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In many European countries, the development of a national cultural canon is a topical subject of debate. But how does this fit into the larger context? Questions like these as subject of this two-day conference, filled with presentations and workshops by numerous international specialists.
Registration and information: www.dare2connect.nl
Dates: Friday 8 and Saturday 9 December 2006
Location: Felix Meritis, Keizersgracht 324, Amsterdam
Language: English
Credits: This conference is organised by the Service Centre for International Activities / SICA and EUNIC Netherlands (European National Institutions of Culture)
Nine people from three different countries perform together in one production, which will be experienced simultaneously by the respective public in the three participating cities.
A basement in Brighton, a school in Groningen and a gallery-club in Berlin combine and become a fourth imaginary place. Next to the local performance on stage live-projections at the three places tell an unpredictable and immediate story. It's about how video-projection and real space merge to become one common truth. In turning the projected images into performers as if they were the actors themselves – becoming larger or smaller, leaving the room – new connections between video, fiction, action and global distance are being established.
As the three cities gradually become one, trans-national relationships and encounters emerge, too. Berlin lies at the sea-coast, and Brighton also has a Big Market square as in Groningen. The paths of languages and lovers cross, drawing the public into a living puzzle.
Rehearsed and performed via the internet by three local directing and performance-teams (Berlin: Martin Clausen; Brighton: Station House Opera, Julian Meynard Smith; Groningen: Floris van Delft), which only come together in cyberspace, "The Other is You" is the new project by the English performance-group Station House Opera (renowned for "Live from Paradise" and "Roadmetal Sweetbread").
Dates: 1 - 5, 8 - 12 November at 8.30 pm
Location: NP3, Hofstraat 21, Groningen
The first meeting of the NGS Wageningen-Durham link will be hosted by Wageningen University on 12-14 October 2006 with senior academics and young researchers contributing to a three-day programme. Young science students on track for higher education (17 years old) and their science teachers have been selected from schools in the Wageningen and Durham areas.
The themes of the Wageningen programme are ‘Food in the modern world’ and ‘Adapting to the changing environment’.
Dates: 12 - 14 October 2006
Location: Wageningen University
Europe, in general, is discussed in geographical, political or commercial terms. But is there something which could be called a ´European Literature´? If yes, what does it look like and what would be its criteria? These and other questions are raised in "De pen van Europa", a series of interviews written by NRC Handelsblad literary critic Margot Dijkgraaf, to be published in September 2006 by the Dutch editor Prometheus. The conference being linked to the book, some of the interviewed authors will also participate in the festival. Amongts them will be: James Meek (UK), Abdelkader Benali (the Netherlands), Geneviève Brisac (France), David van Reybrouck (Belgium), Simona Popescu (Romania), Olga Tokarzcuk (Poland) etc. The conference is a joint activity of the European Cultural Foundation, the European Cultural Institutes in the Netherlands and the SLAA. It is organised by the Centre Français du Livre, Maison Descartes.
Dates: 13 and 14 October 2006
Location: De Balie, Amsterdam
Connecting Futures Theatre Project
The performance On Top of the Town is the culmination of the Connecting Futures Theatre Project made by 16 young people from Groningen and Newcastle. During the rehearsal period and the workshop weekends the 16 young actors have been questioning their own identity and that of their city, under the guidance of the two professional theatre companies Noord Nederlands Toneel (NL) and Northern Stage (UK). On Top of the Town will be performed during the Noorderzon Festival in Groningen from 23-25 August and in Newcastle from 30 August - 2 September during the opening weekend of Northern Stage's refurbished theatre.
Dates: 23 August - 2 September 2006
Location: Groningen (NL) and Newcastle (UK)
For more information and bookings: look at the websites of Noorderzon Festival, Noord Nederlands Toneel and Northern Stage.
14 June 2006
Co-hosted by the UKs National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), the British Council and the National Architecture Institute in the Netherlands.
NESTA was set up in 1998 to support talent and innovation across Science, Technology and the Arts. NESTA does this through three main programmes one of which is their Fellowship Programme and within this programme they have pioneered a new award in Cultural Leadership. This award is designed to change the way existing leaders engage in the international market place by enabling 12 awardees (senior leaders) to work with inspiring leaders in another part of the world and learn from them and with them. We are delighted that Aaron Betsky from the National Architecture Institute in Rotterdam has participated in this award by taking on the role of a host leader.
14-16 June 2006
The aim of The Network Effect series is to connect and support the learning of younger leaders from a range of European countries, helping them to address and learn about long term challenges facing their societies, particularly relating to issues of democracy, citizenship, legitimacy and governance.
The Amsterdam meeting explored the latest debates on social diversity and cities, focusing on what can be learnt from community activists, politicians and social entrepreneurs and what the wider implications are for Europe.
28 April - 1 May 2006
Part of the Connecting Futures theatre project
After the workshop weekend in Newcastle last January, the fifteen participants of On Top of the Town came together to work on their performance in Groningen at the end of April under the guidance of Noord Nederlands Toneel and Northern Stage. The performance will be presented end of August during the Noorderzon Festival in Groningen and during the opening of the new Northern Stage Theatre in Newcastle. Have a look at the pictures of this workshop weekend in Groningen, of the first workshop weekend in Newcastle and of the participants and the two directors.
1 March - 23 April 2006
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Droog Design presented the exhibition New British Designers in their gallery in Amsterdam. New British Designers featured designs from Julia Lohmann, Wokmedia and Loop.pH. It was the first time work by this new generation of British design talents had been displayed in the Netherlands; New British Designers showed how serious subjects can be translated into airy design.
Read more about this exhibition in our magazine Crossing Over issue 9. |
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6-7 April 2006
This Young Apeldoorn Conference was the second of the series and took place at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague. The central theme was ‘Sustainability’ and the title is 'Facing up to reality: Choices for a sustainable world'.
24-25 March 2006
This meeting at UCL was the return visit of the programme between Rotterdam and London, and once again we were working with the same young people and teachers from the London science specialist schools and their counterparts from schools in Rotterdam.
As was the case in Rotterdam, the programme in London was based around lectures, lab demonstrations, student workshops and informal discussion. The theme of the programme was ‘From Molecules to Behaviour’.
June 05 - May 06
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The Janus Project is initiated by The Fence, a European network of playwrights and cultural operatives. The Fence aims to open up routes to work opportunities for playwrights seeking to extend their work beyond their own national boundaries. |
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The Janus Project is a translation project with the theme Cultural Identity: Cultural Diversity, managed by five partnership organisations: Writernet (UK), West Yorkshire Playhouse (UK), Theater Instituut Nederland, uniT Verein für Kultur an der Karl Franzens Universität Graz (Austria) and The Finnish Theatre Information Centre (Finland). Once the plays have been translated, each playwright will go to the host country for a week before the Festival to work with a playwright/dramaturg so as to explore the context of the play in translation as well as the actual text itself. All plays will be published and disseminated.
© Writernet 2003
 7-8 October 2005
A selection of young students from Rotterdam and London schools came together for two days during which they explored issues related to Genetics & Identity and Future of the Biosphere. They also engaged in the first Junior Science Café. Through this format, science is made accessible and provides a space for young people to discuss the issues which are transforming their world.
Next Genetration Science is part of the Connecting Futures programme.
20-24 June 2005
Dreams + Teams is a Connecting Futures project in which students from secondary schools from the UK and The Netherlands are challenged to be Young Leaders and by organising a mini sports event for fellow students.
6 - 7 March 2005
In 1999 Prime Ministers Wim Kok and Tony Blair agreed to instigate a bilateral conference: the Apeldoorn Conference. Their objective was to bring together a representative and informed group from the UK and the Netherlands on a regular basis to reflect on issues of political relevance and shared concern. The first conference took place in 2000 in Apeldoorn, from which the conference series took its name.
December 2004 - June 2005
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A series of four seminars in the Loyd Hotel (Amsterdam) examining the relationship between cultural organisations and the private sector (individuals and business). |
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Each session focussed on a specific aspect of business relations with case studies presented from innovative examples in the UK. The seminars were meant for both business and arts-based organisations in private and public sectors.
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The Young Apeldoorn Conference 2006: 'Sustainability'