For three days (July 8 – 10, 2019) artists, academics, and diverse economies thinkers gathered together in Wageningen to discuss their work and understandings of art and diverse economies. The workshop was organized by Oona Morrow, Anke de Vrieze, and Chizu Sato, and drew upon the past exchanges around art and diverse economies within the Community Economies Research Network.
- How to slow down
- How to practice interdependence
- How to support alternative economies…
We concluded the first day with an amazing Syrian dinner that sparked conversation and laughter.
The next day, we met at the Wageningen Campus to engage with the questions we distilled the previous afternoon. We mapped out our thoughts and conversations on large flipcharts and discussed topics like Taking Back Time.
After an engaging morning we cycled to the Hooilanden Farm, where we took a small tour of this local organic dairy farm. We were especially intrigued by the diverse food economies that exist in this small space, including the trust based farm shop. We then set to work in four different workshops that were designed and facilitated by our visiting artists. We made fizzy drinks from local red currants and wild herbs with Communita Frizante, Zines that sought to capture the key insights from our brief time together with Brave New Alps, learned from Pascale about the art of Compassionate Communication, and discussed with Asia about the experience of occupying one of the last remaining farm houses in Leidsche Rijn, and where to go next.
As if our guests hadn’t worked hard enough already, we then put them to work for a cooking workshop of astronomic proportions. Wendy made several delicious salads and dips. Chizu made a soup. Carlo made several cakes and deserts. Oona made sweet potato pancakes. Casco and Kate made vegan kebabs. Anke and a team of pasta elves made the most beautiful rainbow ravioli. The day closed with us sitting very full overlooking the cow pasture and the evening light, as a hot air balloon coasted by.
On the final day we harvested our collective outputs for a public exhibition entitled Other (food) + (art) economies are possible ! at Impulse, where we shared stories and insights with visitors. And had a surprise visit from Wapke, of My Villages.
The workshop has resulted in a submitted Marie Curie ITN proposal : DIVERSEFOODS, the launch of the Dutch node of the international Community Economies Research Network CERN-NL, plans for the cultural program of the 2021 Degrowth Conference in the Hague, and a new research project on diverse economic practices in the Netherlands to be included in a Dutch translation of the book Take Back the Economy
The workshop was funded by a seed money grant from the 2019 DSS Excellence in Research Programme, we are grateful for this funding without which the workshop would not have been possible.
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