Vrije Ruimte Festival 2025, organised by Amsterdam Alternative, will take place in ten different locations on ten different dates throughout 2025, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Amsterdam Alternative as well as 750 years Amsterdam. On Friday 16 and Saturday 17 May, the festival lands at de Appel for programmes on cuts and currencies.

Funding cuts and Moving Beyond State Dependency
Last year we saw many art and cultural institutions get defunded by municipal and national funding bodies in the Netherlands. This has a trickle effect on art workers in the Netherlands and on what kind of institutional, artistic and curatorial practices are supported. The defunding of institutions has instigated a barrage of questions that we (institutions and artists) have been asking ourselves together with many colleagues around the world. How can we read the current defunding of institutions? How do political ideologies, particularly neoliberal tendencies, shape the allocation and design of art subsidies? To what extent do liberal market principles influence public funding bodies? Does the pressure of neoliberal frameworks, commodify art and undermine its potential for genuine political dissent? How can art institutions and artists remain resilient and address structural precarity in the long term? How do we navigate our reliance on state funding under the current political order? How can we collectivise and share resources in light of a funding infrastructure that creates competition?

Programme:
11am-1pm: Jack Segbars and respondents
1-2pm: Lunch
2-4pm: Pascal Gielen and respondents
4-5.30pm: Koen Bartijn and Sepp Eckenhaussen (via zoom in Breda) and respondents
5.30-6.30pm: Wrapping up - questions, thoughts

Learning from Community Currencies
Many artists and communities use alternative currencies to redistribute value and keep resources circulating locally. These currencies allow them to control their means of exchange, advance their interests, and operate independently of banks, the mainstream economy, and national currencies. By implementing community currencies, local economies can mobilise underutilized resources, meet basic needs, and foster economic resilience. Could creating a local currency help strengthen connections and the economy within the Amsterdam Alternative network? We’ll explore this question with various experts.

Programme:
10.30-11am - Doors open
11-11.15am - Introduction
11.15-11.30am- Henk van Arkel - short introduction
11.30am-12.15pm - Thomas Siderius - presentation
12.15-12.25pm - Time to reflect on the presentation
12.25-12.50pm - Short documentary
12.50-1pm - Time to reflect on the docu
1-1.20pm - Presentation Yazan Khalili - Dayra
1.20-1.30pm - Time to reflect on the presentation
1.30-2.15pm - Lunch
2.15-2.40pm - MG Pringgotono - presentation Jalar Collective Wallet
2.40-2.50pm - Time to reflect on the presentation
2.50-3.30pm - Heidi Leenaarts - presentation United Economy
3.30-3.40pm - Time to reflect on the presentation
3.40-5.30pm - Henk van Arkel and Thomas Siderius - Workshop - how to set up an alternative payment system slash currency for/from the Amsterdam Alternative network
5.30-6pm - Closing