The Foundation France – Nederland Cultuurfonds attempts to realize its objects and purposes by launching three first cultural, educational and societal projects: Nouveau Grand Tour, Ik spreek ook Frans and Cercle Polder.
Nouveau Grand Tour
Launched in Italy and in France by the Institut français Italia in 2022 and extended to the Netherlands by the Institut français NL in 2024, the Nouveau Grand Tour (NGT) is an innovative artist-in-residency programme involving more than 120 artists every year in 60 art residency locations. The singularity of this modern reinterpretation of the 18th century tradition lies in its ability to connect artists with the ecosystem of another European country. The programme offers emerging artists an opportunity to access a dynamic and growing creative network in the Netherlands, France and Italy. Other European countries are expected to join the NGT in coming next years, making this programme a Europe-wide initiative.
The programme emerged as a response to a disparity in opportunities for recent graduates from art schools and music conservatories who seek to develop their artistic careers in Europe. Instead of reinforcing the pressure on artists to overproduce after graduation, the Nouveau Grand Tour focuses on alignment with the artistic community’s shift towards innovative, inclusive and sustainable practices in creation, production, distribution and remuneration. Therefore, the programme aims to meet the needs of this new generation of creators, whose career paths will be characterised by international openness and collective engagement, embedded in today’s global challenges.
Hilversum Wisseloord Studio (music)
Rotterdam Nieuwe Instituut (digital creation)
The France-Nederland Cultuurfonds supports the development of the programme in the Netherlands. For 2024, artists in residence were selected, following a call for applications, by a Franco-Dutch jury chaired by Hester Alberdingk Thijm, Director of the AkzoNobel Art Foundation. Selected among 200 applicants, 20 recently graduated French artists are participating in this first edition in one of the 10 partner institutions of the 2024 edition, identified in collaboration with the Mondriaan Fonds:
- Batavierhuis, Rotterdam (Music)
- Buro Stedelijk, Amsterdam (Curatorial practices)
- Brutus, Rotterdam (Visual arts)
- Drawing Center, Diepenheim (Visual arts)
- European Ceramic Workcentre (EKWC), Oisterwijk (Crafts)
- Het Lage Noorden, Marrum (Visual arts)
- Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS), Amsterdam (Curatorial practices)
- Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam (Digital Culture)
- Willem Twee, Den Bosch (Music)
- Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum (Music)
This cohort of artists, chosen for ideas and projects matching the environment of their residencies, is bringing to the Netherlands the innovation and the diversity of today’s French art scene, particularly in domains which are at the core of the Franco-Dutch relationship, such as music and digital culture. Another specificity of the NGT is reciprocity: the Institut français NL is working hand in hand with its counterparts in France and in Italy as well as with Dutch funds to enable Dutch artists to take part in the Nouveau Grand Tour in France and in Italy.
In addition to a network of hosting residency structures, the Institut français NL offers personalised support to each artist in residence. This support is based on partnerships with festivals and cultural institutions in the Netherlands, as well as the organisation of a national event for meetings with artists, cultural professionals, sponsors and the media. The Nouveau Grand Tour is an exponentially growing platform designed to foster connections between artists, art residency centres, art collectors and museums.
With the support of:
Ik spreek ook Frans
Launched in 2022 by the Institut français NL and the Alliance Française Rotterdam, “Ik Spreek ook Frans” is a multilinguistic programme that will continue to expand with the support of the France-Nederland Cultuurfonds.
This innovative project offers workshops to children aged 6 to 12 coming from a French-speaking family background; although the workshops are aimed at children who grew up in immigrant families and who were raised in a plurilingual context that included French, they are open to children from all sorts of backgrounds.
Instructors are encouraged to use dynamic and innovative methods based on material from the students’ cultures of origin. In each class, they produce something such as small theatre plays, a craft project and many more. This method allows students to use French in a practical context while maintaining a playful aspect in the workshops. The programme aims to stimulate children’s creativity and confidence by unlocking their multilingual potential, an advantage both from an academical and a personal perspective.
The programme has also been at the centre of great reflection in the academic field, particularly about the notion of heritage language. “Ik Spreek ook Frans!” is currently being analysed by researchers and students from the HERLING laboratory of LUCL (Leiden University Centre for Linguistics), who expressed their interest in our programme during a conference given in February of 2024 for the UNESCO International Mother Language Day.
The pilot project started in 2022 in one of Rotterdam’s community centres and has already consisted of two groups which brought together around twenty students. The programme was also launched in The Hague (in Wijkcentrum) in March 2024 and will open in Utrecht and Amsterdam in the autumn of 2024, highlighting how these first two years of the programme were only the beginning of a promising journey.
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