What do the “New Patrons” do?

The New Patrons commission works from well-known contemporary artists from around the world.

Who are the New Patrons?

We, the residents of this country, are the New Patrons. Old or young, unemployed or overworked, factory worker or university professor, mayor or employee, native or newcomer, pensioners and neighbors, small town communities and corporate boards, a chorus, a party, an parents’ association.

Basically, anyone can be come a New Patron, not just private art collectors or important museums. The only requirement is a shared commitment, something that concerns you, worries you, or gives you hope, something you have in common with others around you.

Why should I become a New Patron?

Is there a plan or an objective that you share with others? Propose a suggestion, and you can become New Patrons!

Why should I, of all people, commission an artwork?

“What does contemporary art have to do with me?”, many ask. But contemporary art can be a way of bringing the issues you find important to the public. If you don’t know how to express your interest, you and your group might want to commission an artwork. You will work with an artist and a program representative and take on part of the responsibility for its emergence and future existence, instead of leaving this in the hands of others. The New Patrons, the artist, and the program representative commit themselves to one another, and invest time, energy, and fun in working together on your project. Art is not a service, but offers a possibility to help shape our society. Act now, and become active in forming our society, along with other patrons!

How can I become a New Patron?

Regardless of whether your interest is of cultural, political, or social nature, do you believe that an art project would be an appropriate way of engaging with the issue and presenting it to the public? Then you should submit a proposal as part of the New Patron program!

In Germany there will be six offices for the New Patrons program, in Brandenburg, Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Saxony, and Thuringia.

Just call or send us an email!

Belgium

• Joost Declercq, director, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle
• Thérèse Legierse, freelance curator Brussels, Rotterdam
• Anne Pontégnie, independent curator, Brussels, Paris

Germany

• Dr. Inke Arns, Tel. 0231 - 823106, Director, Hartware Medienkunstvereins Dortmund, NRW
• Gerrit Gohlke, Tel. 0331 - 2703442,chairman of the board, Brandenburgischer Kunstverein Potsdam, Brandenburg
• Dr. Nina Möntmann , freelance curator, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg
• Frank Motz, Tel. 03643 - 851261, director, ACC Weimar, Thuringia
• Dr. Barbara Steiner, Tel. 0341 - 140810, director, Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Saxony
• Axel John Wieder, Tel. 0711 - 617652, director of Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg

Finland

• Mari Linnman, International Business Campus, Helsinki

France

• Sylvie Amar, director, Bureau des compétences et désirs, Marseille
• Xavier Douroux, director, Consortium: Centre d’art contemporain, Dijon
• Bruno Dupont, Leiter des Centre d’art contemporain, Art connexion, Lille, France
• Valérie Cudel, curator, Association Art3 – Valence, France
• Anastassia Makridou, director, Eternal Networks, Tours, Brittany
• Mari Linnman, 3CA Paris, Ile de France
• Pierre Marsaa, Point de fuite, Aquitaine
• Jérôme Poggi, art historian and curator, objet de production, Paris

UK

• Sally Tallant, Serpentine Gallery and Mariana Canepa Luna, Louise Coysh, Royal College of Art, London

Italy

• Giorgina Bertolino, freelance curator and art historian, mediator, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, a.titolo, Turin
• Francesca Comisso, freelance curator and instructor, a.titolo, Turin
• Nicoletta Leonardi, freelance curator, Fulbright fellow, Colombia, Turin
• Lisa Parola, free curator and journalist, a.titolo, Turin, Milan
• Luisa Perlo, freelance curator and journalist, a.titolo, Turin

Sweden

• Mari Linnman, Stockholm

Spanien

• Cécile Bourne, association AMC (Asociación para la mediación cultural), Cadiz

These mediators will then examine your proposal, and if they decide that it is an important issue, they will meet with you and you develop a project together. Based on this project the mediator will suggest an adequate artist who could provide an interesting contribution. This artist will then be invited to discuss extensively your issue with you, the New Patrons. On the basis of these conversations, the artist will then provide a concept for an art project.

What if we think the artist’s proposal fails to sufficiently address our issue?

This should actually not take place, considering the careful preparation and discussions involved in the process, for the concept will emerge in the course of intense conversations between the three parties involved in developing the work: the new patrons, the mediator, and the artist. However, if the ideas of the New Patrons and the artist still wind up to be too disparate, which certainly can happen, the patron’s objective will be reformulated more clearly in a renewed discussion process. The artist will then change their proposal, or develop a new one, or the mediator will suggest a new artist.

How are the projects commissioned by the “New Patrons” ultimately realized, and above all, who pays for them?

The first steps toward an art project, a collective engagement with the New Patrons’ interest or objective, the selection of the artist, and the design of the art project, are financed using public or private money, depending on the regional or national partnership in each country (see chart). This decisive phase includes the essential core of the New Patron program: the proposal developed is an important requirement for the long-term realization of the art project and the search for financing partners.
The second step, the realization of the art project, is undertaken collectively: the New Patrons and rmediator supported by the national office will seek to convince private sponsors like companies and foundations or public fund sources on a city, federal, national, and European level of the value of their intention, and secure the financial means necessary for completing the art project.

Why is there public money to fund the project?

In this program, residents from various realms of society can receive the opportunity to become initiators and commissioners of art projects. In so doing, standard models of art production are rethought: the initiative here is taken by “ordinary” individuals. The starting point for this “art of civil society” are those who become active on their own terms: individual persons, groups, associations, or public institutions. They receive the necessary “tools” to commission an artwork competently: a mediator from the art realm who accompanies the New Patrons in their project until the end of the project. The program thus promotes social participation. This activity of citizens together with the mediator and the artist legitimizes the use of public funding.

Why are the decisions of the New Patrons not made by committee?

The decisions of the New Patrons are not made by committee because this allows for direct engagement and decision between the active participants: long advisory periods are unnecessary, and as a result the responsibility and eagerness of the participants are strengthened in the process. The New Patrons and their objective always remain central: they can work directly with both mediator and artist.

How are the New Patrons structured?

On a local level the mediators are the local representatives. The respective partner organizations provide a platform for project development.
On a national level, the regional mediators are linked to one another. They also remain in constant contact with the national office and the European network of New Patrons. The national association provides academic, political and logistical advice, and will keep the various activities on the European level in view.
The European structure of New Patrons is a network of now 24 representatives from eight countries. In France, where the New Patrons program began, there is also an academic advisory committee:

• Bruno Latour, philosopher, Director, Sciences Po, Paris (chairman)
• Richard Sennett, sociologist, London, New York
• Jean-Pierre Tolochard, Vice-Mayor for Culture, Tours
• Anna Ottani Cavina, art historian, Universita di Bologna
• Margit Rosen, art historian and theorist, ZKM Karlsruhe, Paris, Munich
• Laurent Dreano, Vice-Mayor for Culture, Lille
• Patricia Falguières, École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris
• Philippe Senechal, art historian, Universität der Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens
• Jean-Lucien Tassy, president, South Region, Fondation de France PACA

Who makes the decisions? What serves as the basis for decisions? Are there any set criteria?

There are no fixed criteria in the standard sense. Each of the participants acts on his or her own responsibility and recognizes the expertise of the others: that is, each participant fulfils a particular function as a specialist, patron, mediator, or artist.

• The patrons are “specialists” for their issue. They know what’s at stake. They know the situation on hand, and are the ones who can judge whether the artist suggested by the mediator is adequate for the issue.
• The regional mediators are specialists for contemporary art. They know the contemporary artists, the institutions, have contacts to the press, can contribute examples from the past, and know how to approach the most varied projects: this means helping the patrons in formulating their project content, suggesting an artist who fits their needs and the context and accompany the process with their expertise.
• The artists are specialists in their artistic practice.

The issue of the New Patrons and the local situation will always be decisive for the work of both mediators and artists alike.

How does the New Patrons program legitimize itself in social terms?

A distinction needs to be made between the open character of the project and the fixed structure of the program. This is not about “culture from below,” nor grassroots democracy, but central is the divided responsibility on the basis of various responsibilities and roles, that are respected. In the course of the collaboration between mediators, artists, and patrons, the negotiation character stands at the foreground. Competing interests are made visible and definable. The New Patrons create spaces of negotiation in which productive debate on shared or contradictory points of views can be held.

What does this have to do with Europe?

The New Patrons model began in France in 1993 based on an idea of the Belgian artist François Hers. It developed so successfully in France that initiatives have formed in Italy, Belgium, Spain, Finland, the UK, and Sweden, and now in Germany as well. The New Patrons have now grown to become a European network.
The New Patrons model is basically available anywhere in Europe where somebody has an idea to be realized as an art project. Locally organized and from the midst of society, the projects of the New Patrons are currently—and initially unnoticeably—already a new social art practice with European dimensions

How does the New Patrons program differ from art in public space?

The New Patrons program represents an additional offering. It is not a traditional program of “art in public space “ but rather “art of and in the public interest” “ The decisive distinction here is the method: the process before and during the realization of the art project. The art project is initiated by the New Patrons, they define it and take responsibility for it. It is their initiative that brings about a close collaboration with the program mediators and artists.

Do you have other questions?
Then write to us:

NEUE AUFTRAGGEBER e.V. Berlin
Almstadtstr. 35
10119 Berlin
T. +49 30 688120643
Vera Tollmann