FAIR P(L)AY #4 - Closing the Gap

You're #opentowork, now what’s next? You are entering a space where you can define yourself as a creative professional or designer. What are you even? And what are the rules of the road when negotiating your value? Do you know how much your work is worth?

Join us for a conversation about the many hard lessons designers and creatives have had to learn about commissions, fair practice, negotiating and invoicing. Before doing work ‘for visibility’ or getting ‘nightmare commissions’, we’re here to increase emerging creatives' access to tools to build resilience for those starting their professional careers.

As part of the Dutch Design Week 2024 in Eindhoven, EUNIC Netherlands is happy to present the fourth event of its FAIR P(L)AY series. DutchCulture helps host an action-oriented discussion on how to propel your (international) career as a creative or designer. We invite experiences from artists, practitioners, and cultural organizations. In the early stage of your design career, we invite you to listen, learn, and discuss your possibilities, needs, and ambitions.

FAIR P(L)AY #4 connects to Design Academy Eindhoven's Blueprints programme, introducing designers to the scope of creative practice in the Netherlands and Europe by involving local, national and international stakeholders who can share their knowledge of the wider systems and structures that design professionals can draw upon.

We make space for conversations about worst practices and learning and offer basic guidance necessary for international collaboration - where to find funding, networks, and legal support, vital elements not typically covered by education within the arts or design academies.

Date: Wednesday 23 October, 2024
Time: 16:00 - 19:00
Location: Foundation We Are, Torenallee 22-04, Eindhoven
Language: English

The event is free of charge, so you don't need a DDW ticket to join.

The event will kick off with a panel of 4 different creatives/designers with vast experience navigating a range of commissions in our shared European cultural space. Our moderator is Isabel Sheridan, a programme maker and moderator. Driven by a fascination for the latest developments in art, technology and identity, she makes and moderates programmes for a diverse audience. Isabel is currently impact manager at opera company Silbersee. Previously, she was a programme maker at De Balie, worked as a film and TV researcher for directors Sunny Bergman and the VPRO, and was an editor at the feminist platform Lilith Magazine.

Lorraine Hellwig is a European "post-artist" who collaborates as a portrait and reportage photographer with different media formats and takes part in exhibitions in and outside the traditional artistic white cube. Lorraine finished the manifesto "Y" in 2017, has been a monthly photo columnist for Freundin Magazine in 2021/ 2022, and is the founder of the FAKE FACTORY, a platform for collaborations in between design, science, art and activism. Lorraine participates in the Nouveau Grand Tour NL, a program dedicated to graduates coordinated by Institut français NL.

Oksana Savchuk is a Rotterdam-based architect, organizer, and creative producer. She is the co-founder of VATAHA Foundation, which initiates and supports projects promoting Ukrainian art and culture in the Netherlands. By connecting artists, cultural producers and audiences, Oksana builds bridges between cultures and creates opportunities for creative Ukrainians.

Besides other activities, the foundation is currently focused on creating awareness and recognition of the status of many temporarily displaced Ukrainian cultural workers in the Netherlands. They are not allowed to work as self-employed persons, so they are forced to work without a formal legal status and are therefore often left without formal protection. An architect by training, she has lived and worked in the Netherlands for the last 7 years.

Elia Kalogianni (Athens, 1995) is an Amsterdam/Athens-based visual artist and filmmaker. Next to her artistic practice, Elia works as an exhibition floor manager at EYE Film Museum. Her work combines films, spatial AV installations, moving-image essays and photographs, aiming to redefine the tools of cinematic language. Her work has been exhibited in various museums and galleries including the 60th Venice Biennale, the Stedelijk Museum, Neverneverland, Galleria17 and the International Theater Amsterdam (ITA). Kalogianni’s films have been awarded and screened in multiple international film festivals, such as International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Athens International Film Festival (AIFF), Nederlands Film Festival (NFF) and SSFF Melbourne.

After the panel discussion, we offer the opportunity to get in touch with several organizations that help broaden your horizon and offer support in your next step as a creative professional. You can meet the following Fair Practice experts:

Jet Parent and Noud van der Rhee contribute to the Platform ACCT programme fairPACCT aims to concretize fair pay and fair practice in various subsectors within the cultural and creative sector. Within each involved subsector, employees and employers, will take part in a discussion table. Together they make proposals and agreements on future-proof employment conditions and translate the Fair Practice Code into concrete tools for practical application. Learn more about the programme, the tools and how to implement fair pay into your professional practice.

They are joined by Anne Hendriks, the Fair Practice Coordinator at the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie. In this role, Anne is dedicated to fostering a healthy and innovative design sector to create future-proof labor market for cultural and creative makers. She focuses on implementing the Fair Practice Code within our various grant schemes, ensuring that this code is effectively applied by both independent applicants and institutions. Additionally, I focus on knowledge sharing and training for applicants, colleagues, and assessors regarding the application and evaluation of this code.

To expand your network and look for international opportunities, you can connect to the British Council, the United Kingdom’s international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities. This is an opportunity for you to learn about international opportunities offered by the British Council and to have your questions about collaborating in the UK answered.

Institut Français can present the international opportunities available to students and creators based in the Netherlands who wish to collaborate with France. For instance, the Van Dongen art scholarships for Dutch or international students who wish to pursue master’s level studies at an art and design school in France, or the art and design residencies at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris for Dutch or international artists.

If you have international cultural ambitions, DutchCulture can help you gain a footing on the international stage. We offer information, advice, and training on international cultural cooperation. Whether you'd like to expand your network via Dutch Embassies abroad, find a residency programme matching your artistic journey, or getting the right mobility funding for your project, Simon de Leeuw and Albert Meijer ( Creative Europe Desk) are here to show you the way.

FAIR P(L)AY is a series of events discussing sustainable remuneration practices in the creative and cultural sectors with perspectives of different kinds. It is an initiative by EUNIC Netherlands. Partners are Institut français NL, British Council Netherlands, The Embassy of Ukraine in The Hague, The Embassy of Greece in The Hague, Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond and DutchCulture.