Creative Financing of the Arts Symposium

Dutch English

With the government soon to withdraw as the chief financier of art and culture in The Netherlands, artists and culture enthusiasts will have to seek other ways to finance their artistic and cultural expressions.

This is a grassroots initiative aimed at identifying and bringing forward for discussion the most promising alternative methods for financing 'noncommercial' arts projects or 'noncommercial' cultural institutions. This call is open to entrepreneurs, artists, arts managers, cultural entrepreneurs, individuals in trade and industry, public authorities, and those with simply a passion for art.

We invite those that have been developing, testing, or successfully implementing new methods for financing artistic ventures, or who know of others that are doing so, to submit their ideas through this Web site and present them at a symposium at The Creative Factory in Rotterdam, March 22nd, 2011. Two of the most notable contributors will be rewarded. We will publish a book and set up a website dedicated to the ideas.

The call is an initiative of the scientific staff and Master students of the International Master Programme in Cultural Economics and Cultural Entrepreneurship, Erasmus University, Rotterdam. 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).

Background

This is a forum intended to generate discussion and new ideas about alternative methods for helping organizations and artists realise and strengthen their values to society. Contributors should pay attention to several aspects. The arts have not been so focused on the generation of revenues and visitors as on the realization of social and artistic values. Does your proposal take this into account? And could cultural organisations learn from the market? Can they present their work differently? Do the social media provide opportunities? What is there that we can change about copyright on artistic works? Could people be convinced to appreciate the arts more, and hence to pay more in terms of prices, contributions or gifts?

We are seeking proposals that are thoughtful and substantiated, reflecting on the differences between four 'spheres' in which the values of art can be expressed:

the sphere of the public authorities and funds: are there other, new methods possible to integrate government and trust funds in realising the values of art, even now, when the government resigns from financing and the trust funds experience difficulties now that they have fewer resources at their disposal?
the sphere of the market: the sale of tickets and the acquisition of sponsor support are the most feasible ways to realise the value of the arts within this sphere. Could we do that differently? Are there other, creative opportunities for cultural entrepreneurship?
the third sphere is preoccupied with voluntary financial contributions, the benefactor and voluntary work. Could we work in another way? This is also the sphere of the oikos: many artists finance their own work by having a second job or a partner to provide income. How creative are people in this sphere?

Criteria

The proposal could be practical or theoretical. It will have:

a practical description (how does it work?) that also clarifies the feasibility of the plan.
a short indication of the plan's goal (what would be the expected impact?)
name and contact details of the contributor, and a short description of the organization, if applicable.
a maximum length of two single-sided A4 pages.

In your proposal please include a statement indicating whether the idea is in the conceptual phase, development phase, or implementation phase. Please identify whether this is an idea for financing an individual project, or an institution. If your idea is in the conceptual phase, please substantiate why you believe it has merit. If it is in the developmental or implementation phase, please tell us of your progress to date.

You are invited to send your contributions to info@klamer.nl by February 25, 2011.

A competent commission will be tasked with evaluating the proposals and selecting the best 20 proposals. The contributors of those ideas will be invited to present them at the symposium.