"The New Elite" A Symposium about the Changing Meaning of “Elite"

The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and de Appel arts centre present "The New Elite", a symposium about the contemporary and changing meaning of the elite in relation to politics and the visual arts.

The recent political and social situation in Western Europe and Scandinavia has been tumultuous, with the rise of right-wing political parties and nationalist overtones that increasingly dominate political debate and policy. In the Netherlands in particular, these tendencies have converged in the installment of a conservative right-wing government with full support of the Party of Freedom, a party under the leadership of Geert Wilders. The current government, and Wilders especially, applies a populist vocabulary to articulate its politics and policies. Dutch society, Wilders contends, is dealing with fundamental problems of immigration, multiculturalism, security, and healthcare, which in previous years have been completely ignored by an often leftist elite. Anti-elitism appears to be at the very core of Wilders’ program, as well as of the government he supports. The art world – which in its most broad sense includes theater, music, performance, and visual arts – is regarded as the epitome of elitism, the ivory tower in which the elite resides to either ignore or exacerbate the so-called problems of our contemporary society.According to some,This costly “left-wing hobby” should be restrained, and so serious propositions have been made to cut funding to the arts.

Rather than articulating a defense against such claims, it is more productive to review the core argument against elitism, and to examine, scrutinize, and, if necessary, rearticulate the notion of the elite in contemporary Western society and its importance, specifically in relation to the arts. How has the notion of “elite” changed over the past decades? Why is the attack on the elite so popular at the moment? In what ways can social, political, intellectual, financial, and cultural elites be differentiated? And what is the status of these different forms of elite in the current populist and nationalist political discourse? Looking at the future, who will be the new elite?

Programme

Day 1: 9 September 2011:

10.30 Introduction by Hendrik Folkerts
10.45 Column by Ann Demeester
11.00 Lecture by Margriet van der Linden
11.40 Questions from the public
12.00 Intervention by Laura van Dolron
12.20 Lunch break
13.20 Lecture by Britta Böhler
14.00 Response by Rob Riemen
14.20 Questions from the public
14.40 Coffee break
15.10 Intervention by Erik van Lieshout
15.30 Lecture by Bas Heijne
16.20 Questions from the public
16.50 End of day 1

Day 2: 10 September 2011:

11.00 Welcoming speech by Ann Demeester
11.20 Lecture by Meindert Fennema
12.00 Questions from the public
12.20 Column by Gideon Boie
12.40 Lunch break
13.40 Column by Dick Tuinder
14.00 Intervention by Jonas Staal
14.20 Round table discussion with Gideon Boie, Martijn Jonk, Dick Tuinder and Barbara Visser, moderated by Xandra Schutte.
15.30 Conclusion by Xandra Schutte
15.45 End

Temporary Stedelijk 2

Entrance fee: Free with valid Museum ticket
Language: Dutch
Reservations: Required, via reservations [​at​] stedelijk.nl