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🔥 Just Released!
The Empathic Gaze™: Art Thinking, Theory & Praxis Vol. 1 is now available for purchase.
Click below to get your copy and be part of the change.

The Empathic Gaze™: Art Thinking, Theory & Praxis Vol 1

Curated thoughts on empathy by Mona Penn-Jousset

Edited by Jon van Zytveld & Siobhan Wall.

Foreword by Jomo Tariku     

Cover image:

Herica by Coco Olakunle

The Empathic Gaze™ is a theory, a mindset, and a way of being in the world. It understands empathy as a mode of perception—one that engages with the world as an interdependent system, encompassing the animate and inanimate, the organic and inorganic, from the microscopic to the planetary. This entanglement is not a contemporary spiritual abstraction, but a rigorously evidenced, historically grounded concept embedded in philosophical, Indigenous, and ecological traditions across time.

The genesis of The Empathic Gaze™ began in 2019, when I was invited to lecture at two top-tier Dutch art academies. During the spring 2019 COVID-19 lockdown, amid rising global awareness around structural injustice and in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, I witnessed and experienced multiple instances of racism and discrimination, both firsthand and through the testimonies of students and staff. This prompted a deep interrogation of how dominant narratives shape institutions, particularly in art education, and how empathy might offer an alternative path forward.

I began interviewing students, faculty, and administrators at both schools, codifying the findings while exploring how diverse perspectives could be supported through open dialogue and critical reflection. This work led me back to university in 2021, where I earned an MA in Arts and Society from Utrecht University. My thesis, "Beyond the Pale: Reforming Dutch Art Academies as Locations Where Narratives and Histories of People Are Constructed and Maintained," laid the foundation for what would become The Empathic Gaze™.

The theory directly informs my book and workshop series, both of which are designed to help educators, creators, institutions, and individuals build greater capacity for empathy, agency, and relational thinking.

A central aim of the book is to amplify underrecognized and emerging voices in 21st-century art and critical discourse. I’ve curated a global collective of contributors—representing all seven continents, 14+ countries, and a wide range of ages, lifeways, and experiences. These thinkers and makers speak candidly about their relationship to art, pedagogy, technology, and the self-directed paths many have taken.

MOCA released the digital edition of the book on June 11, 2025. You can purchase your copy here.

We are currently seeking an aligned, visionary publisher to bring the print edition to life. If you’re a publisher—or know one—who resonates with this work, we invite you to connect.

If you’re interested in bringing The Empathic Gaze™ Workshop to your school, organization, or community, please email me using the contact form on this page

This is more than a book or a theory—it is a global movement rooted in empathy, artistic rigor, and the urgent need to reimagine how we see one another.
Join us. Share it. Read it. Teach it. Be part of the change.

In solidarity and transformation,

Mona Penn-Jousset

Founder, The Empathic Gaze™

June 12, 2025