimental Printing Workshops, ASH KILMARTIN created a three-part workshop for CON Wereldschool during The Clockwife. Students were invited to experiment with lino printing, using graphic shapes to design the first letter of their name. Together, they created an exhibition catalogue and curated their own presentation in A Tale of A Tub’s exhibition window. The work is on show for neighbors and passersby all day and night on the corner of Van Lennepstraat.

2025

Documentation of the Experimental Lino Workshop series. Photo: analogue photo taken by the students on a disposable camera

EXPERIMENTAL LINO WORKSHOP

Winter 2025

A workshop series by ASH KILMARTIN for after-school project TOP-klas CON Wereldschool Schiedam

Inspired by John Nixon’s Experimental Printing Workshops, ASH KILMARTIN created a three-part workshop for CON Wereldschool during The Clockwife. Students were invited to experiment with lino printing, using graphic shapes to design the first letter of their name. Together, they created an exhibition catalogue and curated their own presentation in A Tale of A Tub’s exhibition window. The work is on show for neighbors and passersby all day and night on the corner of Van Lennepstraat.

Cassette tape created during the Knock, Knock, Bird, Wind, Train workshop series

KNOCK, KNOCK, BIRD, WIND, TRAIN

Winter 2025

A workshop series by CHRYSO AMAYA MICHAILIDIS and STAN WIERSMA for after-school care KindeRdam BSO Kasteel Spangen

During a four-week workshop, the children from BSO Kasteel explored the sounds in and around them. They listened both far and near, created sound maps, made field recordings between their school and the Justus van Effencomplex, held listening sessions and created their own soundscape with the material they produced, which they then recorded onto cassettes, each decorated with graphic scores they created in the process.

Documentation of The Smallest Gesture workshop series. Photo: analogue photo taken on a disposable camera by the students of SBO Lucas

The Smallest Gesture

Spring 2023 – Summer 2025

A school garden and workshop series for preschoolers at SBO Lucas

In spring 2023, A Tale of A Tub, in collaboration with artist YOERI GUÉPIN, started refurbishing the already existing school garden at SBO Lucas, Primary School for Special Education during The Smallest Gesture. In several workshops, and with extra care by Lisanne Janssen and the caretaker, the garden has been transformed into a small lush oasis. With the help of BoTu Open Call from the Municipality of Rotterdam, it has been made possible to enter into a sustainable multi-year collaboration in which we doubled the area of the garden, increased the range of edible plants and offered additional lessons throughout the next school year, which were developed in collaboration with local artists. The themes dealt with are in line with the children’s world of experience, the seasons and also the exhibitions of A Tale of A Tub. There was room to work across subjects and schools, together with the local community around SBO Lucas and its preschool children. In addition to the garden, A Tale of A Tub also invited pupils to experience exhibitions during tailor-made workshops.

THE SMALLEST GESTURE has only been possible with the great support of: Yoeri Guépin, Yoeri’s mother Lotte van Baalen, Roeland Rooijakkers, Kate Price, Clara Harmssen, Antonina Iakovleva and a special thanks to Miriam Del Seppia who also helped producing this project in 2025.

Documentation of Make your own chair workshop series. Photo: Sarah Rose Guitar Nederlof

MAKE YOUR OWN CHAIR

Spring 2025

A toolshop initiated by young neighbors to create furniture for ANNAGRAMMA TICS

During their visits, Mina, Yousef and Zehra shared that they would be interested in contributing to A Tale of A Tub’s programme. This lead to the workshop series Make you own chair, in which TOMI HILSEE and MAURIK STOMPS shared their woodworking skills with your neighbors. In a series of workshops they not only learned how to use a drill and saw, but we also reflected on support structures and when they feel supported themselves. After collectively designing and building a set of wooden stools, each stool was marked with the names of the makers and placed in our exhibition ANNAGRAMMA TICS. After the show, the stools were of course theirs to pick up!

This workshop series was greatly supported by our volunteers Pita Kim, Roeland Rooijakkers and Antonina Iakovleva.

Documentation of Mijn Deken workshop series. Photo: analogue photo taken on a disposable camera by students of BSO Kasteel

MIJN DEKEN

Spring 2025

A workshop series by HILDE ONIS for after-school care KindeRdam BSO Kasteel Spangen

A project about Betje Wolff and Aagje Deken, and about how best friends sometimes, but always, win.

Together with Ajla, Eysa, Hajar, Hamza, Mizan, Jazzlyn, Nisha, and Yusuf, all around 8 years old, HILDE ONIS explored the neighborhood of A Tale of A Tub. As they reflected upon the names of every street, they wrote about who or what also deserves to have a street named after them and honoured them with new street signs. As a result, they made a zine that they posted in their neighborhood mailboxes.

2024

Documentation from the workshop Chapter 2: Breaking Refrains. Photo: Liza Wolters

Songs of Flax

Year-long 2024

A workshop series and performance Flax, baby! Flax! [interludes] by MARIE ILSE BOURLANGES AND LIZA PRINS

Marie Ilse Bourlanges and Liza Prins have a plot of land on the edge of Flevopark in Amsterdam, where they have been cultivating flax since 2021. While becoming intimately interwoven with the production of linen—with its inherent rhythms and cyclicality—they have become interested in work-songs as tools for social organization and for connecting humans with more than humans. Taking as a starting point the essay ‘Rhythms of Labor’ (Pickering, Robertson & Korczynski, 2013) that investigates singing within the British textile industry, they have been developing a research project and tangible body of work that examined and translated work-songs and their functions.
In this workshop series, we explored the potential of singing at work once again while transforming flax plants into linen fibers. Marie Ilse and Liza brought their flax harvest from 2023 and specific tools to lead us through the process of rippling, breaking, scutching, and heckling, which traditionally occurred on winter nights after the harvest season had ended. Our work was aided by a melody composed by BERGUR ANDERSON, which encouraged lyrics and ornamentation of voice to be introduced while we sang; in this way, we were building towards collectively writing our own work-song. The words and sounds that sprung from the workshop were, at a later stage, integrated into an operatic performance that Marie Ilse and Liza worked on.

Chapter 1: A Rippling Melody, 21.01.2024,
Chapter 2: Breaking Refrains, 17.03.2024,
Chapter 3: Over the Heckle, 14.04.2024,

Flax, baby! Flax! [Interludes] 24.08.2024-30-08-2024

LIZA PRINS and MARIE ILSE BOURLANGES presented outcomes of their artistic research project. Articulated around the labour-intensive process of working flax into linen, Flax, baby! Flax! [interludes] became a performance, in which dancers and singers use sculptural ‘flax-tools-turned-into-instruments,’ and sing of bygone and contemporary work struggles, desires and natural resources, capitalist industrialisation and protest, political agency and love while aiming for cross-historical solidarity. The songs of Flax, baby! Flax! [Interludes] were developed together with sound artist Bergur Anderson and the lyrics were partly harvested from a series of workshops, hosted at A Tale of A Tub between January and April, 2024.

The work was performed with Joana Guiné, Logan Hon Mua, Robin Becker, Romy Day Winkel, Giulia Damiani, Bitna Youn, Miriam van Rijsingen, Pilar Mata Dupont and Berenike Melchior.

2023

Documentation of the Natural Laundry Detergent workshop by Elena Braida

Lovestone: Natural Laundry Detergent Workshop

Winter 2023

A workshop to preschoolers in the school garden of SBO Lucas by ELENA BRAIDA

Hedera-helix, European ivy or common ivy is a species of flowering plant of the ivy genus in the family Araliaceae, native to most of Europe and western Asia. As a result of its hardy nature and its ability to grow easily without human help, ivy gained popularity as an ornamental plant. Yet, as an introduced species it has become naturalised outside its original range and grows uncontrolled in numerous wild and cultivated areas.

Ivy is rich in saponin. This element is a natural detergent and foaming agent. It is a surfactant that is effective in removing grease, dirt and soot from clothes and textiles. To extract saponin from the plant, you need to make a decoction. As part of the exhibition Whispers, world above, world below, during the Lovestone workshop, we gathered and walked around the school garden and surroundings of A Tale of A Tub to identify the ivy’s habitat, look at it and collect the leaves of common ivy to prepare a decoction. Together, we went through the steps required to extract the saponin from the plant and together developed and wrote down a recipe.

Documentation of the workshop See Me. Photo: Florian Braakman

SEE ME

Winter 2023

A workshop series by ANDREA KOLL and LISANNE JANSSEN in collaboration with Cultuurtraject

The educational workshop See Me by education curator and artist Andrea Koll and designer and educator Lisanne Janssen, together with art mediators Margot Annuschek, Darly Benneker, Maud Berden and three hundred students, explored the different ways we can share stories and connect with each other. During conversations with Aldo E. Ramos, the artist behind the exhibition Spinning the Spindle towards Pluritopia, they designed a two-part educational workshop where children were invited to get in touch with their own bodily knowledge and with each other’s stories. Their works were shown as part of the exhibition throughout the duration of the show.

Documentation of the workshop series Slippery Waves of Seeming. Photo: Liza Wolters

Slippery Waves of Seeming

Spring 2023

A workshop series by LIZA WOLTERS and HILDE ONIS in collaboration with Cultuurtraject

In 2023, A Tale of A Tub invited artists Hilde Onis and Liza Wolters to create a workshop based on their collaborative project Orchestrating Coincidence. Their growing installation in our basement, Slippery waves of seeming, invited children to think about lost and disoriented objects washed ashore. The children were invited to think about what it means to be of use, to have a sense of purpose, to change and transform value. The workshop was launched from a direct reference to the work of Sarah Ahmed, in which she reflects on use, form, functionality and residency. She does this in her book What’s the use?, through the allegory of a mailbox in which birds have nested, rendering it out of use. Upon entering A Tale of A Tub, learners were introduced to a displayed and illuminated collection of various, indeterminate, objects. The exact purpose of some of the objects was not clear. After analysing all the materials/objects on display, students created stories around the objects and elaborated on these stories by changing the object’s use with clay. The final stories were displayed in a room of A Tale of A Tub, and were visible to visitors throughout the exhibition. Due to the nature of the workshop, the exhibition itself also remained in transformation and continued to grow as a presentation.

Documentation of the workshop Transfer Resort: Clothing as Correspondence. Photo: Lenn Cox

Transfer Resort: CLOTHING AS CORRESPONDENCE: Mantel care for Mother Ship Earth

Winter 2023

A workshop by LENN COX & local resident WIEDJAI DIHAL

Lenn observes from her Collective Wandering field research that we can learn a lot from and with communities and collectives that develop and maintain alternative welfare and mutual care and support systems. In doing so, Lenn uses her clothes as correspondence, carrying the exchanges and stories she collects with her as a topic of conversation.

During this workshop, participants engaged with the concepts that connect with Lenn Cox’s research, local resident Wiedjai Dihal, the neighbourhood and the exhibition Where shall we plant the placenta?, which compares motherhood with ecology and connects them from mutual notions of nurturing and caring.