On the initiative of the Pilot Projects Panel, the Fonds BKVB carried out an appeal for Directors of Cultural Diversity in Spring 2006.  It wanted to provide motivation to the cultural diversity of contemporary art in the Netherlands. Above all, it wanted to make visible issues that exist in art in this area, find out what ambitions there are and look at how the Fonds BKVB could participate in this, also at policy level.
Within the appeal there were various criteria with which the director of cultural diversity had to comply.  The director had to be able to boost projects, motivate discussions about the nature and meaning of developments, be able to place these within an artistic/societal framework, create new cooperative links between the various cultural circuits and have expertise and experience in the area of cultural diversity. 

During their deliberation, the jury applied these criteria using the following questions: How has the question, with regard to cultural diversity, been understood? How has this been carried out? What can it mean? And in which way will continuity be guaranteed?
The jury recognised a number of categories and content-based tendencies in the applications. Some of the proposals concentrated on the role of director, with people wanting to operate as mediator, motivator, director and facilitator from the point of a recognised role within the field and/or vision. Following on from this - and this made up the majority of the applications – were proposals that concentrated on a specific project. The third category applied to research-based plans. In the area of content, it was noticeable that many of the applications focused on the civic or urban nature of cultural diversity.  A number of the plans took cultural diversity as an explicitly international as well as a particularly local question. The national perspective was less relevant. Within this subject it was clear that there was a change from multiculturalism to inter-culturalism. On the question of how to deal with diversity, migration and integration there was, in many cases, an emphasis on the quality of monoculture.

The discussion around the understanding of quality, accessibility and origins was reiterated in the plans. The new generation speaks another language and a director must therefore, according to Guilly Koster, 'speak many languages: spoken language, gibberish, official language and mother tongue'.  Following on from this, many questions related to demands on the artistic or creative and processional qualities of art and artists.  Sohella Najand put it as follows: 'artists are in a position to deliver a substantial contribution to accepting diversity' and a better cohesion between cultures.  Many of the plans were consequently focused on re-thinking or reflecting upon your own role and responsibilities.  Art can be seen as a productive place from where you can study topics such as the various shades of the question of identity.  Participating artists are, therefore, are better than academics or journalists for example, as they are in a position in which they can be asked without having to provide an immediate answer, they are open and used to dealing with differences.
Research and exchange go, in the majority of plans, together with multi (or inter) disciplines. People stepping out of the chosen domain of the arts and forging links with historical, social, political and societal questions. It is categorically confirmed that the subject of cultural diversity is a politically imposed idea but that, as well as this, it comes through in art. The scornful opinion that cultural diversity is just a politically correct subject was not contained within many plans. In a number of proposals, and that brings us to the plans that were finally chosen, the jury recognised several specific qualities. Alongside the fact that the chosen plans are neither fussy nor pretentious but entered into dialogue, wanted to break open existing frameworks, had a strong international scope, stressed the possibility of integration in its broadest sense and, thereby, emphasised the qualities of cultural diversity, it is the practical aspects that will be appreciated. It is the opinion of the jury that the practice of inter-culturalism means that you must consider it as a more radical notion. The creation of social links, actively launching cultural exchanges in urban renewal processes or the actual work process – creating new work; there is the possibility that, apart from just reporting the research, the imaginary and the absolute can be brought together.
On the basis of the statements above, the jury has honoured a number of proposals, each of which can, in its own way, deliver a valuable and exceptional contribution to cultural diversity within the arts.

Binna Choi and Kyongfa Che
The jury characterised the plan as 'the diamond in the rock'. They valued the efforts to replace the daily, hectic practice of going from one exhibition to the next with a more focused and gradual look at the role of the curator between different cultures: 'embarking on curatorial ethics in trans-cultural communication'. As far as the jury is concerned this is what it is all about where the possibilities and problems of art within other cultures is concerned. For those who look further than 'flash art' there are, luckily, also curators and artists who, for some time, lead a kind of double or triple life within different cultures and come up against questions and doubts rather than sensational answers. The plan of Choi and Che touches upon the problem of intercultural communication that has an historical and also an academic variant. This developed via business life before academia could cover it and, meanwhile, there are now all sorts of models that refer back to a small series of basic values which different interpretations use to state the difference between other cultures. The art world is not yet sufficiently aware of this knowledge and it is high-time for a cross-over. Binna Choi places herself, with her project, within a spontaneously growing international web of young curators who consciously have an intercultural existence. Knowledge is developing there which will possibly have huge importance for the future but which we cannot currently access properly as the field is still governed by another generation. The project looked into how art reacts to the necessity for political participation, in an era that can be described more and more as 'depoliticised'. In a certain sense, it wants to diagnose and illustrate the current social and cultural circumstances and it has the capability of mobilising contemporary art.

Atousa Bandeh Ghiasabadi
Bandeh Ghiasabadi knows, according to the jury, how to link her personal background and experiences with a number of fundamental questions in a convincing and powerful manner. How far can art be considered as a universal language that can become independent of individual understanding? How far is identity a test of the form and content of the manner of expression? Bandeh Ghiasabadi makes the way she sees the world, the key to making art. The research can offer a view on the importance of the context of where the art was created and can lead to a re-defining of exactly what an immigrant artist is. According to the jury, this research is valuable because it can provide an insight, from the viewpoint of the artist’s practice, into how the dilemmas and confrontations faced by the 'immigrant' are a source of inspiration, as well as how an artwork is understood and how declarations themselves create new content.

Jeanne van Heeswijk and Dennis Kaspori
The jury finds the plan favourable, well set-up and executed and also clearly thought through and well-founded. The jury values the ambition to include culture in urban renewal. Van Heeswijk and Kaspori correctly use cultural capital and cultural differentiators as instruments for – social and economical – community revitalisation. The jury shares the analysis of Van Heeswijk and Kaspori that publications such as 'The Rise of the Creative Class' by Richard Florida place a one-sided emphasis on the importance of cultural facilities and cultural production for a lively and thriving city. In the proposal by Van Heeswijk and Kaspori the question of cultural exchange is expanded and put into the urban renewal process as well as the integration of immigrants. The power of Freehouse is that it is a model wherein education and work forms the base for stimulating the cultural self-conscious. It recognises the role of 'outsiders' on culture in a general sense and provides the methods with which an active part can be played. They are employed on the basis of their specific qualities and skills and learn how to put these into a process that focuses on the creation of a lively public domain. The project is thought out as a basis but goes beyond local character because new, universal forms of work develop and because cultural production links into the power of different cultural communities. The project is well embedded as is the neighbourhood, in a political and international context. Due to the professionalism and effectiveness of the organisers, the jury expects great things from this project.

Ergün Ergoçu/CONCEPT0031
Ergün Ergoçu of CONCEPT0031 has proved that relevant topics such as mosque-architecture, centres for asylum-seekers and street culture can form part of the debate and, as architectural publications, can be put 'on the map'. They know that, above all, the new generation ('Gonnabeez') need to be involved in the world of architecture. The think-tank New Dut©h comprises architects, designers and artists and is seen by the jury as a good way to make asked-for and unasked-for recommendations and initiate projects that can be influential artistically, informatively, educationally and politico-socially on the development of the public domain, on the basis of an analysis of city building and architecture in the Netherlands. Amongst other things, it is interesting to look at how cultural immigration in the Netherlands and the new generation of young architects will determine the cultural discourse of architecture itself.

Michael Tedja, Remy Jungerman and Gillian Grantsaan
The 'autobiographical' standard of the application made an impression on the jury. Tedja, Jungerman and Grantsaan ask themselves: 'What role can three emancipated sons, fathered in a neo-colonial past, fulfil, in a society drenched in an obsession with oppression?'  As far as they are concerned, nothing less than the right to 'have a say' about the content of Dutch identity, art and culture in general is up for grabs. The conviction, certainty and critical manner of the departure points, linked with the freshness and practical approach make the project, according to the jury, certainly worth supporting.

Eline van der Vlist and Abdellah Karoum
The curators want to focus on developing the durability of art projects between the Netherlands and Morocco. The jury agrees with the importance that the curators attach to the visibility in, the Netherlands, of the contemporary art climate in Morocco. The modern cultural climate in Morocco is sharp and well-developed enough – beyond the stereotypes and folklore – to bridge the gap in knowledge between 'east' and 'west'. The plan gives Moroccan artists the chance to show their work in an international context, and conversely, it is also important that Moroccan culture is opened up for (young) artists from the Netherlands. The jury finds this exciting as the idea comes from a multi-disciplinary approach, whereby various forms of artistic expression are brought together in the public domain. The project infiltrates the urban space, which is then transformed into an imaginary place, a place of meetings and the renewal of knowledge.  The jury was convinced by the power of the plan’s content as well as the clear departure points and intended continuity of the exchange.

The jury consisted of members of the Pilot Projects Panel which initiated the project, and a number of external members:
Els van der Plas, director of the Prins Claus Fonds (chairperson)
Mavis Carrilho, director of research and advice bureau I-nova and International Black Business Woman 2005
Raoul de Jong, columnist of, amongst others, the youth magazine Spunk and author of the novels Stinknegers and Het leven is verschrikkelluk
Johan Pijnappel, art historian, publicist and curator of, amongst other things, Crossing Currents-Video Art and Cultural Identity
Engin Celikbas, director of the advertising agency KesselsKramer
The members of the Pilot Projects Panel from the Fonds BKVB
Bart de Baere, director of the MUHKA in Antwerp
Nikki Gonnissen, graphic designer and co-owner of Thonik
Wouter Vanstiphout, architecture historian and co-owner of Crimson
Lex ter Braak, director Fonds BKVB

reporting
Steven van Teeseling, Fonds BKVB