Neurodiversity Art Lab: A Critical Perspective on Neuronormativity in Higher Arts Education

This article reports on the research ‘Neurodiversity Art Lab.’ This research aims to reveal the ways in which neuronormativity within Higher Arts Education influences students’ creative processes, with the goal of promoting a neuroinclusive learning and creating environment in which polyphony in creativity can flourish. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using a mixed-method approach. This article highlights the artistic research conducted by neurodivergent students during the seminar with the same name. Twenty-one students from eleven different courses at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht participated in this seminar. The artistic research included creating a zine as an ode to everyone’s unique bodymind, redesigning teaching/creating spaces, imagining the academy as a camouflage-free zone, and autonomous works that stretch our thinking about neuronormativity, which resulted in moving, revealing and humorous outcomes. The research shows that students experience various aspects of neuronormativity influencing their creative process. These relate to lesson design, the physical learning and creating environment and social norms. These insights have been translated into pedagogical strategies that can contribute to unlearning neuronormativity and underlying power structures in order to promote a neuroinclusive learning and creating environment.