Return on Invest

Date: 2 June thru 9 September 2012
Opening: Friday 1 June, 8 pm
during Hoogtij #29 (extra activities during opening see Stroom School below)
Location: Hogewal 1-9, The Hague
Open: Wednesday thru Sunday, 12-5 pm
Also open during Hoogtij #30 on Friday 7 september, 7-11 pm
DOWNLOAD exhibition guide (pdf)

Stroom School Return on Invest
A side program of guided tours, talks and studio visits;

Friday 1 June 2012, 8-11 pm
Hoogtij #29 and opening exhibition + launch 3 new Premium publications (dedicated to Arianne Olthaar, Thom Vink and Gamal Ez). These publications are published in the context of the Stroom Premium grant. The launch will be celebrated festively with Miek Zwamborn, author of the Thomas Vink publication and performance artist.

Friday 8 June 2012, 8 pm
Location: Heden Hier, Weimarstraat 24a
Camiel van Winkel presents his essay ‘De Hybride Kunstenaar'. This evening will be organized by Heden in the context of Puck Verkade's 'De avonturen van de alleskunner', and is perfectly in tune with the theme of 'Return on Invest'.

Sundays in June, July and August
Guided tours and studio visits
Activities takes place almost every Sunday. These can be guided tours of the exhibition by participating artists or a studio visit to their place. By giving the artists the opportunity to speak, we have a change to get closer to how they work, think, and shape their practice. For guided tours reservations are not required.

Sunday 3 June 2012, 3 pm
Guided tour by Clara Palli Monguilod   

Sunday 10 June 2012, 3 pm
Guided tour by Basten Stokhuyzen

Sunday 17 June 2012, 3 pm
Guided tour by Lilian Kreutzberger

Sunday 24 June 2012, 3 pm
Guided tour by Femmy Otten

Sunday 1 July 2012, 3 pm
Guided tour by Daan Brinkmann

Sunday 8 July 2012, 3 pm
Guided tour by Magdalena Pilko

Sunday 15 July 2012, 3 pm
Studio visit with Basten Stokhuyzen
(with an exclusive introduction to his new project A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Broker)
Location: Villa Ockenburg, Monsterseweg 4, The Hague

Sunday 22 July 2012, 3 pm
Studio visit Nishiko

Sunday 29 July 2012, 3 pm
Guided tour by Sarah Carlier

Sunday 19 August 2012, 3 pm
Studio visit with Basten Stokhuyzen
(with an exclusive introduction to his new project A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Broker)
Location: Villa Ockenburg, Monsterseweg 4, The Hague

Wednesday 29 August 2012, 8 pm
Public lecture in the context of the Invest Conference
Annually, Stroom organises the Invest Conference for artists who received an Invest grant in the preceding year (in 2011 these were the artists Melissa Cruz Garcia, Angeline Dekker, Gordan Savicic, Lilian Kreutzberger, Lars Kynde, Amir Tirandaz and Selena Savic). Dutch and foreign curators visit the studios of artists in The Hague and visit art institutions, artist's initiatives and galleries in the city. At the start of the conference there is a public evening during which the curators are questioned by a moderator about their role and position as a curator. Participating curators (more names will follow): Marwa Arsanios (98 Weeks Project Space, Beirut, Lebanon); Liz Burns (Fire Station, Dublin, Ireland); Adnan Yildiz (Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Germany); Xander Karskens (De Hallen museum, Haarlem, NL); Larissa Harris (Queens Museum, New York); Simon Delobel (Verbeke Foundation, Kemzeke, Belgium)

Wednesday 5 September 2012, 8 pm
Meeting on alternative funding opportunities for artists (extended info in Dutch only)
Stroom wants to organize the coming months different meetings in which artists can strengthen and deepen each other's professional practice and exchange information on various topics. The first meeting within this framework will focus on alternative financing such as patronage, small art sponsorship and crowd funding. We will do this on the basis of examples from artists practices. The first meeting in this context will take place during Return on Invest.`

Sunday 9 September 2012, 3 pm
Guided tour by Arno van Roosmalen
The exhibition will be closed with a guided tour by Arno van Roosmalen, director of Stroom Den Haag. With the participation of a number  of the artists in the show.

The artists in Return on Invest are:

Daan Brinkmann
Sarah Carlier
Robin de Goede
Lilian Kreutzberger
Nishiko
Femmy Otten
Clara Palli Monguilod
Magdalena Pilko
Basten Stokhuyzen

The exhibition Return on Invest presents a selection work by nine artists from The Hague who received a Stroom Invest subsidy over the past years. The contribution of these young, creative and driven artists is of major importance for a blooming art climate in The Hague.

Money is one way to express economic value; time, luck, or talent are other ways. Funding is merely one word to describe the government support of the arts; investment is the other. It is for a good reason that Stroom Den Haag named the grant that enables young artists from The Hague to develop their practice, Return on Invest.

According to various economists, in times of crisis, investment in innovation is a necessity. For the government, completely contrary to the zeitgeist, this implies a stronger commitment to culture, which after all is the department of research & development of our society. A commitment that will generate a self-renewing, open society.

Stroom Invest Program
De Stroom Invest subsidy is a grant for young, recently graduated artists helping them in the further development of their career and stimulating their active participation in the art scene in The Hague. In order to give these artists an extra push Stroom organizes an annual Invest Program, which comprises a program of studio visits by (inter)national curators, presentations, and informal meetings.

This exhibition was made possible with the support and help of:
The Mondriaan Fund, Fulbright & the Netherland America Foundation, De Stichting dr Hendrik Muller's Vaderlandsch Fonds, Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunsten, VisHartslag, TodaysArt, Svetlobna Gverila Festival (Lighting Guerrilla Festival), Daniel Moeyaert, Agnes Winter, Jacoba Bruneel, Marc Davidson, Roosje Klap, Nobl_Amaze.