Today sees the second meeting of the design teams providing input for the Council for Culture's advice on renewing the cultural system towards 2029. This time, the teams will meet at the Public Library on the Neude in Utrecht. The teams will work to define design questions more sharply and will draw inspiration from the library's collection to arrive at solution directions.
On Wednesday, March 15, the the design approach for the renewal of the cultural system was launched. The kick-off was done by Kristel Baele, president of the Council for Culture. She invited the four design teams of a total of 60 people to use all their creativity and brainpower to come up with good design questions and ideas for the cultural policy of the future. The teams work according to an approach based on 'design thinking'.
Kristel Baele: "This is the first time we are doing it this way. We chose this because we want to shape the order renewal together with people from the sector itself. I have been really looking forward to this and have every confidence that this will yield great things."
The four teams met for the first time at the Verkadefabriek in Den Bosch, which has become a cultural hotspot. Besides getting to know each other, the day was dedicated to the first step of design thinking: empathising with the experiences of cultural makers, institutions and various public groups. Questions addressed were: what keeps them busy, what do they need and what do they encounter in practice? Participants were invited to draw on their own experiences.
The results of the exploration were set against the council's concerns for the new system. In this way, the participants arrived at relevant design questions. In the coming weeks, the teams will continue working to develop ideas for possible solutions.
"I was secretly a little bit afraid it would be something really boring," says participant Jessy Koeiman, curator at Rotterdam-based art institution Melly. "But the dynamics in this programme and the people I sit at the table with make me energised."
The four design teams each deal with one of the council's four spearheads for the new cultural system to be designed: broaden, spread, vitalise and enlighten. The teams meet a total of five times to come up with building blocks for a new cultural system on the road to 2029. The teams do this for their own area of focus, but they also look along with the other teams to arrive at the most integrated picture possible.
The building blocks serve as input for an advice to be delivered by the Culture Council to state secretary Uslu at the end of this year. The building blocks will be presented to a large group of representatives from the field of audiences, makers, institutions, policymakers and interest groups at the end of May. The Council will take their reflections on the building blocks delivered as input for the advice.
Click here for a short video impression of the day.
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