Podcast ‘We are artists’
Podcast maker Dide Vonk explores whether and how art can bring about change in our society in the podcast ‘We are artists’. Can a theatre performance or an exhibition change people’s minds about complex issues such as diversity, polarisation or the agricultural transition? Each episode of ‘We are artists’ Dide talks to different creative makers and participants and explores the impact of a project. Six new episodes will appear this second season.
Vonk: “For the podcast ‘We are artists’, I engage with different kinds of idealistic artists. And I talk to people from the target group they work with: such as young people, farmers, local residents or the elderly. Have they been changed by the art project? It is a search for the change power of art. Can art bring about social change?”
Special dancers & polarisation
In each episode, podcast maker Vonk explores the motivations of creators and participants. For instance, Vonk talks to the makers of GRONDPROEVEN in a theatre performance about the agricultural transition. And she also talks to the farmers, as how did they feel about working with theatre-makers? Dide Vonk: “The podcast is full of interviews with creative makers who critically question the world. The episode on GRONDPROEVEN clearly shows that an art form like theatre can bring people from different worlds together. A powerful medicine against polarisation.”
In another episode, Vonk visits Introdans dance artists to talk about HubClub’23. In this performance, professional Introdancers dance with performers from ‘other worlds’; for example, people with mental or physical disabilities. In the podcast, BNNVARA presenter Eva Eikhout says: “People often think because of your disability that you can’t do it anyway. So then you don’t get asked to do it either. If there is only one person in the audience who will look differently at this kind of dance and other bodies because of this, then we have already won.” Dide: “I hope to share many more such special stories with listeners.”
The initiatives from the ‘We are artists’ podcast have received support from the Friends Lottery Fund.