Across the Board is a long-term platform for the development of culture through cross-disciplinary exchange. Led by visiting tutors – significant agents in the fields of art, business, and politics – a select group of promising professionals will work together to locate (and re-evaluate) the shared values between their respective domains and to confront the opposing philosophies and methodological frictions that arise through their exchange. The program, with a series of masterclasses at its core, will attempt to co-formulate a more pluralised and nuanced trajectory, to be activated within their independent domains and within the cultural field at large. Towards the long-term goal of intercultural exchange between the professional participants, Across the Board aims to not only fuel the foundation of connections during the program, but to also provide a lasting platform of exchange between its future alumni.

Program

All Across the Board masterclasses will take place at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, on Fridays from 2 - 6pm.

Masterclass Jeanne Gaakeer

Culture and Language
6 October 2017, 10:45am – 6pm

Interdisciplinarity has become a keyword on many levels, from scientific research to community work and festival organisations. On many accounts, the collaborative efforts of these disciplines or domains are hindered by problems of understanding or “translation”, limiting the outcome. Quite often this can be the result of a lack of reflection on the particularity of what gets brought together, known as the problem of quiddity: ‘what is actually...’ and ‘what are its principles, values, and discursive aspects?’ But also the lack of acknowledgment for differences between linguistic on the one end and technical and technological human undertakings on the other, resulting in the lack of attention for methodological differences. At that point it will be hard to find understanding or common ground; and often collaboration gets stuck on instrumentalisation. The subject of this masterclass is this problem of “language” and “translation”.

Jeanne Gaakeer is Professor of Jurisprudence: Hermeneutical and Narrative Foundations at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Justice in the Criminal Law section of the Appellate Court of The Hague, and former Judge in the Regional Court of Middelburg.

Masterclass Viktor Misiano

Curatorial Practice Throughout Shifting Cultural Landscapes
Friday 20 October 2017

As a curator and journal editor, Viktor Misiano has worked on a multitude of publications, exhibitions and artistic projects, shifting in methodologies throughout times and contexts, but with recurring threads of changing geo-political developments and an anthropological fascination at its core. From the years of formative and collaborative curatorship and relational art, through West meeting East in the new era of globalization, into the times of the global and roving biennialisation, what can we distill from these different modes of operating and their respective times and contexts? In his masterclass, Misiano will lead participants through the changes in the cultural landscape and discuss some of the most telling challenges faced with throughout the years.

Viktor Misiano (Moscow, 1957) is a critic and curator of contemporary art. He was founder and (chief) editor of multiple journals including Moscow Art Magazine and Manifesta Journal: Journal of Contemporary Curating. His most recent project is the largescale multidisciplinary initiative ‘The Human Condition’.

Interdisciplinary Expert Session

Friday 3 November 2017

Masterclass Tom Cummings

Leading Creativity and Transformation : Ways of Leveraging and Monetizing our work and practices
Friday 17 November 2017

In the face of emerging challenges in civic, business and cultural life, the natural response is to retreat. It is in these times when the cultural creatives focus their attention on transformation, evolution and adaptation. They thrive on finding new ways of engaging, of making or playing with current forms and assumptions. At the same time, because they love to create for its own sake, often they are not very conscious of the need to build healthy relationships that are needed to scale the effect they wish to create. In the end they are praised for their work and not able to monetize or leverage the results.

The purpose of this masterclass is to support creators and people who design and curate their new ideas across a range of contexts and settings. We will look at ways of influencing when you are not in control. We will explore different forms of dialogue that support ideation and generative collaboration. We will strengthen the connection between the longer term ambitions we want to achieve and the steps necessary to manifest and motivate change and transformation. We will look at these themes on a structural, relational and emotional level, using examples from people in the room. The main outcome of this masterclass will be to identify and cultivate a set of practices that reinforce one's ability to create and to influence change. The masterclass toolbox can apply to a range of fields and disciplines.

Tom Cummings is an Executive Board and senior management adviser. He is co-director of the Cambridge Judge Business School program on ‘Futures Thinking’ and teaches on the Corporate Supervisory Board program at Nyenrode Business University.

Masterclass Tirzo Martha

Art, Ideals, and Activism
Friday 1 December 2017

What responsibility do artists have politically or socially? Can activism or direct socio-political engagement be integrally part of artistic practice? Over the past two decades, socially driven practices – from community art to participatory projects – have become a common trope for artists and policy makers alike, and have fueled current debates on the value and function of art. From early on, visual artist Tirzo Martha has been at the heart of these developments. Martha is an artist who makes politically and socially engaging images, large scale installations and sculptures, videos and performances. For Martha, the urge and necessity to create art has its origin not in his ability to be creative but in his humanitarian and social engagement. Since 2006, he has been running The Instituto Buena Bista, Curacao Center for Contemporary Art, which he co-founded together with artist David Bade as an artists initiative aimed at creating a solid platform for art and art education for young talents from Curacao. In the masterclass, Martha will actively involve the participants, to collectively discuss and explore each other’s notions of engagement and ideals throughout their respective disciplines, domains, and practices.

Tirzo Martha is a Curacao based artist who makes politically and socially engaging images, large scale installations and sculptures, videos and performances; and he is the co-founder of Buena Bista - Curaçao Center for Contemporary Art.

Masterclass Hedy D’Ancona

Culture and Politics
Friday 15 December 2017

Hedy d'Ancona (1937, The Hague) is a Dutch politician, sociologist, and feminist educated as social geographer. She is a former secretary of state, senator, member of the European Parliament, and minister of Public Health, Welfare and Culture on behalf of the Labour Party. She initiated a movement that would come to be know as Second-wave feminism and is founder of OPZIJ magazine. With d'Ancona, we will look at key moments in her extensive political career, explore how the political and cultural landscape developed throughout the years of her professional and personal commitment to it, and discuss leadership in the cultural sector.

Hedy d'Ancona (1937, The Hague) is a Dutch politician, sociologist and feminist educated as social geographer.