A day of talking about impact mostly produces uncertainty.

VMBO schoolchildren in Flevopolder gained confidence from their teachers. They were allowed to figure out for themselves how to make a guided tour of world heritage site Schokland more fun and educational. So the third-year students set to work on a project to offer the second-year students something more fun than the pre-chewed programme they had been following. They did so through the rules of 'design thinking', so they happily experimented. 

The result was that the second-year students had the day of their lives and the third-year students could proudly conclude their project. Additional effect: the VMBO teachers, who themselves were struggling with a lack of self-confidence compared to their fancier havo and vwo colleagues, suddenly walked around school with a straighter back.

Nice example of an intervention by education experts and strategic designers that delivers something very concrete. Studio VMBO, set up by Fleck, made quite an impression that way. Their presentation at the 'Podium for Impact' conference was a minor highlight on a day that otherwise evoked mostly mixed feelings.  

Buzzword

It was the bluest Monday in years, but day chairman Maurice Seleky did not want to make it too gloomy on Monday 20 January. While America was preparing for the establishment of a tech dictatorship, Seleky was in Apeldoorn guiding more than 500 professionals in amateur art and arts education through a day that would be all about 'impact'. In case you are now thinking: are they coming up with another buzzword to make life more complicated, you are in good company. Jan Jaap Knol, director of Boekman and one of the organisers of this conference, thinks so too. 

Yet the Culture Participation Fund, initiator of this 'Podium for Impact' day at Apeldoorn's Orpheus theatre, wanted to talk about 'impact'. Indeed, it will be about it for 10 days, up to and including a pricey final conference to be held on 30 January, under the title 'Vision of Impact'. That makes for some nice lines: from stage to vision, from free to expensive and from Apeldoorn to the Bijlmer. 

Empty hands

Speaking of impact: actually, all day in Apeldoorn, it remained unclear what is meant by impact and why it actually needs to be named, interpreted and measured so urgently. HKU researchers promised to talk about it, but it turned out that they had already embraced the concept so self-evidently that visitors who were not ready to do so were left empty-handed. So we could, however, be touched by art, such as a piece by Marc Vlemmix Dance, where people with movement limitations danced the stars from heaven. 

Ultimately, then, it is about making what you produce as an artist measurable. A note from a moved visitor to your exhibition, or a thunderous applause at the end of your performance: these are the impact indicators that artists have used for centuries. Anno 2025, that is too little objective. Subsidisers, municipal officials and politicians have less and less desire and time to come and see for themselves, and moreover, they want something objectifiable, which shows in black and white what art causes. 

Uncertain

Impact is thus the new buzzword because in the policy arena there is uncertainty about one's own feelings and judgements about art. So artists must look for external, verifiable evidence of their 'impact' that can be expressed in clear language. That insight was quite widely felt, I discovered during the drinks at the end of the afternoon. Only no one knew how the sector could be freed from this burden of proof again. 

Maybe we should all go to that vmbo school in Flevoland. And start making something ourselves again.