Call to politics

What do artists need?

• Artists and creators want to live and work affordably.
  • Recognize artistry as a crucial profession. Artists who do not yet have housing are less and less likely to find one. Although their income is among the lowest in the Netherlands, they rarely qualify for social housing. In Rotterdam, we give priority to police officers, teachers and nurses, and rightly so. But do the same for artists.
  • For workplaces, the city has formulated a policy. This is good because it provides both clarity on what a place may cost and how many are needed. But too much is still temporary and uncertain. Double the number of permanent workplaces in the next term of office, thus giving more artists the opportunity to invest in their workplaces and surroundings.
  • Regularly sell buildings where artists have been able to work for decades. Give them the opportunity to purchase the building, at a reasonable or cost. The city does recoup that through the value artists provide.
• Artists and creators need free space to experiment.
  • Why are places put on the map by artists so good? Because artists and creators use that space to go off the beaten path. As more and more places are developed, that space is disappearing. For the city, this threatens flattening. To prevent this, several places should be designated where artists can live and work without many rules.
• Artists and makers need commissions
  • For artists, low income is not strange. But often this is already barely possible, even though their work is appreciated. A generous commissioning policy can already work very well - look for it in commissions otherwise for consulting firms to carry out urban/socially relevant projects.
  • The 1% scheme was important and successful: redesign it specifically for Rotterdam artists.