Rhythm & flow at the Monastery

Management Centre-slash-Monastery ‘ZIN’ invited me to be the fifth Artist-in-Residence.

The Dutch word ‘Zin’ translates into English as ‘liking’, ‘use’, or ‘usefulness’, or ‘meaning’, as in ‘the meaning of life’. The ZIN centre for training, reflection and development, is embedded in the Monastery ‘Steenwijk House’ where the Monks of Tilburg found a spiritual home during the last century. With decreasing interest in the Christian monastic religious lifestyle, the few remaining Monks expressed their desire to give new meaning and purpose to their Monastery and transformed it into a centre for personal and group development.

An inspiring lush green park, filled with age-old trees and colorful plants, surrounds the place. The environment proves to be perfect for serving the community as a centre for people in need of reflection and personal development. Employees, managers, and leaders who are connected with companies or government departments are regular visitors. Teams and organizations find at the centre a peaceful silence to listen to each other, to talk, to tune-in, and to grow together, often under the guidance of specialized Zin consultants.

In 2000 the Centre opened its doors for groups and visitors looking for peace of mind, inspiration, meaningfulness, or just a great place to run a training program. Since then, each half year, an artist has been invited to reside in the artist studio. This creative workplace is ideal for the production of almost any form of art because of the natural northern light falling in the studio from a garden filled with pine trees - a rare view one expects to find only in the Zen gardens in Kyoto. The spaciousness of the workplace is ideal for workshops, jam sessions, and music rehearsals.

During my stay in the art studio an inspiring dialogue has emerged with consultants and advisors of Zin about the relationship between art and organization. This topic – also mentioned in my previous post where I talk about my presentation ‘Tasting the Sweetness’ - deals with the creative tension between flow and organizing, between game and play, between natural flow and fixed controllable structures, and between the object and the observer (and the space in between). During this time of reflection we ask ourselves questions. How can we influence a social system in a way that it will (re)organize itself (out of passion, love and the need to create)? How can we (re)discover the key-note, the fundamental tone, that connects us with the heart of the organization?

The main focus of my stay at the centre is to (re)discover the interconnectedness between the artistic, the creative, the spiritual, and the organizational aspects of learning, (work) performance, and living. This special time is used to fine-tune many of the Art in Rhythm sessions and to design new workshop modules. I am regularly writing on the blogs and websites, and am polishing up my presentations. In addition, I am dedicating my time at the art studio to work on solo piano improvisations. For this purpose piano workshop owner and piano technician Henk Hupkes has generously put a grand piano at the studio to be used for the whole period.