speakers

Joost Heinsius

Joost Heinsius, Manager Knowledge & Innovation at Kunstenaars&CO (Artists, Culture and Entrepreneurship) Graduated in Political Science at University of Amsterdam and in Journalism at New York University. He worked as a writer and consultant for many years before moving into the cultural sector. At Kunstenaars&CO he is responsible for internal and external research activities, quality management, and for developing new programs within the organization. F.e. European projects as ARTWorks (ESF-Equalprogram) where artists trained handicapped people, illiterate migrant women, prisoners and youth at risk to improve their employability, Portolano, where 5 EU-countries develop electronic portfolios for workers in the cultural sector. He is also responsible for a national program where Kunstenaars&CO works with major art schools at improving their curricula on including more entrepreneurship and a broader view on the future work possibilities for artists. Kunstenaars&CO (75 employees) is a national organization which stimulates the economic independence of artists through information, training, coaching and work experience (especially outside the arts sector f.e. health, public sector, business). Kunstenaars&CO plays a role in the implementation of the Law on Work and Income scheme.

The added value of artists' skills to social and industrial issues 

Through different examples and projects we will show how artists through their skills can contribute to issues in different societal sectors. I will show an example from the agricultural sector, where new EC-regulations led to product innovation for pigs. Another example from health care shows how artists designed a beautiful, new and previously unknown experience for people with multiple handicaps. I will also show deprived neighborhoods where people, from more than 100 cultural backgrounds, with a need for more social cohesion profit from the way artists bring people together through the arts. A fourth example stems from a chemical company looking for more cooperation between different departments to increase the launching speed of new products. New angles to product innovation, cooperation between groups, designing new experiences. That is, what artists of all disciplines can contribute to society, also outside the arts sector. This way of working requires a lot of artists which they did not learn at art schools. They need to learn to apply their skills in new areas, they need to learn how to work in multidisciplinary groups and they need to learn new skills in how to organize such projects and to work inside organizations. Artists, Culture & Entrepreneurship is a Dutch intermediary organization which trains artists, develops new markets for them but also helps those finding loans for investments. We train more than 1200 artists a year and work with more than 50 organizations each year to work with artists.

Link:

www.kunstenaarsenco.nl