Full programme
20:00 Introduction Amsterdam Art Week Kick-Off Conversations and Drinks
Moderator: Maurice Seleky
- Introduction
- Terminology naming.
- Language plays a role and the meaning lies in the words themselves
20:05 New director Amsterdam Art Week: Martina Halsema
A brief interview celebrating AAW’s new director Martina Halsema. Where she shares her insight of AAW’s highlights, why the theme of openness plays a major role and her future outlook.
20:15 In conversation about hospitality at Amsterdam cultural organizations (panel 1)
How does hospitality play a role in Amsterdam cultural organizations and institutions? And how do they feel this hospitality can best be created? What is a good example of hospitality? Margriet Schavemaker (artistic director Amsterdam Museum) will discuss this with Emily Ansenk (director Holland Festival), Lara Khaldi (artistic director De Appel) and Marcus Tebogo Desando (director Prince Claus Fund).
20:45 Spoken word by Luan Buleshkaj in Dutch
20:50 In conversation about hospitality at Amsterdam based galleries. (panel 2)
How do gallery owners relate to the theme of hospitality? And how is this theme drawn from across different borders? Martina Halsema discusses this with Renan Beunen (co-owner AKINCI), Pietje Tegenbosch (director tegenboschvanvreden), Emmelie Koster (founder and curator No Man’s Art Gallery) and Josilda da Conceição (gallery owner Josilda da Conceição).
21:15 Q&A with the audience
What questions arose from the guests during the two panel discussions? When have they felt truly welcome at a cultural institution? Maurice Seleky and Margriet Schavemaker discuss this with the people in the room.
- How do you perceive the role of hospitality in the arts and culture sector? Are there any specific challenges or successes you have noticed?
- To what extent do you feel responsible for creating a welcoming environment within your own organizations? What steps have you taken to promote inclusivity and accessibility?
- Did the panel discussions provide new insights regarding hospitality and collaboration in the arts community? Are there any ideas or practices you would like to adopt or further develop?
- How can we better respond to audience needs and ensure that art is seen and experienced? Are there innovative approaches you have adopted or ideas you would like to share?
- What are your personal desires and aspirations for the art and gallery world in terms of hospitality and inclusivity? What steps could we take as a community to achieve these goals?
21:30 Futureteller spoken word
What predictions does the futureteller make for this edition of Amsterdam Art Week? This year’s futureteller, Femi Dawkins will give his predictions on this year’s Amsterdam Art Week. What should we look out for? Where can this year’s theme best be recognized? What is his wish for the future in the context of hospitality?
- Maurice wordt gevraagd om een introductie te geven van Femi.
Femi Dawkins is an artist with a multidisciplinary artistic practice shaped by his experiences as a child of the diaspora and his parents’ migratory movements. Combining styles such as neo-expressionism and Afro-surrealism, his work aims to embody the zeitgeist while challenging it. Dawkins finds inspiration in both the cultural-social upper current and the veiled undercurrent, with his vibrant colors and bold imagery providing a visual representation of these movements. With Afro-Caribbean roots and training in New York and Los Angeles, Dawkins developed his artistry at a time when cultural and social boundaries were blurring and different disciplines such as art, music, fashion and pop culture and different social classes and ages were influencing and inspiring each other. This greatly influenced Dawkins’ ability to allow these worlds to meet in his work. Ever since the 1990s, Dawkins has been a pioneer in the Amsterdam art world. Among other things, he built support for narratives and narrative forms that were then placed in the periphery and underground. He was among the vanguard that paved the way for the recognition and embrace of the genres of Urban Arts and Spoken Word in the Dutch performing arts.
21:45 Drinks
About the speakers
- Pietje Tegenbosch is an art historian and art critic. She has written reviews and contemplative texts for the Volkskrant, Het Parool, Museumtijdschrift, various (inter)national magazines, monographs and exhibition catalogs. Tegenbosch chaired the jury of the Royal Prize for Painting and served on several other juries and boards. In her capacity as curator of the ABN AMRO Art Foundation, she was involved in the establishment of the Association of Corporate Collections in the Netherlands (VBCN) of which she was a board member for several years. Tegenbosch has been a theory lecturer at AKV |St Joost in Den Bosch for over 25 years. Since November 2009 she runs, together with partner Martin van Vreden, the gallery tegenboschvanvreden in Amsterdam where she presents a program of international, contemporary art in combination with a side program of lectures, performances, film screenings and book presentations.
- Lara Khaldi is a curator, critic and artist living between Jerusalem and Amsterdam. Since 2019 she has been a member of the curatorial team of documenta fifteen. In recent years she was the head of the Media Studies Programme at Alquds Bard College, Jerusalem and a core tutor in the Disarming Design MA program, at Sandberg Institute, 2020-2022. A former deputy programme director at the Sharjah Art Foundation and director of the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre in Ramallah, Khaldi went on to complete the Curatorial Programme at De Appel, Amsterdam in 2014 and the Philosophy, Art and Cultural Theory, European Graduate School, Saas-Fee, Switzerland, 2015. She has curated projects and symposia in Palestine and abroad, some of which include project Shifting Ground, Sharjah Biennial 13 (2017), Unweaving Narratives (2018) at the Palestinian Museum, Birzeit, a solo exhibition by Noor Abuarafeh at the Al Ma’mal Art Foundation in Jerusalem (2019) and Overtones (2019) at the Goethe Institute, Ramallah. Lara is a co-founding member of the independent educational platform School of Intrusions and the collective Question of Funding. Khaldi has been recently appointed as director of de Appel Art Centre in Amsterdam, starting from January 2023.
- Josilda da Conceição: Josilda da Conceição gallery, based in Amsterdam, shows a hybrid program of contemporary art from painting till installation. Since its founding in 2017, the gallery seeks to bring together international artistic practices and stimulating discourse across diverse cultural perspectives. In conjunction with fostering emerging talent, Josilda da Conceição Gallery shows established artists alongside these new voices, and in doing so cultivates new areas for aesthetic and conceptual contemplation. Moving away from a conventional competition-minded gallery model, Da Conceição philosophy is one of collaboration and shared opportunities, bringing art to the next level together with the artists. Josilda da Conceição Gallery is part of the Kunstkoopregeling, which offers individuals living in the Netherlands the possibility to purchase an artwork in monthly installments, without any interest. The aims of this service is to encourage private individuals to buy art and is set up by the Mondriaan Fund.
- Renan Beunen is co-owner at AKINCI on the Lijnbaansgracht in Amsterdam together with Leylâ Akinci who founded the gallery in 1988. From the start, the focus was on artists who incorporate socio-political, environmental and gender issues into their work. Their programme is defined by a diversity of media as well as cross-overs between sound, architecture, painting, sculpture, film and installation. Since 1988 AKINCI’s mission is to be a career-building platform as well as a solid base for the artists we represent. The gallery grew with the artists who joined us in the founding years and carries growth further together with young generations.
- Marcus Tebogo Desando is the Director of the Prince Claus Fund, formerly a CEO of The Arts and Culture Trust, Johannesburg. Prior to that, Marcus was the CEO of Gauteng Opera in Johannesburg (formerly Black Tie Ensemble). He sits on a number of boards in his home country South Africa and currently, he is a Doctoral candidate through his Master’s alma-mater, The Da Vinci Institute. In addition to his career as an arts administrator, Marcus Desando is a professional singer and stage director who has directed, conducted and performed multiple Operas in South Africa as well as with international companies such as Really Useful Artists and New York Harlem Productions. He has been invited as a guest lecturer to various universities, where he taught largely on stagecraft and directed several opera productions. Marcus Desando has become a driving force in the development and training of young South African artists and aspiring arts administrators.
- Emmelie Koster is founder and co-director of No Man’s Art Gallery. She started the gallery as an international pop-up gallery, organizing temporary galleries in 10 countries including Iran, China, South Africa and Mexico where she opened exhibitions by artists who joined her at each destination. Each year, the gallery travels to a different country. Meanwhile, the gallery also has two permanent spaces in Amsterdam. The program is fueled by about eight permanently represented artists and group exhibitions featuring emerging talent from the pop-up gallery’s destinations.
- Since 2019, as artistic director of the Amsterdam Museum, Margriet Schavemaker has been responsible for the museum’s content programme with a focus on co-creation, working with artists and decolonising the museum. In this capacity, she was partly responsible for the museum’s decision to stop using the term ‘Golden Age’ as a synonym for the 17th century. More recently, the exhibition The Golden Coach (18 June 2021 – 27 February 2022) and its accompanying publication (WBooks) contributed to the public debate on how to deal with fraught heritage.
- Emily Ansenk is an art historian and is the director of the Holland Festival since 2019. From 2008 to 2019 she was the director of the Kunsthal Rotterdam. And previously the founder and director of the private Frisia (later Scheringa) Museum in Spanbroek in the Dutch province of North Holland (1996-2008). As director of the Holland Festival, Ansenk is responsible for its policy, strategy, artistic direction, programming, organisation, and finance. Holland Festival is the largest international performing arts festival in the Netherlands and one of the oldest festivals in Europe. The festival was established in 1947 and celebrated its 75-year anniversary in June 2022. Artistic renewal, innovation and experimentation are core values of the Holland Festival. The festival presents ground-breaking shows by creators from all over the world and new developments in the performing arts. Ansenk is a member of various art committees and juries, such as the Sacha Tanja Medal jury. She chairs the Henri Winkelman Award jury and is a vice chair of the Supervisory Board of the National Maritime Museum. She is also on the board of the Job Dura Charity Foundation and the Ron Mandos Young Blood Foundation for emerging artists. In 2016 she participated in the Getty Leadership Programme at Claremont University in Los Angeles and participated in Tafel Next sessions for supervisors and commissioners at DeNieuweCommissaris.
- Luan Buleshkaj is a word artist in the broadest sense and an established name in the spoken word scene in the Netherlands. The born and raised Amsterdammer with Kosovar-Albanian roots previously made a name for himself as a battlerapper (L-Deep) at the platform ‘Punchout Battles’. Since Luan’s entrance into the poetry world he has performed on many renowned stages in the Netherlands. Luan is known for his wordplay, language inventions, rhythm and powerful readings.
