Brussels Roombeek an Enriching Community Bert Nijmeijer
Background information Roombeek is a district within the city Enschede, one of the cities of Twente in The Netherlands. A part of a former industrial complex in this district will be turned into the Media Art Centre.
Present Situation in Enschede/Twente The Creative Industry in Twente is: very differentiated but almost every discipline is present, design and media mostly small businesses and specialists almost invisible for potential clients there is hardly any spontaneous communication between the companies The sector is too isolated from other sectors
Targets Bussinessdevelopment The Creative Industry should become more inspirational for themselves and for their clients. We will establish a cooperation between art, technology, (industrial) design and media by breaking down the (artificial) walls
Goals Therefore: Should the creative industry become more transparent and visible. Who are they, where are they, what can they accomplish. They should start to work integrated with both their colleagues and their clients. Bring together innovators, technicians, artists, designers
Stakeholders The creative industry themselves in the field of technology, (new) media, design and culture Educational institutions like: the University of Twente the Telematica Institute the Saxion University of Applied Sciences The AKI ( Academy for Art and Industry ) Innovative start ups in Twente Spin offs from these institutions City of Enschede
Strategy Facilitating an enriching community Bring together (subsidiary) of the educational institutes Create projects for shared involvement and use these as guidelines for learning and coaching Bring several disciplines together
Tactics Bring several disciplines together Create an central place/meeting spot/appointment possibility Develop in company projects for cultural identity and apply them in marketing and communication Open a media mall where we show our output Expositions, art gallery, guerilla shop, artist in residence, open studios etc.
First projects Integrate with the technical staff of the(facilitaire diensten) from; Museum Opera, and other stage performers with our artist, designers, ICTers etc. Start cultural identity projects in companies and develop a theoretical platform for the way we work and guidelines how to apply. Introduce our people in projects that we bring in with potential customers.
Expected development The Media Art Centre will become an enriching community where creative businesses in the field of technology, (new) media, design and culture can inspire each other en work together on surprisingly new applications. It will attract everybody who is interested in new developments in the field of culture, art, media, communications and innovations
Lessons Learned Work in a structured approach Use projects to develop and coach our creative people Have a good mix of disciplines and a good mix of starters and experienced people (Wheel of Learning) First take the lead before you loosen Be open; communicative and diplomatic with the stakeholders
Conclusions If tightly managed this approach can be a fertilizer for individual entrepeneurship. It can create new businesses It can create a new sort of business by integrating several artforms It can lead to multi-disciplined product development together with the user groups We started with this idea for a Media Art Center in a building we see now that it can develop into an Media Art Campus. Question: where lies the line between freedom and...?
o Thank you for your attention o Questions?