Bombarie on Bombarie? New festival in Utrecht has broad profile

In our participatory society, Community Art 'hip, hot & happening'. Consequently, there are many projects and initiatives that bring amateurs and professionals together. Fortunately, because the more widely art practice and experience is shared and supported by as many people as possible, the more beautiful the world becomes, so I think.

Still, it is a bit of a shock that yet another festival makes its appearance in Dutch festival land. Festival Bombarie will make the Jaarbeurs area unsafe from Wednesday 23 June with an expert day, a singing day, a wind music day and a dance day. In short, a festival with a very broad profile, which will have to find its way to its natural audience.

It can get volatile, all these meetings and master classes and so on. But to the LKCA, programmer of the expert day, hopefully won't be. They put Erik Schrijvers ( Scientific Council for Government Policy) and Tabo Goudswaard (the art of impact) face each other to cross swords (constructive dialogue is also allowed) on the value of art. Is it intrinsic or linked to its social utility?

Lifting machine

Goudswaard and Schrijvers spoke in November 2015 at the annual LKCA conference 'the art . of making value'. That such thinking is picked up again here , is to be commended. The (re)valuation and positioning of art is too important to gab about incidentally. During the preliminary discussion, it turns out that these two gentlemen do not so much have clashing positions as that they can each speak about 'the value of art' from their own perspective .

Schrijvers argues that the 'elevation machine' has come to a halt. And that we have now had the discussion on value. Thinking about 'value' is mainly an economic - and therefore flat - approach that ignores the soft forces (because not directly to cash in) disadvantages. Subsidy now works as supply control. He argues for a different approach, looking at the processes in the art world itself: what works?

Goudswaard finds artists, precisely because of their ability to deal creatively with chaos, essential for this post-modern age. According to him, art makes the future experienceable. A place where there is room to not know for a while or even to fail. There is room for experimentation in business too. Artists should be allowed to claim their place in the middle of society much more.

I hope they will make a lot of noise!