What we’re about
NEXAA is a registered not-for-profit professional and educational organization dedicated to the growth and development of the field of intermodal expressive arts in the Netherlands. We are run by a small team of dedicated individuals who are focused on the role and value of the expressive arts in all areas of society. We are currently getting ready to launch our membership and community-building efforts and we invite you to become part of it!
Visit our website to find out more! nexaa.org
Or send us a message or email: info@nexaa.org
NEXAA’s Mission/Why we exist:
Intermodal Expressive Arts is the philosophy and practice of combining all artistic forms of expression (visual arts, movement, drama, music, creative writing) and other creative processes to foster deep personal growth and community development. This philosophy stems from the belief that interaction with the arts as a whole can inspire, activate, and help to integrate positive change, transformation, awareness, and healing on both personal and collective levels.
Intermodal Expressive Arts developed in the U.S. in the mid 1970s as a philosophical framework involving a multitude of methods for artistic expression, and at that time, focused mainly on the arts as therapy. The intermodal approach involves shifting between two or more modalities of artistic expression rather than focusing on a single discipline. The field of intermodal expressive arts has now been expanded from therapy settings to use in the many different contexts in which the arts can help us overcome the inherent struggles of being embodied humans.
NEXAA, which stands for Netherlands Expressive Arts Association, aims to educate about and advocate for the value of using the intermodal expressive arts approach in the Netherlands. By integrating already established intermodal expressive arts knowledge and practices into the psychotherapeutic, educational, anthropological, medical, and sociological disciplines here, we believe we can contribute to helping to create a stronger, more adaptive, and more peaceful society.
We aim to do this by:
-Hosting various symposia, seminars, and conferences that bring together EXA experts, practitioners, and potential students for collaboration, research, training, and sharing of methods and data.
-Building a robust membership community so that all topics and developments in the Netherlands and internationally within the EXA field have a place for exchange through interactive platforms.
-Adding our voice in the establishment of professional criteria for accreditation, competency, and financial reimbursement policies within the field.
-Introducing and furthering the understanding of the principles of intermodal practices as a viable and efficient method for promoting mental health and well-being.
-Creating training and education programs to provide foundational and advanced skills and knowledge of the theory and practices of ExA.
-Creating opportunities for the gathering, publishing, and exchange of research, knowledge, and developments in and around the intermodal ExA field
-Weaving an international consortium of partners.
-Advocating for the status of intermodal Expressive Arts as a valuable resource to address societal problems and mental health needs in the Dutch context.
-Accumulating and making publicly available research pertaining to the use of expressive arts in education, psychology, community development/building, and as a therapeutic healing tool in a shareable database.