thinking more about this and the strict division that there is in The Netherlands between "art" and "hobby" or "amateur production" and how that strict line acts as a well defined racial and class division to exclude forms of artistic production that are left out of institutions https://twitter.com/sanderphilipse/status/1273648545300611072

there is the ubiquitous credentialism (something PoC are systematically left out off) but also the very white hegemonic idea of what constitutes art and what is just "a nice hobby". Who has access to subsidies for production and what is required for such subsidies

because in The Netherlands the subsidy pipeline is also the front door to institutional access. But in order to access the artistic production subsidies you need not only the correct network but also the "correct" resume, with the "correct" studies and schooling etc

things like the Mondriaan funds or the stimulerings fund etc would only be accessible to artists if they already have a resume that fits into the institutional notion of professionalization: the proper art degree, masters etc AND the experience with exhibition in the circuit

you might remember a while ago I was discussing how design (as a lose "institution") excludes certain crafts, especially, PARTICULARLY those that are labeled as "ethnic" or "homemade" as "not design". the same mechanism is at work in art; certain art is deemed "a hobby"

"hobby art" has its own circuit: exhibition in the entrance halls of elderly homes or community centers, subsidies "for the neighborhood" (code for "to keep minority youth occupied") etc. But it will not be awarded entrance into the art world "proper"

"hobby art" is at best, treated like an ethnographic curiosity and it remains completely outside the circuits of "proper art": museums (unless, I insist, as an ethnographic display), symposia, critique in professional publications etc. That is how the filtering system works in NL

I *really* recommend reading this:

"The Radical Culture of Night Shops and Beauty Salons"

Museums and art galleries have long held a monopoly on high culture, but as the project FOR THE CULTURE shows, there's even richer pickings on the city streets https://failedarchitecture.com/the-radical-culture-of-night-shops-and-beauty-salons/

"This point was echoed by another of the artists who contributed to the event, Cedric Kouamé. “A certain culture or a certain group of people that are thinking as artists are being ignored because the playground of their art is on the street,”"