With fewer and fewer opportunities for performing artists with the existing companies, Jette Schneider thought it was time to take matters into her own hands. For a group of 40 artists she organised a festival and a space where they could work: TimeWindow, located on the Teijlingerstraat.
As a maker, you're very dependent on the wishes of companies', says Jette in the lounge of the Teijlingerstraat, where TimeWindow rents a floor of a former office building. Often unconsciously, a lot of people make what is expected of them. Here they have their own space to let fresh, young ideas grow and gain inspiration from other artists'.
Mini company
Three aspects are important to Jette Schneider, who initiated TimeWindow together with Judith Schoneveld, and who herself has a background in dance and cultural management: the availability of her own workspace, a peer environment with other makers, and making the free circuit visible to the outside world. We are, as it were, a mini society where there is room for differences, for diversity, for things that have not yet been worked out. It really complements the practice of the makers'.
SKAR as a partnerIn SKAR, Jette found a partner. They arranged this space with us for our concept, even though our ideas were still vague at the time. SKAR was curious what a flexible use of workspace for impact would have for a young generation of performing artists'. Last October, for the second time, the TimeWindow festival took place, of which the artists are owners and where they can show their own productions. And since May, there are about 35 tenants with their own workspace, and about 15 more renting a flex space in the atrium.\nTimeWindow is organized as a "horizontal network organization". The principle is that the doers decide. So if you contribute to the festival, you also have a voice about its organization. For the payout, everyone can indicate afterwards what he or she thinks he or she deserves. On the basis of 5 factual criteria, such as how much time you have spent on the festival, they are allowed to appreciate themselves', Jette says. In an overview we make this completely transparent and insightful. It works very well. For the rest, there are few obligations or requirements. "Someone said sorry the other day, because he hadn't been in a while. You don't have to be. It's all right if there's fluctuation in the presence. Then someone comes in with a new inspiration. "Cooperative? \TimeWindow's ambition is to get even more out of the interaction between the different artists. We are now investigating how we can organize even more dynamics and improve the facilities even further. So that artists can create even more work in freedom. In addition to TimeWindow, Jette also runs a number of other projects, including setting up the SMartNL Foundation, which, for a fee, takes care of all the business aspects for an artist. From advance payments, budget monitoring to collection. I like to develop tools that enable artists to focus even better on what they like to do and what they are good at: making art.
