What happens when we see care as a form of art, and art as a form of care?

Care Ethics Research Consortium Conference 23-31 January

13 january 2025

‘Care, Aesthetics, and Repair’ is the theme of the third international Care Ethics Research Consortium (CERC) conference starting 23 January. ‘This conference brings together care ethicists, scholars, artists and others,’ said Louis van den Hengel, organiser and associate professor of Care Ethics & Art. Places are still available for the online programme. 

The conference is on location in Soesterberg from 23 to 25 January with contributions from about 130 international scientists and artists. On 30 and 31 January are online presentations by more than 100 scientists in two different time zones.

Global interest

The initiative for the Care Ethics Research Consortium (CERC) was taken in 2015 in the Netherlands at the University of Humanistics by Joan Tronto and Carlo Leget: ‘Globally, there is a huge response from universities. A new generation of scientists is rising. While the UvH offers the only master's in care ethics in the world, there is a lot of research in this field at other universities,’ said Louis van den Hengel.

Academic and artistic

A congress is held every two years. Congress participants come from many different universities and art institutions worldwide. Besides conventional care ethicists, they include artists, designers and makers, artistic researchers, performers and philosophers, teachers, policymakers and others. The approach is transdisciplinary. Louis van den Hengel: ‘Often a congress is predictable in its set-up. This is really different with also creative contributions such as performance, theatre, photography, film, sculpture and dance. We try to eliminate dividing lines between disciplines. The aim is to explore together the fundamental question of what it means to provide care. What happens when we see care as a form of art, and art as a form of care?’


In exploring that question during the conference, all knowledge is taken equally seriously. Academic and artistic contributions run right through each other. It is about learning to look at art differently and learning to look at healthcare differently. ‘This requires more than a conversation between academics,’ says Louis: ’We are going to get people out of their bubbles. I hope participants will learn to look at their work in different ways. For example, I am looking forward to James Thompson's contribution with his lecture on ‘care aesthetics’ and also the artistic contributions such as those of colleagues from HKU who are performing a performance on resistance within care relationships. 

Iranian-American artist Zoya Sardashti will do one-on-one performances on naming children. Nina Goedegebure will perform an installation to retrieve stories about disease processes, also as a source of scientific knowledge, a form of artistic research. I am also looking forward to contributions from our own students, such as Tjitske Sluis, who, besides being a student of Care Ethics, is also a photographer. She is exhibiting her series Uit Liefde, Uit Noodzaak about her mother's dying process, with which she won the first prize for the documentary national of the Silver Camera in 2024.’

Connecting art and care

Art has long been used in healthcare. Louis continues: ‘Think of musicians going into the hospital and improvising with song and music. Or picking up stories from people who are terminally ill. That is incredibly valuable. Art as a tool can be beautiful and interesting. But it can also become very instrumental: what does art have to offer to healthcare? That question can also be asked the other way round!’

Care ethics is broader than just healthcare. There is an overlap, but in care ethics views, care permeates all of life and also involves care for children, animals and the planet, for example. In this broad perspective, art plays an important role: art can be a form of healing, both for patients and healthcare professionals. But what does this mean for the arts? Louis: ‘At the intersection of art, aesthetics and care lies the possibility of reshaping the world. Art has the power to break through existing frameworks and open up new perspectives, thus contributing to a caring and just society. Not by offering ready-made solutions, but by creating space for new ways of thinking and experiencing.’

Art is never unambiguous. It brings together meanings that seemingly clash, but it is precisely in this tension and stratification that its strength lies. ‘Art is polyphonic and has dimensions beyond the ideological or instrumental,’ says Louis. ‘In its disruptive nature lies a transformative potential. This capacity for disruption and reorientation shows a striking resonance with care. Care relationships are often characterised by power imbalances, discomfort and difficult existential experiences. Art provides a space to explore, understand and possibly even transform these experiences. It is so much more than a quick fix.’

More information

More information on the CERC symposium webpage. The website and logo for the CERC congress were designed by Mariëlle Schuurman and Johanne de Heus.

The image shows art by performer Nina Goedegebure.

‘Care, Aesthetics, and Repair’ is the theme of the third international Care Ethics Research Consortium (CERC) conference starting 23 January. ‘This conference brings together care ethicists, scholars, artists and others’.