[spectre] New Media Art Organisations in Netherlands lose funding

Wed Jun 15 11:50:30 CEST 2011

Honor, et al...

There is a petition here: http://petities.nl/petitie/bezuinigen-op-cultuur-zonder-alle-feiten-nooit

Regards,

Jesse

On 2011-06-15, at 11:38 AM, spectre-request at mikrolisten.de wrote:

> From: Honor Harger <honor at lighthouse.org.uk>
> Subject: Re: [spectre] New Media Art Organisations in Netherlands lose
> 	funding
> To: spectre at mikrolisten.de
> Cc: Annette Wolfsberger <annettefromaustria at gmail.com>
> Message-ID: <a06240808ca1e24155c76@[192.168.1.68]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> The situation evolving in the Netherlands is shocking and 
> catastrophic.  Can those involved in the Dutch media arts scene let 
> us know what the international community can do to help or support 
> the organisations who face oblivion?
> 
> I know they seem like small gestures, but I'm sure there's a petition 
> or open letter in circulation, and it would be great to post the 
> details of that here.
> 
> Plus, is it worth concerned colleagues from around the world, writing 
> letters directly to Halbe Zijlstra?
> 
> I'm saddened and concerned, and my thoughts are with all my friends 
> in the media arts sector in the Netherlands.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Honor
> 
> 
>> Last Friday the new policy plans of the new Minister were announced 
>> and published and they are very dramatic in general for the whole 
>> field of art and culture in The Netherlands. On the PNEK list it was 
>> announced as:
>> 
>> New Media Art Organisations in Netherlands lose funding.
>> 
>> The Dutch New Media Art Organisations Steim, De Waag, Mediamatic, V2 
>> & NIMK are about to lose all their funding.
>> The Dutch secretary of state for Culture in the Netherlands, Halbe 
>> Zijlstra, has published his policy plan for coming years. In 
>> contrast to the official recommendations given to him by the Culture 
>> Advisory Board, the cutbacks will not be spread out over a number of 
>> years, but will take immediate effect in 2013. The budget for visual 
>> art will shrink from 53,3 to 31 million.
>> Among the more damaging and destructive decisions is the complete 
>> cutting of funding for the six leading New Media Art Organsiations 
>> that produce, distribute and facilitate New Media Art;
>> -STEIM: Independent Live electronic music centre that is exclusively 
>> dedicated to the performing arts.
>> -De WAAG: Organisation & Worklab for old and new media, developers 
>> of open source tools, research & technology for the creative 
>> independant industry & intermediate between art, science and media.
>> -Worm: Rotterdam based laboratory, venue and studios for film, music 
>> and internet featuring concerts, new media events, screenings, 
>> production of film, music and software art.
>> -Mediamatic: software art projects, lectures, workshops & screenings 
>> aiming on the young generation of artists, designers & tinkerers.
>> -V2: interdisciplinary centre for art and media technology in 
>> Rotterdam, activities include organizing presentations, exhibitions 
>> and workshops, research and development of artworks operating in an 
>> international network
>> -NIMK: The Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk) promotes the wide 
>> and unrestrained development, application and distribution of, and 
>> reflection on, new technologies within the visual arts. Since the 
>> Netherlands Media Art Institute came into being in 1978 an extensive 
>> collection of video and media art has been assembled, to which new 
>> works are constantly being added.
>> 
>> These institutes together form the foundation for New Media Arts in 
>> the Netherlands and forfil an important role in the International 
>> Network that shares knowledge, exchanges, produces, distributes and 
>> promotes various forms of New Media Art.
>> For most of these organisations the budget cuts will mean their disappearance.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> (fwd)
>> 
>> BUT of course there is more to it. In the document one can read that 
>> Architecture, Design and eCulture are fusing together in a new fund 
>> called Creative Industry (something non of these sectors wants). ALL 
>> organization in the 3 domains won't receive any structural funding 
>> anymore in this plan BUT the new Fund, that is now being structured, 
>> will likely offer the change to organizations to get structural 
>> funding (2 to 4 years). But since this fund is not there yet and 
>> since they are having strong debates about the role and function, 
>> and program of this fund nothing is indicated about this fund in the 
>> published document. So when reading the document you get a different 
>> picture of what is being debated right now insight the Ministry and 
>> with the 3 sectors.
>> The thing that should be in place for this fund are
>> 1. structural funding to some of the important plpl.ayers in the 3 
>> sectors; and
>> 2. creating space for basic research in the 3 sectors.
>> When we get this done we are still facing a hardcore economic agenda 
>> (the Minister is a hardcore liberal) but that we can shape and 
>> address 'creatively' since we can't and don't want to fullfill this 
>> agenda ourselves. Dealing with the goals of the new Fund will be a 
>> major challenge since NO ONE wants this Fund and it has NO bearing 
>> grounds.
>> Still, if you read the whole document you can see that probably 
>> eCulture, design and architecture are coming out best if you compare 
>> what is happening in other sectors like theatre, performing arts, 
>> post academic education, visual arts a.s. For example all production 
>> houses for theatre won't be funded anymore; all post-academic 
>> organization like the Rijksacademie, Jan van Eyck and Berlage 
>> Institute won't receive any funding anymore after 2012. This are 
>> just some of the cuts that have been done.
>> 
>> NIMk nevertheless, since they are not part of eCulture but the 
>> visual arts, are serious trouble up from 2013. The Minister 
>> indicated that he has NO responsiblity for an archive that is not 
>> set up by the Ministry but by a foundation itself, so it's NIMk's 
>> responsibility to deal with their archive he thinks. The same for 
>> the Theater Instituut Nederland that won't get any funding and who 
>> also have a large archive on theatre on theatre covering decades of 
>> history. but it's also an archive setup and organised by the 
>> institute itself so also here the Minister sees no responsibilities 
>> for him.
>> 
>> So you can imagine that I have been lobbying, having meetings last 
>> months since we saw all of this coming, even though the result is 
>> very unexpected in its format (bringing architecture, design and 
>> eCulture in one new sector called Creative Industry - that nobody 
>> wants to be related to).
>> 
>> I keep you updated since the coming month will be essential for the 
>> future of eCulture in the Netherlands since the new fund is now 
>> being discussed and shaped and should be announced end of July. And 
>> of course we think and push that this new fund will supoort some 
>> organisations structuraly since the budget is there (eCulture is far 
>> less cut down then any other sector, only about 15% while other 
>> sectors face cut downs to 25 till 50%).
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
>> SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe
>> Info, archive and help:
>> http://post.in-mind.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre
> 
> 
> -- 
> Honor Harger
> 
> Director
> Lighthouse
> http://www.lighthouse.org.uk
> 
> Address: 28 Kensington Street, Brighton, BN1 4AJ, UK
> Tel: +44 1273 647197
> email: honor at lighthouse.org.uk
> 
> Find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LighthouseArts 
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> 
> 

_________________________________
Jesse Scott
Artist, Coder, Writer

the memelab
www.memelab.ca
jesse at memelab.ca

Graffiti Research Lab - Canada | Germany
www.graffitiresearchlab.ca 
www.graffitiresearchlab.de
agentscott at graffititresearchlab.ca

isalsoat  | vimeo | twitter | linkedin | behance

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