[Fdu] Fw: [historicalmaterialism] Defend the Jan van Eyck Academy

[Peter Fitting]

> For many years the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht has been an
> international centre for critical and radical theory. The Dutch
> government has recently proposed drastic changes to cultural funding.
> These changes will directly endanger the JvE and other Dutch post-
> academic institutions.
>
> Please support the campaign to defend the JvE by sending an email to 
> <janvaneyck-adefendablespace at janvaneyck.nl
> >.
>
> Comments can be read at <janvaneyck-adefendablespace.tumblr.com>
>
> For more information about the innovative activities of the JvE, see 
> <http://www.janvaneyck.nl/
> >
>
>
>
> Recently the Dutch Ministry of Culture published a document containing
> its policy for the period 2013-16. Amongst a whole range of intended
> drastic cuts, it proposes that the State should stop financing post-
> academic institutes like the Jan van Eyck Academie. There is no
> explicit motivation for this plan, other than a reference to the
> supposed need to reduce public expenditure. The State Secretary, Halbe
> Zijlstra, restricts himself to stating that the cultural field should
> self-finance post-academic formation and education, ‘as the legal
> professions and building industry do.’ However it is clear that the
> principles motivating the policy document derive from a logic of
> austerity and will result in the application of business criteria.
>
>
> As far as the Jan van Eyck Academie is concerned this policy would
> mean a severe cut of its means as of 2013, resulting in its closure in
> 2016. Instead of financing an experimental, non-university and
> research-oriented post-academic institute like the Jan van Eyck
> Academie, the State Secretary wants to invest in fifty artists who
> have proved to be ‘successful’. Despite the fact that the Jan van Eyck
> Academie can easily demonstrate its essential role in the successful
> careers of numerous artists, designers, and theoreticians, this
> contribution has never been articulated in terms of ‘success.’ The
> Academie is about combining research in the fine arts, design, and
> theory, and thus about creating invaluable interdisciplinary
> connections and radical innovations. Such places of intellectual and
> artistic freedom are necessary, and the inability of the Ministry to
> recognise this testifies to the obtuseness and short-sightedness of
> its policy.
>
>
>
> We strongly oppose the intentions of the Ministry of Culture, for we
> want the Jan van Eyck Academie, along the other post-academic
> institutes, to continue to do what it is good at. We repudiate an
> austerity driven policy which will result in a blind erasure of an
> institute that has proven to be an important element in the Dutch and
> international network of artistic and art-related practices. We
> therefore request the State Secretary to withdraw his plans.
>
>
>
> Signature
>
> To support the Jan van Eyck Academie, please enter a comment at 
> janvaneyck-adefendablespace at janvaneyck.nl
> . The contributions can be accessed at janvaneyck-
> adefendablespace.tumblr.com
>
>
>
>
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