Engagement

In her letter Culture connects: a broad view of cultural policy, which Minister Bussemaker wrote to the House of Representatives on July 8, the minister addresses her view that "culture is part of a broad social agenda."

In other words, art and culture could be used to achieve other social goals: to change something outside the "art world.

Mindful not to neglect the intrinsic value of art and culture, the minister discusses the social and economic values of culture in her letter. She wants to encourage creators to make connections with other social domains, citing welfare, care, sports and education as examples. It is striking that she leaves the political domain unmentioned.

The minister is concerned with establishing relationships and involvement, engagement, in a limited number of social domains. Except that the political domain is not named, the social involvement of the artist seems to be allowed to be limited to within the national borders. In her letter, the minister makes no mention of the social significance that art and culture can have outside the country. Is it the intention that this involvement stops where it affects politics - national and international?

Recently published The endeavor by Hans den Hartog Jager, in which he writes extensively about engagement in art, asking, among other things, whether the artist is capable of improving the world through engagement. In doing so, he raises the question of whether the artist has a higher morality than other people.

That will not be the case. However, the artist does have in his or her hands an instrument (imagination) with which to give a different view of reality, with which - if that were the desire - he or she could amaze, irritate and unsettle. Everything is possible and everything is permitted.

This power of imagination is well understood by the minister, which is why she considers the connection of art and culture with the other domains of society so important. Imagination can set processes in motion, show different perspectives and encourage surprising solutions.

But why are the possibilities of this power, which the arts have at their disposal, not extended by the minister beyond the domains she has named? Why does it seem that arts and culture are increasingly degenerating into mere instruments with which to achieve certain policy goals (such as in the areas of health, welfare, sports and education)?

How wonderful would it be if our cultural policy could reach much further and, in the process, lead to social involvement across borders? Would lead to involvement and connection with social issues in Iraq, Gaza, Syria and Romania, for example? Would lead to more political engagement in the arts; to the desire to be able to change something.

Not losing sight of the intrinsic value of art in the process, of course.