There and back again: The long awaitend English version

What is this about

As a college student in Art and Economics at the Utrecht School of the Arts, I am interested in traditions of finance in a changing socio-political scenery. The Netherlands (and perhaps all of Europe) have been a haven for cultural exploration in that sense that lots of what has been going on in the post-WWII past have been government funded. This situation is changing rapidly due to the change in political climate, which has switched from a social, all for one approach to more market-based, liberal views.

The Dutch situation

Most government funds have been, or will be by this year, withdrawn, without implementation of a different tradition on a greater scale, like community-based, or crowd-based funding.

This means that smaller, maybe more experimental organisations, but also educational initiatives, will have a very slim chance of survival. Organisations large enough to have an inbound marketing department will, in spite of having a hard time ahead, survive at the cost of the smaller businesses. Further more, on the whole, risks will be avoided, creating loss of jobs and opportunities.

A different approach

Other parts of the world, where a tradition of government-based funding does not exist, have a different tradition in gathering resources for the cultural industry. The United Statest, for instance, have a community based system, with churches, commercial businesses, corporations, and philanthropists picking up the role of fundraiser for purposes of for instance welfare, cultural activities (of religious, social, artistic nature or otherwise) et cetera. There is much to be learned there, in that it is a paradigm that differs from our European way of thinking.

Altering a tradition

There is much to be learned in this field. Not only: ‘How do they do it?’, but also, and maybe more prudent, ‘How do we get a majority of the population to change their paradigm?’, into a more philanthropic way of thinking. How can we create a social platform combining peoples, corporations and other potential groups of on a scale large enough to generate fundings for the existing cultural industry?

Internship

For the purpose of answering questions of such magnitude, I find it necessary to go to the United States to gather information on this subject first hand. I went looking for a region in the United States that has a thriving cultural industry, and I came to the conclusion that New Orleans hás such.

For internship purposes I want to find a organisation in New Orleans to go to next year. Goal is to be able to stay there for about 5five months.

For this reason, I am going there April 26 to show my face and talk to people and organisations. This visit will be brief; I will head back to Europe May 5^th. The ticket alone cost €750 (about $1060). The stay is covered.

The idea is as follows

Since studying full time makes it hard to generate enough money to live on, and I am not sponsored by any fund because I am too old to go to college (according to social belief), I came to the conclusion that I have to generate money to go to New Orleans through my personal network, which is YOU all. And since some of you don’t speak Dutch, this is the English version of what has been on my blog previously.

Now. Herein lies my question:

Are you willing and able to support me in my goal by donating any figure ranging from €10 to €50, or do you know people that can help me out with pointers on the subject or anything, please drop me a email at pelle.themanforthejob@gmail.com

Thank you very much for your time so far, and I hope we can talk soon.

Love, Pelle