See also

Alternative Art Guide
A recently launched web database of independent, artist-run spaces around the world. Alternative Art Guide is produced by The Naked, an artist-run initiative in The Hague, founded to show the multiplicity of alternative or independent spaces operating in the world today, promoting a global view from local perspectives.


What is.
Interview with artist Alanna Lawley about her installation What is. at HMK in Hoorn (June 23 - July 21) which offers a daring view on the consequences of continuing cuts on culture and the (almost) unsustainable working conditions that result from it. (English text in second half)


BK-info 2017-5
Including the article about the AiR Platform NL meeting, AiR for Experiment continues ~

 

22 June 2017, AiR PLatform NL meeting at Tetterode complex in Amsterdam

 

AiR for Experiment continues

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Air for Experiment in Delft, December 2, 2016. Image by Marco Zwinkels

AiR for Experiment continues


AiR for Experiment continues –AiR Platform NL meeting

On 22 June artist-in-residence organizations gathered at the Tetterode complex in Amsterdam to discuss the position of small artist-run organizations operating from within the local context of small cities and villages in the Netherlands. A subject that was recently explored by Platform BK as part of Air for Experiment, which took place in Delft, 2 December 2016. A symposium developed by id11 and AiR Platform NL within the frame of the European city network CreArt, to emphasize and discuss the importance of moving in and outside of institutional frames in the arts. Several case studies were presented about the everyday practice of artist-run organizations and forthcoming dialogues with local governments in different regions in Europe. The resulting comments, conditions and recommendations were discussed on 22 June with colleagues in order to develop next steps in the discourse, bringing the position of artist-run organizations to the fore.

Over the last years, the value and impact of small artist-run organizations has been subject of many researches. Over Impact en Waarde carried out by Mariska van den Berg and Youri Appelo, continues to work from this frame and takes three researches[1] as starting point to sharpen and evaluate several relevant questions: How to validate these often temporary practices? Are development and continuity possible without institutionalisation? How do artist-run organizations contribute to the ecology of civil society? Can acknowledgement (specification) of these ‘other’ values lead to additional finances and support of these organizations?

Over Impact en Waarde accordingly zooms in on the current situation of Hotel Mariakapel in Hoorn, Motel Spatie in Arnhem, Expodium in Utrecht, and Kunsthuis Syb in Beetsterzwaag. Four inspiring organizations that each in a different way interact with their local surroundings. All work from the urgency to facilitate artistic experiment. Experiment that is often related to the location, where local history, identity and other relevant topics are subject of investigation. Experiment that also transpires in the development of structures for production and presentation of art according to one’s own terms and ideas. A condition that provokes new models that, in turn, open up the existing hierarchical structures of the art world. Furthermore Mariska van den Berg mentiones it is interesting to notice that where art is continuously questioned and redefined, a window emerges on the ever-changing modes of daily art practice.

The research confirms that majority of organizations always operate under pressure, depending on volunteers, bending towards changing political and cultural agenda’s of funding structures, always in competition with bigger institutions. Facts to which several organizations during the meeting respond that a dialogue should not only involve (local) governments, but also other (art) institutions at work in the direct surroundings of an art programme.

What are the alternatives? The research provides an exciting preview into other positions artist-run organizations take up in line with their main artistic function. Like Expodium in Utrecht that transgressed from art space to think-tank in the discourse concerning urban development and civil society. To professionalize does not always mean to institutionalize. Generating a productive surrounding to share and make visible each and everyone’s knowledge and experience is key in that respect.

The AiR Platform NL meeting on 22 June took place in collaboration with Platform BK and M4gastatelier, and was attended by: Atty Bax - bkkc, Sabine König - Nieuw en Meer, Gaston ten Horn - M4gastatelier, Mariska van den Berg – Platform BK, Pauline Burmann - Thami Mnyele Stichting, Claudia Schouten - Motel Spatie, Paul Giesen en Rolina Nell - id11, Marinus van Dijke - Bewaerschole, Dagobert Bergmans - Buitenwerkplaats, Anna Carlgren - Vrij Glas, Luuk Nouwen - Flacc, Heidi Vogels -DutchCulture|TransArtists

The above article, written by Heidi Vogels, coordinator AiR Platform NL, was published (in Dutch) in BK-info 2017-5

[1]
1) Initiatieven. Onderzoek naar het Nederlandse initiatief in de beeldende kunst, Maaike Lauwaert commissioned by Mondriaan Fonds, 2014
2) Size Matters. Een verkenning van de onmisbaarheid van kleine kunstinstellingen, Maaike Lauwaert, 2011
3) Artist Run Europe. Practice / Projects / Spaces, Gavin Murphy, Marc Cullen (ed.), Pallas Projects, Dublin, 2016, published by Onamatopee, 2016


*Read the report of the symposium AiR for Experiment, Delft, 2 December 2016 (attached below)
**Read the research Over Waarde en Impact, October 2016 - February 2017 (attached below)

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