Collaboration

Collaboration all around.

All the reports and annual reports show this: it is being done and asked for. The art initiatives - pre-eminent places of collaboration - are also showing themselves to be particularly active. The recent Mondriaan Fund pilot in which art initiatives could apply for a work contribution for activities in 2015 is illustrative in this regard: there is a tonne to be distributed for the pilot but applications were made for a multiple of that amount.

As a result of the cutbacks - and the bad image that the arts received during this process - are visual artists indeed looking for other ways of making and showing art, for other (more) ways of working together and other ways of creating value? Especially the younger generation of artists knows how to respond to the changing art climate and art policy in turn follows the changing mentality. Is 'the' visual artist as creator of an object - which eventually becomes part of a system of buying and selling - becoming less and less common?

The follow-up question that arises is to what extent is visual art then about the product or rather much more about the collaboration and collectivity itself, the sharing and finding of meaning in the experience. Perhaps there is a temporary trend, perhaps a displacement effect, but more likely it is the case that the initiated development will continue to exist alongside the more traditional way of producing art. After all, there is still space for the individual artist to establish an autonomous professional practice, and it seems that this space is also being sought out a bit more.
For example, after a sharp decline in 2013, the number of applications from visual artists to various funds increased again last year. The Mondriaan Fund's annual report, for example, states that the number of applications for Work Contribution for Young Talent has risen sharply, from 66 to 120. You could see this increase as a renewed optimism among the young generation of visual artists regarding the possibility of an existence - with a professional practice - as a visual artist.

The Council for Culture also agreed in the Agenda Culture 2017-2020 about the existence of the artist himself. The council believes that agreements should be made in the cultural sector about reasonable compensation for the work of artists. This puts the interests of the individual artist (almost) back on the political agenda. And let that be the very result of an intensive and fruitful collaboration between various art institutions!