About ARTKOM
An artist-led participatory practice, two decades in the making.
ARTKOM Arts & Health is the artist-led participatory arts practice founded by painter and participatory artist Nicky Myny. Through painting, material exploration and shared creative process, ARTKOM creates spaces where people, teams and communities can slow down, reflect, connect and give form to what words alone cannot always hold.
Intro
Where art becomes a way of meeting what matters.
ARTKOM was created from a simple but powerful understanding: art can bring people into another quality of attention.
Not every question can be solved in a meeting. Not every experience can be expressed through language. Not every transition, relationship or collective challenge can be understood through analysis alone.
Art offers another route. It invites gesture, colour, body, memory, imagination, intuition, material and presence. It allows people to participate with more than their intellect.
This is the territory of ARTKOM. Formats include open ateliers, one-to-one studio sessions, team days, leadership offsites, conference activations, long-form residencies and the Arts in Balance (NL) programme for care teams.
Nicky Myny, Founder of ARTKOM
Founder story
Rooted in the lived and artistic journey of Nicky Myny.
ARTKOM is rooted in the lived and artistic journey of Nicky Myny.
Over twenty years ago, while facing an autoimmune illness, Nicky encountered art not as a luxury, but as an anchor. Painting became a way to meet uncertainty, give form to pain and discover meaning where words were not enough.
That experience shaped a lifelong commitment to art as a human practice: not only as expression, but as a way of connecting, reflecting, sensing, questioning and becoming present.
Her practice is rooted in two decades of artistic development and 15 years of professional experience across participatory art, facilitation, coaching-informed work, community projects, organisational work and Arts & Health contexts. She was personally trained by Arno Stern, founder of Expression Semiology. For around ten years, she has led her own art-based practice through ARTKOM.
Explore Nicky’s autonomous painting practice →
ARTKOM grew from this path. It was founded to bring the intelligence of artistic practice into places where people need more than conversation alone: teams seeking connection, organisations navigating change, communities holding complexity and individuals longing for meaningful creative space.
Position
A grounded Arts & Health position.
ARTKOM does not position art as medicine, therapy or cure.
The practice is evidence-informed, drawing on Arts & Health research and Positive Health, and grounded in two decades of studio work.
ARTKOM contributes to wellbeing offered alongside care, not instead of it, and remains clearly grounded in artistic practice.
Meet
Nicky Myny.
Nicky Myny is a painter, participatory artist and founder of ARTKOM Arts & Health.
Her authority comes first from artistic practice: painting, mark-making, material sensitivity, visual language and the ability to create meaningful spaces through art.
Alongside her practice as an artist, Nicky brings a background in arts education, coaching-informed practice, facilitation, community work and organisational experience, informed by her personal training with Arno Stern, founder of Expression Semiology. She has worked with individuals, teams, companies and cultural contexts internationally.
Through ARTKOM, she brings this experience together into a defined offer: open ateliers, one-to-one studio sessions, team days, conference activations and long-form residencies for organisations and care contexts.
Nicky Myny, Founder, ARTKOM Arts & Health
Rooted in practice
The practice behind ARTKOM.
ARTKOM is built on a long, quiet body of work. The list below is offered for context, Nicky remains, first and always, an artist.
- 01Founder of ARTKOM Arts & Health, active for around 10 years
- 02Master in Visual Arts
- 03Two decades of artistic practice, 15 years of professional experience across art, facilitation and Arts & Health
- 04Professionally trained in Co-Active Coaching
- 05Personally trained by Arno Stern, pedagogue, researcher and founder of Expression Semiology, whose work was recognised by UNESCO in the field of art education
- 06Member of IRSE (International Research on Expression Semiology)
- 07Trained in Positive Health
- 08Speaker and moderator, SDG Tent, World Economic Forum, Davos
- 09Member of Arts in Balans · active in Women Changing Healthcare
- 10International selling artist, working between Belgium and South Africa
Two practices
Nicky Myny and ARTKOM.
Nicky Myny is a contemporary painter working between Belgium and South Africa. ARTKOM Arts & Health is the participatory arts practice she founded, bringing artist-led creative processes into organisations, care contexts and communities. The painting practice lives at nickymyny.com; the participatory practice at artkom.be.
Next step
Bring ARTKOM into your organisation or community.
For leadership offsites, team transitions, wellbeing days, conference activations, residencies and care-team programmes, ARTKOM designs a participatory process around your specific context and question.
The first step is a discovery call. Together, we explore your setting, your people, the theme you are holding and the kind of creative process that could serve the moment.
Begin a conversation