Group of visual artists flees Amersfoort

Dissatisfied with the city's art policy, visual artists are leaving Amersfoort. Not physically, but with their work. In the coming year, they will exhibit together in numerous places in the Netherlands. They largely leave their own hometown behind. They have little faith in the municipality's newly developed cultural vision. Why? You can read about that below. And also that their own idealism is partly behind it.

The recent trigger for the rift between visual artists and the Amersfoort municipality is the debacle surrounding The WAR. This incubator for culture and technology has been renting the former Warner & Jenkinson dye factory for more than 14 years. Artists and inventors find a workshop, knowledge and a place for experiments there. Pretty soon, the people of De WAR proposed to have a say in the rental, which the municipality, through the intermediary landlord, refused. When the site no longer seemed lucrative for project development - the construction company involved gave up its claim - De WAR proposed to buy the site.

In the years of talks that followed, De WAR was kept on the sidelines. Until the municipality suddenly decided to put the complex up for public sale. The WAR started a crowdfunding which raised almost €600,000. Moreover, as the city council instructed the College of Mayor and Aldermen to consider the social value, all the lights seemed to be green for sale to the initiators of DE WAR.

Not so. At the end of September 2016, the city council (VVD, PvdA, D'66, ChristenUnie) decided to sell the now again highly sought-after location just outside the city centre and near river Eem to property developer, Rovase, after all. Commerce won out over art. Of technology and of innovation. The initiators of De WAR, the visual artists involved and the sympathisers of the project expressed great incomprehension. CulturePress previously reported on the uproar this caused.

 What is the municipality doing for visual artists?

A second blow to Amersfoort's artist community was a fire at the former 'meat preserves' NOACK factory, diagonally behind central station. Several dozen artists had to look for a new workplace. As did the members of artists' collective Kleistad. The former community centre where they are based is being converted into a branch of Aldi.

Consequence of all this: a severe lack of affordable studio space

Amersfoort likes to profile itself as a city with a rich cultural offering. This goes hand in hand with misses formerly and in the present. There is a theatre, a film house, large street art and jazz festivals, a modern Kunsthal and a popular history museum. Fans of classical music, jazz and blues can go somewhere almost every day. So audiences are catered for, and initiatives like street art festival Spoffin can also spread their wings thanks in part to the city hall.

But what does the municipality do for visual artists? What importance does Amersfoort attach to their presence in the city?

Easy party to get 'screwed'.

Sure, they are occasionally invited to visit the councillor of culture, as they are now, when the new cultural vision is being drawn up. Their voices are heard, but are they listened to? Many visual artists experience it this way: they are tolerated in Amersfoort, their presence is praised in words, but when it comes to deeds, cash on the fish, the municipality is hopelessly absent. This is evident from the lack of a bold studio policy but especially from the drama surrounding De WAR, after which the artists' trust in the municipality totally disappeared.

Yet it is worth noting that a responsibility also lies with the visual artists themselves. Out of well-meaning idealism, they have for decades failed to bang their fists on the table. Time and again, they approached policymakers without, for instance, making demands or asking for a market-based rate. In that respect, they were also an easy party to be ignored, or more strongly 'screwed'.

Bye, Bye Amersfoort. Displaced.

But if it were up to artist and art booster Ron Jagers  lies - a household name in cultural Amersfoort - this will come to an end. If visual artists are not wanted in Amersfoort, they simply disappear from the city. They take their work to places where they are welcome. An action to make a statement. To make it clear to Amersfoort's politicians that patience is really running out now. Possible harbinger of an artist-free city.

The very first stop of Ron Jager's http://www.uncleronshyperbolicroadshow.nl is on 19 February at Kortom gallery in Zeist. At least 18 Amersfoort artists are already participating there. Other places will follow. Exhibition title: Bye, bye Amersfoort. Uprooted.