Symposium 2025

The art world is often compared to an ecosystem, operating as a dynamic system of interconnected and interdependent components that each contribute to the system’s function and balance. Each part affects and is affected by others. The system gets regulated by policies, codes and funding structures, which are the product of the social and political context in which we are situated. Precarious conditions affect the way the ecosystem can function. Individual artists and practitioners, as well as advocacy organizations and institutions, emphasize the need to increase our resilience and flexibility to better adapt to the constant changes we face. More and more, we realize that we can only reach the necessary level of resilience through collaboration, as it opposes the individualistic, competitive and extractivist tendencies that are labeled as the cause of our vulnerability. In order to respect the balance of the ecosystem, we need to consider the functioning of all of its parts. Where do we need to provide support in order to not lose vital parts of the system, and how do we uplift the practices that help keep us afloat?

With this symposium, we ask ourselves and our fellow practitioners in the art sector what
we bring to the table. This question is intended as both a provocation and an invitation, encouraging participants to actively consider how they can contribute to a more resilient sector. What are skills, practices, methods and means we have that we use
in our day-to-day work that contribute to the strength of the sector? What are the problems we face and which practices have we formulated in response? Can we create alliances to respond to some of these issues, or unite ourselves to demand change from other sectors when we can’t solve them ourselves?

This symposium will bring various (inter)national art practitioners together to engage in meaningful and practical conversations about what they have to give, providing an opportunity for collective solidarity to arise and for alliances to be formed. The day will be opened and led by Fatoş Üstek. She will engage in conversation with Zoé Whitley, Zeynep Kubat, Sophie Mak-Schram and Jeanne van Heeswijk in a plenary panel discussion. This will be followed by interactive roundtable sessions, in which all participants are split in groups to exchange action-oriented strategies. By highlighting best practices and promoting reciprocity, the symposium strives for a strong, connected, and future-proof cultural field.

This symposium is being supported by het Cultuurfonds.

Partnership with Amsterdam Art

The topics at the core of this symposium are being addressed by many practitioners in the arts and culture sector, which we see as evidence of their relevance and urgency. An example of this was the mini-symposium Cultural Ecosystems & Changing Landscapes, which was organized at the start of the Amsterdam Art Week 2024 by Amsterdam Art in collaboration with Dutch Culture, the Prince Claus Fund, de Appel, FramerFramed and Rijksakademie.

This symposium in 2024 explored the resilience and adaptability of arts and cultural sectors in the face of rapidly evolving political, and international environments, looking at the lessons that could be learned from cultural ecosystems that have successfully navigated through significant political changes. The day contained a keynote by ArtTable-member Rubiah Balsem, who advocated for viewing the arts and culture sector as an interconnected ecosystem – a network of reciprocal relationships, ending on a call to action to choose solidarity over competition.

Inspired by the overlap in themes, ArtTable has decided to join forces with Amsterdam Art, so we can facilitate a continuation of conversations that started last year. This year, we focus on creating an opportunity for dialogue between various international practitioners, in order to map what strategies we are each applying to changing circumstances in our day-to-day practice, and how we might support each other with what we have to offer.

External advisors

In the process of creating this symposium, we worked with an external group of advisors, consisting of Macarena Loma-Yevenes, Anna Kuznetsova, Daphne Voormolen, Alexandra Landré and Anastasija Pandilovska. In a few sessions, we presented the preliminary plans for the symposium and received feedback from the advisors. We thank them for their valuable input throughout this process! Several of the advisors will act as roundtablehosts during the symposium.

Database

In the period leading up to the symposium, we would like to share a growing database of relevant books, articles and lectures that expand upon the symposium’s theme. This database represents a mere selection of the many available resources, but is meant to inspire and provide opportunities for further exploration. Feel free to reach out if you have additional sources that you would like to be shared in the database, as we see it as an ever growing collection.

– Manuela Zammit and Alina Lupu, Institutional Critique Is Not Enough, We Need to Target the Infrastructure, Kunstlicht, 44(4), 2023.
– Fatoş Üstek, The Art Institution of Tomorrow: Reinventing the Model, 2024.
– Rubiah Balsem, Towards a new Art Ecosystem. Expected publication in 2025.
– Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez, Let’s Become Fungal! Mycelium Teachings and the Arts, 2023.
– Apexart (edited by Paul O’Neill), Not Going It Alone: Collective Curatorial Curating, 2024.
– Sara Ahmed, Setting The Table, Some Reflections on Why Tables Matter, 2024 (lecture), accessed via: https://feministkilljoys.com/2024/06/28/setting-the-table-some-reflections-on-why-tables-matter/
– Helen Duffy, Reimaging networks as ecosystems: An exploration of international collaboration of art organisations through the ecosystem lens using Arts Collaboratory as a case study, (master thesis Universiteit Utrecht), 2020, Accessed via: https://studenttheses.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/20.500.12932/37376/Thesis_Helen%20Duffy_6034799.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
– Paul Goodfellow, Channelling the Unknown: Noise in Art Ecosystems, Arts, 11(39), 2022, Accessed via: https://doi.org/10.3390/arts11020039
– Yuha Jung, The Art Museum Ecosystem: A New Alternative Model. Museum Management & Curatorship, 2011, Accessed via: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09647775.2011.603927
– https://studiumgenerale.artez.nl/topics/the+roadmap+to+equality+in+the+arts/