Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art is looking to bring together a select group of ambitious professionals: talents from the fields of contemporary art, politics, and business that are on their way to change their respective fields. From artists, art professionals, architects, and designers to entrepreneurs, consultants, policy-makers, and diplomats are all invited to apply for Across the Board 2017. 

About Across the Board

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 programme, 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 programme, but to also provide a lasting platform of exchange between its future alumni.

Masterclass Programme

After a successful and energizing pilot program in 2016, this Fall will present the second edition of Across the Board. You, together with the visiting lecturers and fellow participants, will jointly assess, map and learn to develop scenarios for a new cultural roadmap. Through a series of masterclasses, workshops and discussions, you will address the role of culture, as it intersects with politics and business and explore the extent to which addressing culture from a plurality of domains may enable its essential and more nuanced role in the years to come. 

Taking place from October 6th until December 15th, the bi-weekly programme offers six sessions led by a roster of influential visiting tutors. Working across various sectors and occupying complementary positions, they will inform the participants’ engagement by sharing their experiences in their respective fields as embedded in broader societal perspectives. With a strong emphasis on active group participation and exchange, participants will undertake (and experiment with) the professional exercise of transcending and reconfiguring the parameters, values, and principles that separate their domains so distinctly. 

Visiting Tutors 2017

  • Viktor Misiano (Curator, critic, and editor; Founder and (chief) editor of multiple art journals including Moscow Art Magazine and Manifesta Journal: Journal of Contemporary Curating.
  • Jeanne Gaakeer (Professor of Jurisprudence: Hermeneutical and Narrative Foundations at Erasmus School of Law at Erasmus University Rotterdam; Justice at the Appellate Court of The Hague)
  • Tom Cummings (Executive Board and senior management adviser)
  • Tirzo Martha (Artist; co-founder of Instituto Buena Bista – Curaçao Center for Contemporary Art)
  • Hedy d’Ancona (Dutch politician, sociologist and feminist educated as social geographer and former secretary of state, minister, senator and member of the European Parliament)
  • More to be announced

Practical information

Dates: Friday 6 October (full day including introduction), Friday 20 October, Friday 3 November, Friday 17 November, Friday 1 December, Friday 15 December 2017
Time: 2 – 6 pm. End times may vary in line with the programming.
Location: Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam
Tuition Fee: € 1.200 incl. 6% VAT. 50% discount for registered non-profit and educational organizations.
Individual, non-institutional participants are potentially eligible for a stipend discount.

How to apply?

Professionals with three to ten years of work experience are invited to apply. Send a letter of motivation (350 words maximum), along with your resume, to Docus van der Made at [email protected], with the subject line “Application Across the Board 2017”. Please specify in your application if you would like to be considered eligible for a stipend discount. A select amount of participants, reviewed by a selection committee, will be admitted to the programme.

Application deadline: 3 September 2017

Witte de With is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and by the city of Rotterdam.