Hi friend! And welcome to Muse Mob.
We’re so happy you found us and that our website is finally finished!
Let us introduce ourselves: we’re Muse Mob, an organization founded by two multipassionate creatives who love to teach, learn, craft and connect. We love arts, culture, crafting and bringing people together, so that’s what we do!
Most of who we are and what we do, you can read on our ‘about’ page.
Origin Story
Muse Mob consists of two people: Zohra and Lwiza. If we go by the standard black cat-golden retriever duo then Zohra would be an orange cat and Lwiza would be a doberman. Though don’t be fooled, the INFP that Zohra is, once she’s comfortable or talking about a special interest, she seems like the most outgoing person you’ve ever met. And when Lwiza is tired they turn into a hermit and won’t be seen until they’ve recharged.
So here’s some lore: We met while studying Music in Education at the ArtEZ Conservatory in Enschede. By some stroke of fate we were in the same class and got to spend 4 (or technically 5) years together. We immediately became inseperable and functioned as each other’s safety blanket during those years of studying. Neither of us really understood what we would be in for, but this study turned out to be both one of the most intensely hard things we have ever done, as well as one of the most fun and enjoyable experiences we’ve ever had. By the time we were supposed to graduate, both of us decided to take an extra year to finish our theses. Zohra developed educational materials and Lwiza wrote a stack of (politicially engaged) essays. During this extra year of studying, we didn’t follow any subjects together and had seperate coördinators. That didn’t stop us from seeing each other. Even more so: during that year, our first ideas for Muse Mob came into existence. Slowly, our own community, our ‘village’ started to take shape. We were surrounded by inspiring young, mostly female entrepeneurs. Spending time with them, supporting each other and receiving support for our own ideas was so incredibly inspiring and uplifting.
We realised that we both wanted to do something that made the world better, as well as something that would make us happy. We wanted to share the feeling of support, community and inspiration we had found in our own circles.
Lwiza has always been a social butterfly and found it super easy to make new friends. This didn’t come as naturally to Zohra, and that helped us realise that making friends is not just a talent, it’s also a skill one can learn. Together we decided to research, experiment and hypothesize our ideal way to help people meet and connect: through an activity.
If you’re introverted and/or neurodiverse, it can be even more daunting to get out there and talk to someone you don’t know, so we decided to use the power of crafting (aka: keeping your hands busy and making something beautiful) to create get-togethers that felt safe and fun.
So far, many Muse Mob guests (like you?) have made new friends through our events. Not only that, you’ve also learned new skills and gained knowledge about art (history) and culture. We couldn’t be happier or more grateful for everything you’ve brought us so far <3
Future dreams
For now, we’d like to tell you about our hopes and dreams for the future.
As of right now, we host a montly event in collaboration with Frida Book café and an occasional event in collaboration with a cultural institution in Enschede, like Rijksmuseum Twenthe or Wilminktheater, or a different type of local business, like the Girls Night we hosted at GrannyCool Vintage.
Besides that, we’re working on a few things behind the scenes:
- Hobby Mob: a recurring activity where you can spend a set amount of time on your hobby. We will host this on a consistent basis at differing places, so you can also get to know the city of Enschede better!
There will be limited spaces available and we’re still figuring out what would be a good pricepoint - Local collaborations:
- We’re in conversation with our favourite bakery in town to start organising recurring events and workshops, mostly revolving around food and drinks, the seasons and slow living skills
- We’re looking into hosting more events with local cultural institutions to keep offering you deep dives into the fascinating world of art and culture.
- Spotlighting other small businesses
- We want to work with other small businesses, creatives and like-minded people. If this is you, don’t hesitate to reach out! We’d love to get together and figure out what we can do for each other.
- We also want to put you in touch with our favourite businesses and creators, because we believe that spreading the love is important. We’ll soon put a spotlighted blogpost up with some of our favourite small businesses and why we love them.
We believe in the power of community and connection to change lives, because it changed ours.
Through art, creativity and genuine connection we want to create safe, welcoming spaces where you can feel seen, supported and inspired so you can thrive and help others do the same.