Several of my presentations and workshops are listed here.
Some of the lectures that are viewable online are:

2025

“The landscape thinks itself through me”
On art, sustainability and regenerative education

In this presentation, Jan van Boeckel explored the kind of contributions that art and artistic practice in his view can make when seeking ways to navigate the challenging times that we are living in today. The title of the presentation refers to a famous quote of French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne, who once said about his art making: “When I paint, the landscape thinks itself through me. I become its consciousness.” These lines point to a kind of reciprocity between the creating human being and a more-than-human landscape in which he or she is situated. Such a shift from an orientation of control of the nonhuman world to a more humble effort to align with it could be of vital importance when seeking more sustainable ways of living on this earth.
Southern Cross University, Australia, SEAE Seminar series, 18 June, 2025 (62 min.).
https://www.scu.edu.au/education/events/

“Learning Through Artistic Practices“
How do we keep our mental balance, our sanity, our connection to beauty, and how can we together build a more convivial culture, when the immense challenges that come our way are so overwhelming and can feel so disheartening? CEMUS course Perspectives on Climate Change – Ecopsychology, Art and Narratives (Uppsala, Sweden). March 18, 2025 (72 min.)

2024

“Learning to Learn: How to Practise Art for a Convivial Future”
Green Academy Seminar Series 1, hosted by ProProgressione, Budapest, Hungary
June 6, 2024 (64 min.)

2023

“Art and Sensorial Imagination of the Unseen”
At Biotoopia conference, Tallinn, Estonia
May 12, 2023 (47 min.)

“When the moment begins to heave and expand in great circles”
ClimateExistence conference, Sigtuna, Sweden
August 16, 2023 (41 min.)

2021

“Mindful schizophrenia – Keeping one’s sanity in face of the ecological emergency”
In this presentation, Jan van Boeckel unpacked some of his personal explorations of what it means to feel alive today. Whereas Greta Thunberg once said that ‘there are no grey areas when it comes to survival’, another approach would suggest that grey, black and white – and indeed even complementary pairs such as purple and yellow, or orange and blue – can coexist. Perhaps one could be able to see that things are quite hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. We are not only faced with the grimness of climate grief and eco-anxiety, but there is a parallel suffering of living at a distance from beauty. The notion of Mindful schizophrenia suggests that there might be survival value in embracing paradoxes and ambiguity: trying to uphold one’s dignity and integrity with a split mind amidst the unfolding of the ecological emergency.
Keynote presentation at the international conference ClimateExistence at the Sigtuna Foundation, a collaboration between CEMUS at Uppsala University and SLU, Sweden. August 12, 2021 (49 min.).

“I would still plant my apple tree”
Presentation at the inauguration of Dr. Jan van Boeckel as Professor of Art & Sustainability at the Research Centre Art & Society of Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, the Netherlands. May 10, 2021. Prior to the installation, a seminar took place with participation of Icelandic author Ande Snær Magnusson, and of Loes Damhof, Professor Ine Horlings, and Dr. Judith van der Elst from the Netherlands. The lecture itself starts towards the end of the recording, at the 93rd minute (at 1:33 min. or click here). The total length of the session is 126 min.

Lecture and online workshop on wildpainting (in Dutch)
During the COVID-lockdown, Jan van Boeckel gave a presentation in Dutch at MK Ateliers in Amsterdam on the concept and the practice of wildpainting. The session also included an online workshop in which dozens of people participated at their homes, using the art materials they had at hand.
Tijdens de lockdown in de tijd van de Covid-pandemie presenteerde Jan van Boeckel een online lezing bij MK Ateliers in Amsterdam over wildpainting. Aansluitend leidde hij, ook online, een schilderworkshop met een (onvoltooid?) schilderij van Paul Cézanne als uitgangspunt. Amsterdam, 17 maart 2021.
MK Ateliers, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, March 17, 2021 (64 min.).

2020

“The earth breathes us; People of all species, also humans“
As part of the Media Art Festival, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, Dec. 13, 2020 (116 min.)

Nov.: Labdag Master Art Education (lecture and workshop) at Academie Minerva, Groningen, The Netherlands. Theme: ‘Comparing the Incomparable’.
Nov.: Lecture and workshop for Artistic Research Community (ARC) and Master ‘Inter-Relational Art Practices’ (IRAP). Academie Minerva, Groningen, The Netherlands. Theme: ‘Artistic probing of the world in an age of uncertainty and climate fear.’
Sept.: Workshop Metamorphoses of organic forms in the park Noorderplantsoen, in Groningen, The Netherlands, as part of the OffCourse offered by the Research Centre Art and Society (Hanze University of Applied Sciences): “Agility in the Face of Climate Change.”

Sept.: Lecture on the theme of ‘Deep Adaptation’ for students of IWP – Innovation Lab on Climate Adaptation, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, The Netherlands.
May: Lecture (and workshop) on art and environmental education as part of the course ‘Environmental Education and Learning for Sustainability’ at Wageningen University, Netherlands. The session was online due to the coronavirus. Students participated in a lines of the hand workshop. Later, they selected the place where they felt rooted most strongly on an online world map and uploaded their lines of the hand drawing and haiku poem.
Feb.: Lecture and hands-on workshop with clay at Utrecht University College, The Netherlands, as part of the course Creating Societal Impact.
Jan.: Podcast on the Open Air Philosophy project on three Norwegian ecophilosophers – Arne Naess, Sigmund Kvaløy Setreng and Peter Wessel Zapffe. Accessible via Rewilding Earth.

2019

“Urban Environmental Education: Urban Nature and Aesthetics”
Webinar presentation for the Urban Environmental Education online course, offered by Cornell University’s Civic Ecology Lab (USA), with hundreds of participants from over 50 countries.

“Art and Sustainability Education in an Age of Uncertainty and Climate Fear“
Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, Estonia, Oct. 9, 2019 (97 min.).

May: Keynote and workshop at the network meeting of art teachers at HDK Gothenburg, Sweden, on Art education in a time of climate strikes and fear for the future.
March: Keynote and workshop: Being present in the present to what presents itself. At Symposium Global Challenges – Rethinking Education? of the Nordic Summer University (study circle Learning and Bildung in time of Globalisation), 19-21 March 2019, University of Bergen, Norway.


“A pedagogy of the light in the eyes: Being present in the present to what presents itself”
If we are to respond adequately to the rapid and deep changes taking place in the world in our current times, we may need to envisage a very different type of education. Not one that is predominantly based on knowledge transfer, but a kind of teaching and learning that foregrounds engaging with radical uncertainty.
Cemus Opening Lecture of the Year 2019. Geocentrum, Uppsala, Sweden. Jan. 21, 2019 (79 min.).

2018

April: Presentation of paper “Fostering Agility Through Art,” together with Jeroen Lutters (ArtEZ, Netherlands), at the Radical Relevances conference at Aalto University, Finland (25-27 April, 2018).

“I Would Still Plant my Apple Tree”
Presentation at the Climate Existence conference in Sigtuna, Sweden May 7, 2018 (27 min.)

May: Lecture and hands-on workshop at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, as part of the course Environmental Education and Learning for Sustainability. This course enables students to actively engage with critical issues in designing an appropriate environmental and sustainability education programme using a variety of learning and community engagement approaches.

Oct.: Lecture as part of the symposium State of the Art – A multidisciplinary collaboration facing the Anthropocene in Silkeborg (10-13 Oct., 2018), Denmark.

2017

May: About forty students and professionals working in sustainability and education participated in a Meet Up organized by the Friends of the Earth Charter and Wageningen University (see images of my workshop in the Arboretum. My lecture title: “The relevance of arts-based practice and connecting to nature in an age of climate fear.”

May: Breakfast presentation ‘Art & awareness: Making sense in an age of climate fear’ at the Bloom Sustainability festival in Uppsala, Sweden. Workshop with clay (“Missing links”) on the Gamla Torget town square of Uppsala.

Aug.: Presentation “Art & awareness, making sense in an age of climate fear,” and clay workshop “the gesture of the receiving hand.” At the Art & Design Practice programme of University College Roosevelt in Middelburg, Netherlands.
Nov.: Workshop Wildpainting at conference on “Green pedagogy” at Groeneveld Castle, Baarn, The Netherlands. The conference highlighted the importance of nature in education and health care.
Nov.: Presentation “Art & awareness, making sense in an age of climate fear,”  University College of Southeast Norway (USN), Notodden, Norway. Workshops with 36 students in art education & design.

Nov.: Lecture and workshops in Bø, Norway, at invitation of Bærekraftige liv i Bø (Transition Town Bø).

Nov.: Lecture “The relevance of arts-based practice and connecting to nature in an age of climate fear” at NMBU, Ås, Norway, at the Teacher Education in Natural Sciences program.

2016

Jan.: Presentation on arts-based autoethnography and interpretative phenomenological analysis (as part of my doctoral research) at ArtEZ International Research School of Arts and Cultural Education (AIR), in Arnhem, Netherlands.
Feb.: Facilitation of workshops and participation in seminar of the BERA Research Commission Project “Reviewing the potential and challenges of developing STEAM education through creative pedagogies for 21st century learning”, in Aberdeen, Scotland.
April: Keynote address at the Climate Existence conference in Sigtuna, Sweden, entitled “Being able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise: Artistic engagement in an age of Climate fear.” I asked the people in the audience to “make notes in clay” during my lecture, rather than with a pen on paper (see image). Part of my contribution to the conference was also an in-person dialogue with David Abram on the theme of “Animism and Technology.”

May: Facilitation of art workshop as part of the seminar “Knowing from the Inside Kitchen,” of which the theme was: “An Epistemology of Attention – Exploring the Curriculum.”The KFI Kitchen is a ERC Research project led by anthropologist Tim Ingold at the University of Aberdeen.  In this week-long workshop at Comrie Croft in Perthshire we investigated what it means to teach.  A number of approaches and perspectives emerged from a broad range of disciplines, with formal presentations alongside hands-on activities designed to shed light on and demonstrate what might be possible for a university considered otherwise.
May: Lecture and workshop facilitation on the theme of art and environmental education at Wageningen University and Research Centre in The Netherlands, as part of the course Environmental Education and Learning for Sustainability.
June: Presentation at conference Language, Landscape and the Sublime, in Dartington and Sharpham House, in Devon, United Kingdom. I gave a lecture entitled “The landscape thinks itself in me.”
Sept.: Facilitation of a break-out session on imagination and storied sensorial memory of landscape and place at Green Grounds for Health and Learning (5th International School Grounds Conference), in Lund, Sweden.
Oct.: Open Lecture at Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn: “Perspectives on art education in today’s global economy.” Together withTomaž Zupančič, Professor at the Faculty of Education, University in Maribor, Slovenia. Conversation about the interfaces of art, art education and economy.
Nov.: Lecture with the theme Researching self-facilitated practices in arts-based environmental education: A report on challenges in performing arts-based autoethnographic explorations at the  conference Refl(a)cting on Arts, Design and Art Education at ArtEZ University of the Arts, The Netherlands.

2015

Feb.: Lecture as part of the Hugarflug conference in Reykjavik, “Angels talking back and new organs of perception: Art making and intentionality in nature experience.”
May: Paper presentation, “Angels talking back and new organs of perception: Art making and intentionality in nature experience,” at NORDIK conference (Art History) in Reykjavik, Iceland.
May: Paper presentation, “Angels talking back and new organs of perception: Art making and intentionality in nature experience,” at conference “Culture(s) in Sustainable Futures”, in Helsinki, Finland.
Sept.: Presentation as part of Symposium panel “Creativity in Science Education for Sustainability” at European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) conference in Helsinki, Finland. Title: “Making meaning through art in an age of climate fear: Between opening the senses and psychic numbing.”

“With Art to the Heart of Nature”
Official presentation in the Estonian House of Parliament on the relevance of arts-based environmental education at the Eesti Kunstiakadeemia visioonikonverentsilt (“Estonian Academy of Arts Vision Conference”). Tallinn, Estonia, Sept. 18, 2015 (21 min.).

Nov.: Presentation of lecture at Telemark University College, Notodden, Norway: “With Art to the Heart of Nature.”

2014

May: Lecture and workshop as part of MA study program “Applied Environmental Education,” at Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

“Looking into the Abyss”
In this lecture, I explored what contribution artistic practice can provide when searching for strategies to cope with the unsettling news of impending catastrophic climate change and other manifestations of the current ecological crisis.
Listaháskóli Íslands (Iceland University of the Arts), Reykjavik, Iceland, Oct. 15, 2014 (37 min.).

2013

Nov.: Lecture on my research in arts-based environmental education, at conference Jubileum & Visioner. Høgskolen i Telemark, Notodden, Norway.
Nov.: Open lecture: “From education for sustainable development to sustainable education – what is the role of art?” At Section for Learning and Teacher Education, IMT, NMBU, Ås, Norway.
Nov.: Lecture on my doctorate research at Metodsymposiet, Gävle University College, Gävle, Sweden.

2012

Feb.: Presentation on arts-based environmental education practices in Europe at NAEA Pre-conference: “Earth Education: Art Education as if the Environment Matters,” Education Center at the Rubin Museum of Art, New York.
March: Presentation at the annual convention of National Art Education Association, with the theme: “Emerging Perspectives – Connecting Teaching, Learning, and Research,” in New York. Special Speak out session: “Environmentally Aware and Ecologically Activist Art Education.”
June: Lecture and paper presentation on research findings as part of PhD study “At the Heart of Art and Earth,” at Conference Onderzoek in Cultuureducatie at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Aug.: Lecture and workshops at Wij Trädgårdar, Ockelbo, Sweden. Augustiträff – om att hitta nya vägar. Seminar: “Hur kan vi hantera våra brännande existentiella frågor om miljö, klimat och resursförbrukning?”
Dec.: Lecture and panel discussion participation at Intensivdagarna 2012, in Visby, Sweden, organized by Riksutställningar (Swedish Exhibition Agency). Theme: “Do We Have to Go In in Order to Come Out? On the Relationship Between Exhibitions and Nature.”

2011

Feb.: Presentation of several workshops at “2011 Freiburg Forum on Environmental Governance: Inspiring Change Towards a Green Economy,” in Freiburg, Germany.
Feb.: Lecture and workshop presentation at Art and Ecology Seminar at Oslo National Academy of the Arts, in Norway.
April: Lecture on Konst och omställning (“Art and transition”) at Gävle Konstcentrum in Gävle, and workshops with art students of Högskolan i Gävle, in Sweden.
Nov.: Lecture “Angels talking back and new organs of perception: Art making and intentionality in nature experience,” presented at the “Shorelines International Symposium on Creativity, Place and Wellbeing” in Maclaurin Galleries, Ayr, Scotland.

2010

Febr.: Lecture at Seminar Konst för ett ekologiskt hållbart samhälle (“Art for an ecologically sustainable society”), Wij Trädgårdar, Ockelbo, Sweden.
May: Lecture at transdisciplinary workshop “Aesth/Ethics in Environmental Change”, Hiddensee, Germany.
June: Lecture at Falmouth University College, United Kingdom, as part of the lectures series “Comprehending Nature.” Title: “The point of no return: Artistic vulnerability and the more-than-human world.”
June: Lecture at “TRACES: Sustainable Art Education,” the InSEA conference in Rovaniemi, Finland.
Oct.: Facilitation of five-hour long session “A Dialogue on Beauty,” with 15 participants, amongst others: F. David Peat, Alan Boldon, Pirkko Pohjakallio, and Henrik Tschudi. As part of the three week long program “Gentle Actions” in Oslo, Norway.
Oct.: Presentation of the opening seminar “The Art of Looking Sideways: Reflections on the Art of Actions.” As part of “Gentle Actions,” Oslo, Norway.
Nov.: Facilitation of a two hour workshop at Norsk Taiji Senter in Oslo, Norway: “Clay and the art and ecology of the human body.” In this workshop participants were guided in making a mini-version of their own seated body with their eyes closed.

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