[artinfo] NIMK Amsterdam, formerly Montevideo, will close down...

[Andreas Broeckmann]

Netherlands Media Art Institute closes end of 2012

http://nimk.nl/eng/netherlands-media-art-institute-closes-end-of-2012

Amsterdam, 3 April, 2012. The Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk) 
is ceasing its activities as at 31 December 2012. The organisation in 
its present form will be terminated as a result of the announcement 
by the Ministry of Culture that the Institute will receive no further 
financial support after 2012. NIMk will of course try and preserve 
the knowledge and experience that it has built up over the past 35 
years. With this in mind and in consultation with other 
organisations, NIMk is developing a number of plans in order to 
transfer its knowledge, mandate and networks, and thus secure these 
for the future.

One of the priorities is ensuring the continuation of collecting, 
conservation and distribution of art and technology with which NIMk 
attained its unique position here in the Netherlands and abroad. 
These activities and the unique knowledge and expertise that have 
been accumulated at NIMk over the past years, will be handed over to 
the new foundation 'Formerly known as MonteVideo' (VH MV, working 
title). The internationally acclaimed research projects in the field 
of conservation will also be transferred to this new foundation as at 
January 2013.
The ambitions of this knowledge centre are big. VH MV wants to 
innovatively draw the widest possible attention to issues of 
sustainability and conservation in the field of e-culture, with art 
as its central focus. This new 'Sustainability Lab', a 
multidisciplinary, open service centre and laboratory for the 
conservation of art and technology, will become a meeting place for 
today's (aspiring) professionals in the field, who wish to work and 
reflect together from artistic, scientific, technical, theoretical 
and/or practical perspectives.

SMART Project Space in Amsterdam has developed plans for a new 
institute under the name of NASA: New Art Space Amsterdam. This new 
organisation will be entrusted with the experience that NIMk has 
built up in the fields of presentation and education. NASA is the 
presentation space of the future. Experience contemporary art and 
culture in a continuous programming in visual arts, music, live art 
and film, combined with symposiums, discussions, exhibitions, 
workshops and events. Along with the online Creative Learning 
Programme which runs parallel to all these components.
NASA focusses on the production of exhibitions, and of individual 
works on the basis of public-private cooperation, within interrelated 
and challenging programming. NASA offers educational projects in 
collaboration with Rietveld Academy and Sandberg Institute. NASA is 
home to a broad coalition of institutes, initiatives, festivals and 
conferences; a cross-disciplinary programme for a wide audience.

Under the name THX plans have been developed in consultation with 
STEIM towards a completely new centre for image, audio and digital 
culture in The Hague. THX aspires to be a platform for the creative 
industry: network, theatre, presentation and project space, 
laboratory (living labs), concert venue and online hub. THX strives 
to closely cooperate with V2_ Institute for Instable Media in 
Rotterdam.
In addition to this focus on the public and participation, THX is a 
knowledge centre, production house and educational institution for 
higher and academic education in the fields of art, technology and 
life sciences. Nearer the end of 2012 THX will start off as a project 
organisation, with irregular, nomadic projects. The ambition for the 
long term is to house THX on the Lange Voorhout, in the building by 
Breuer that is now the American Embassy.

There are plans to vacate NIMk's present premises on the 
Keizersgracht in Amsterdam in the course of this year. We will keep 
you informed of all further developments and programming through our 
website and news letter.