Dear artist, artworker or other friend of the arts,
The Belgian federal government reached out to the arts sector
with an open call for art organisations to be recognized as an art federation.
Why?
You probably already know about the new kunstwerkuitkering, which replaces the former rules, aka the Kunstenaarsstatuut. In that case you might also know, there will be a kunstwerkcommissie installed.
For this commission, a total 36 representatives of the art field will be selected (18 per language community / 9 active members, 9 as a reserve).
To come to a list of potential commission members from the art field, the field is asked to make suggestions. Yet, only organizations that are officially recognized as a federation will be entitled to make nominations.
Should State of the Arts become an official federation?
SOTA defines itself as an open platform and not a membership association. We want to keep it that way. But despite our questions about the system of ‘representation’, we do think it is very important to have a critical and independent voice out there.
Your voice.
Our voices.
So this is why we are reaching out to you.
Thank you for taking a minute to answer 4 short questions about this.
Mission statement of State of the Arts
State of the Arts is an independent, open platform for promoting a sustainable, diversified, ecologically conscious and explicitly multi-voiced community of artists and other engaged individuals, who will join forces to invest in a broad and dignified society through new forms of collectivity and to fuel the public debate around this.
In order to achieve this, SOTA regularly organizes meetings that will serve as ‘an open laboratory of art practices’ where artists and other society members meet, exchange and find support in each other’s artistic/activist practices and collectively work on politics of transition.
Artistic thinking as a medium for a society in transition
Since 2013 State of the Arts functions as a platform for critical thinking and radical imagination with fair practice and a just social transition as its core concern. Not only for the arts, but for society at large.
Being out there with all of you – reminding politics of their duty to care – proved to be worthwhile more than once. If we want to change the status quo, we’ll have to look critically at the system that keeps it in place and structurally change it, rather than just fight its symptoms.
We – the small core of people who are currently coordinating SOTA – therefore feel that SOTA has a role to play in keeping the political arena healthy, sharp and caring.
So let us know what you think!
Preferably before Monday April 24th.
With love,
the SOTA core team