What is Bildung Nijmegen?
Bildung Nijmegen is a platform for concretely converting ideas into new learning and personal growth environments. Based on a lack or personal passion, topics can be explored in their own way together with students, teachers, artists, but also with other interested parties. When current topics are organized in meetings in such a way that they have an impact through unexpected working methods or special combined perspectives, a bildung process is initiated among participants, the public and organizers.
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Our vision is to create a dynamic organization that focuses on the development and personal development of many different types of people. We believe that development goes beyond learning facts and skills; the Bildung process is a process of personal development and growth. By integrating non-formal learning and autonomous arts and culture into our programming, we strive to provide a wide range of learning opportunities that promote individuals' creativity, expression and reflection.
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There are great opportunities here in not only experiencing what is organized, but also learning how your own version of a bildungsevent can have an impact on all those present.
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Examples of what we have organized in the past are theme evenings about climate change, friendship, love and death, digital detox, toxic relationships and much more. See our page about experiments and successes .
Why is Bildung Nijmegen necessary?
Education mainly trains for a profession, we at Bildung are of the opinion that in the current 'Zeitgeist' there is a need for more than that.
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There are a growing number of important issues such as polarization, ethical and moral issues and how to relate to these issues that need to be addressed. We want to provide the tools for this. How do we prepare for a future that is uncertain?
Bildung provides an independent perspective on the complete development of man as a whole that prepares itself firmly for the unexpected. This allows you to think and act critically with more self-confidence as an individual, within organizations and in your environment.
Bridging social, cultural or disciplinary differences is an increasing challenge. Polarization is growing in society because people increasingly remain in their own bubble and have difficulty giving direction to their own lives. Addressing the major issues requires a different view of living, learning and working together.
Too little attention is paid to the differences between young people and older people with diverse backgrounds. Diversity and inclusivity are important drivers to enrich a one-sided view of people and their view of the world.
As AI, Chat GPT, algorithms and robots with extreme speed become more common, it is only a matter of time before different types of work will disappear completely. In the long term, man's uniqueness will remain his only selling point.
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Bildung Nijmegen was founded to make the undiscussable negotiable so that it can also be discussed from the perspective and needs of the new generation and constructive pilot experiments can be conducted.
How does Bildung Nijmegen work?
In fact, everyone who is active at Bildung Nijmegen has a passion for what is special about people. This means that the approach at Bildung Nijmegen is primarily about making people feel heard and seen, that listening is more important than talking and that being different is more embraced than being like-minded through consensus. Learning and being trained is therefore approached from a completely different angle. With us you can be more yourself in search of answers to questions.
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The platform works on a project basis, where pilots and combinations of working methods can be designed based on a specific topic. These may be individuals who have joined Bildung Nijmegen or organizations that can be supported by us in realizing ideas.
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Within the involvement of the Arnhem and Nijmegen University of Applied Sciences (HAN), Radboud University (RU), ArtEZ and the ROC, we want to offer art and culture providers unexpected platforms. This enables them to reach new audiences and enter into valuable interaction with different target groups. Through these collaborations we also want to generate ethical and applied philosophical impact, where we welcome the social involvement and responsibility of all who want to contribute.
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Our organization strives for an environment in which diversity, inclusivity and interdisciplinarity are embraced. We want to be a breeding ground for innovative approaches to personal growth, breaking the boundaries between disciplines and institutions so that both individuals and collectives can (re)discover, develop and unfold themselves.
The board ensures organizational continuity and, together with the core team, ensures the start or facilitation of meetings to be designed based on the principle of Non-formal education, integrated with the artist-educator approach.
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Bildung Borrels are held regularly, so keep an eye on the agenda. These evenings are organized to informally update each other on all developments and to meet each other.