mission statement
A place for encounters
STUK's core business is creating a public place for encounters involving
art. A place where different views on the world can be tested. A place
envisioned primarily from the arts and the artists. A place where there is
room for risks. A place with an elaborate programme of dynamic, temporary
activities and room for long-term projects. A place with an eye for
evolutions in and across disciplines, as well as a continuing recognition
and/or repositioning of a ‘past'.
A
choice for artists
As an arts centre, STUK completes it decretive mission of following
developments in the (inter)national arts production by means of creation,
presentation, reflection and audience public recruitment. STUK's commitment
to certain artists shows the focus on development-oriented, innovative art
- with respect for the field of reference. In doing so, STUK never loses
sight of the needs of the (Flemish) sector, nor the international
perspective or the regional anchoring. But the most important criterion for
STUK's choices is intrinsically subjective: STUK makes choices from a love
for arts and artists. The house's and programmers' affinity with a maker's
work is a basic condition for a long-term commitment and an effective
encounter between artist, arts centre and audience.
Context and the
thoroughly multi-disciplinary
STUK consciously models its working to the context, therefore choosing for
a quantitative and qualitative form of full multi-disciplinarity. It not
only organizes a working in dance, theatre, music, visual arts, media arts
and film, but in doing so always keeps in mind the specific dynamics of
each discipline. That context positions STUK as a unique arts centre in de
province of Vlaams-Brabant, with a working? that is de facto supra-regional
and initiating, because of the student population. After their studies,
students usually leave for other regions. Since their first acquaintance
with development-oriented arts often happened at STUK, our programme will
have an impact on their viewing experience. The tendencies in the arts are
another motivation for STUK to focus on so many disciplines: artists
inspire each other and meet across disciplines. Furthermore, the arts
practice is already a step ahead of this multi-disciplinarity, replacing it
with a ‘multi-personality'-approach. Projects are built around ad hoc
constellations of people who share certain affinities. Not the discipline
is directive, so much as the personality. STUK's entire organization is
aimed at facilitating these new tendencies to the utmost and combining them
with a balanced, broad public recruitment.
The public
Concerning that public: STUK starts from the artists and tries to find a
broad audience for them. Via several communication tools, entry levels and
a wide framework, STUK involves the audience in diverging art experiences.
STUK sees challenges in the extension of public participation and
interculturality, but chooses for an answer from a strong, integral
working, in a visible place in the city. After all, a meeting place for
arts needs a balanced model for interaction between artist, arts centre and
audience.
These starting points lead to STUK's primary reason for existence: a house of arts that is flexible enough to meet the demands of artists, across different disciplines, for a growing and interested audience, and this in an energetic and animated style of the house that bears witness of an open attitude and a broad field of interests. An arts centre in accordance to art itself.
