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introduction

The Dutch government recently cut the state cultural budget by €200 million, a 20% decrease. The hardest hit will be the performing arts. Other measures affecting the cultural environment include increasing the VAT on tickets and art purchases to 19%, abolishing temporary income support for young artists, and restructuring public funding bodies into 'investment funds'.

As a result, individual artists and art organizations that rely heavily on government subsidies will face financial deficits in the coming year. They will have to search for new ideas and opportunities to finance their activities.

In response to this challenge, the faculty and master students of the cultural economics program, led by professor Arjo Klamer and professor Cees Langeveld), aim to find new ideas to realize the value of the arts. We intend to make a substantive contribution to the cultural world. We work with several organisations, including Erasmus Trust Funds, Cultuur en Ondernemen (Culture and Entrepreneurship), the Van den Ende Foundation, the Rotterdamse Raad voor Kunst en Cultuur (Rotterdam Council of Art and Culture), the city of Rotterdam, the Performing Arts Fund NL and NRC Handelsblad (Dutch newspaper).

To that end we have initiated a two-stage event:

1. an open competition for ideas on alternative ways of realizing the values of the arts
2. a one-day symposium

aims and objectives

The symposium will be a forum to propose alternative ways to finance the arts, gathering ideas and suggestions to face the current shortage of state subsidies. The conversation will evolve with a focus on the Dutch case, but will be highly relevant to artistic sectors of other countries facing similar circumstances. Our expectation is to look beyond existing financing practices in the arts sector, even to observe practices in non-artistic sectors. We aim:

• to look at other and creative ways for the involvement of various government agencies
• to gather new ideas as to how to apply market strategies (in terms of pricing, marketing, auctioning, sponsoring, commissions)
• to generate ideas for alternative ways of financing the arts, like by means of donations, patronage, contributions, internet, and sharing.

Together with artists, representatives of cultural organizations, cultural entrepreneurs, scholars, bankers, business people, and funders, we want to explore creative solutions to the question: How can we realize the value of the arts, financially and otherwise? We aim to bring people together who are already experimenting with new approaches and solutions, such as Melle Daamen, Rudy Stroink, Sigrid Hemels, Eric Holterhues, and others who are eager to find alternatives. We seek discussions and an exchange of ideas, knowledge and experience with people from diverse backgrounds. We want to learn from those who dare to be creative. And finally, we want to collect all the inspiring ideas and conversations in a publication that will encourage artists and cultural organizations to try new approaches.