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Dutch government spending on the arts will be severely reduced from 2013 onwards. The remaining funds will be directed at traditional, established art forms and museums.

Institutional support for new media culture, which has been cultivated with great care over the past 30 years, will be eliminated. 

When this plan is accepted by Parliament on Tuesday June 27th, Mediamatic, Waag society, WORM, STEIM, NIMK, V2_ and Submarine Channel will lose ALL their government funding. And from 2013 onwards there will be no development platform for Media Art in The Netherlands. 

Sustaining the Dutch infrastructure for New Media Art requires a mere 1% of the national arts budget.

Help us to prevent this destruction and retain support for new media arts by signing the petition!

It took me a while to write another blog on that - well - Christmas break and all that jingle....

After some days of prooving our votings - the FIDOR bank came to the conclusion, that we do not hat enough valid votings. Main reason: we had too many from abroad. Well - we did know that. But also thought it would tell, that crowd funding shoulden't have any boarder. Another argument came on the collaborators of the FIDOR bank startnext.de. Fidor decided we don't have enough supporters on the startnext platform. Which is suspicious to them. For us it was already a hassle to get the people registered in order to vote for us, so that we didn't concentrate on the next step, which would be having the focus on startnext. At the end, every argument from their side would have a refutation from our side - the rules of the game are not that clear. We guess because of that the FIDOR bank offert us a booby prize of 500 €. And yes, we took it.

The rule of the startnext funding is, if you manage to get the money you need, you get the funding. If not, you don't get money at all (and it goes back to the supporters). They don't want, that people realize project without money, which is a good one and very much preferable. But a magazin for instance could wait and try to collect the money within the next month. We have a fixed date where the dance performance has to be ready to go on stage. With money to produce it or not. So in any case, we'll have to produce it and in it's worst case with no money - or ok, with 500 € from the FIDOR bank. Yeah.

As I said, next step is the startnext funding. I'll update you on that one.

Happy new year to everyone - be moved, move, move on - all year long.

j.

Tomorrow is now the last day of the competition at the Fidor bank (https://banking.fidor.de/wersollsbekommen) and we're quite excited about it!

We're still in the first row, but you never know about the jokers other players might have and, lets be real - it is a game. So I see my self and all the people involved sitting in front of their computer, checking the website of Fidor every minute...

The last days we spent on writing emails and facebook messages and twitter messages and talked to people - all to mobilize the crowd so that they vote for us. This is not an easy job. It takes a lot of time. Especially if you try to make your mother vote as well. Not an easy one. Well, we need every vote.

The communication part on every platform is the most important point in the whole thing. If you know a lot of people and you make them vote for you - you made a good job in communicating your project. It also helps to ask your friends and partners to forward your request.

In the first action I sent 700 messages and emails - we have 60 votes by now. So you see what's left. But I have to admit, it is a boarder to register at a bank you don't know and all that stuff. Also the registration process is not just that you click on the project to vote. So people hesitate. It's a new way to fund project. People might have doubts and all. But never the less - we are optimistic!

If we win the competition, we will receive our first funding to produce the dance piece ROHRPOST.

Give it a try too!

Thanks and good night,

Johanna for mind_the_gut

After some days of having the competition online, beeing the first in the row and having left just 3 days to vote for us - the website has an error. WOHOO. That keeps the suspense quite high...

We hope this is gone by tomorrow and some followers will vote in the last minutes in order to help us being the one getting the support by the Fidor bank.

Nothing more to tell by now - you can become a fan on facebook if you wish

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rohrpost-der-Beginn-eines-wundervollen-Missverstandnisses/179850895361439?ref=ts

We'll keep you informed!

Regards,

Johanna mind_the_gut

So we are invited to show our dance production ROHRPOST (tube mail) at the TANZWOCHE DRESDEN (dance week Dresden) in April 2011. The piece is yet to be produced - but where does the budget comes from? We started a crowd funding deal last week. I'm gonna right about it, keep you updated.

If you wanna support us as well - below you'll find the instructions for the Fidor competition.

With great help from Thomas Dumke (TMA) and some more people, we gonna try out CROWD FUNDING. Something which is kind of new - well in Germany at least.

Two ways to do so. First step is a competition at the Fidor bank. Where supporters have to register, search for our project ("ROHRPOST") and click on the >thumbs up< button. If we get the most votings till December 15th, we get our first funding. Straight from the bank. Nice one.

Second one is a platform called startnext.de. As a so called starter you create a profile where you introduce your project to the public. Supporters have to register. Now they can decide rather they "just" become a fan of the project or they might wanna donate some money. Everyone who gives in money will receive a small gift as a thank you.
We had to set a deadline. Untill that day we have to manage to get the money (through the crowd) we said we need. If we manage that, Startnext will support us as well. If not, everyone who gave in some money will get it back. Also nice.

For now we started with step one - the Fidor competition. At the moment we're in the first row. Which is very nice, but the deadline here is December 15th and the rivals never rest...

Guidance thumbs up for „wersollsbekommen“ competition:
for the new dance production by Johanna Roggan & Rebekka Esther Böhme ROHRPOST (tube mail) we are going to try out CROWD FUNDING via STARTNEXT and a competition at the FIDOR bank. If you want to support us and a new way of cultural funding – take 10 minutes and follow our instructions.
ATTENTION. The website is in German. We tell you what to do, step by step.
You have just one vote! And it has to be done until December 15th 2010.

let's go:FIDOR BANK AG – to register for the competition go to:
https://banking.fidor.de/bonus?popup=registrationif
there is no small window opening: on the very top left side is a button >registrieren< click on that
Anrede* (Bitte auswählen) >> title (please select)
Vorname* >> name
Nachname* >> surname
Nick-Name* >> nickname
E-Mail-Adresse* >> e-mail address
Passwort* >> password
(there is a security advice for your password, it tells you how safe your chosen word is)
Passwort wiederholen* >> re enter password

below all that is a field for a small hook, click on it. With the hook you agree to the SBT.
Then click on the huge orange button >Jetzt anmelden!< register now!

Wait for the registration e-mail with the link to sign in.

“wersollbekommen“ competition:
the competition is quite important and possible just by registration at the FIDOR bank. In case we win the competition, it would be our first earning to produce our dance piece.

Go to https://banking.fidor.de/wersollsbekommen
and log in with your informations you just added during the registration process.
Scroll down. There is a silver-colored field called >Nutzersuche<. Type in “ ds-x.org“ and click on >suchen< (search). On the right side of the (German) text is a thumps up sign. Click on it. That's your vote for us.
You have just one vote! And it has to be done until December 15th 2010.

Thanks a lot!!!

And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us: mindthegut@googlemail.com