On 7 September 2017, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art vowed to make a name change. Our new name will come into effect 27 January 2021, following public forums, a survey, a public review, and assessment by an external advisory committee.

Online Survey.
The online survey is designed for voicing ideas, creating perspectives, and identifying challenges as part of our name change. Please complete by 19 September 2020.

Forums.
The Forums are designed for exchanging ideas that will help shape our name change. They are focused and moderated sessions that delve deeper into key questions. There will be five forums, in Dutch and English. Please complete by 18 September 2020. Each Forum will be led by a moderator, connected to three topics.

Public Review
At this program, on 26 September 2020, at 3, 5 and 7:30 pm, we will present the findings of our initiative’s Online Survey and Forums, as well as the report by the Advisory Committee. This presentation will include the three name options we will consider for our institution. The program will be an occasion to ask questions, which we will respond to, and to share thoughts with us for further consideration.

Forums

1

29 August 2020
Witte de Withstraat 50
11 am – 1 pm in Dutch
3 – 5 pm in English

"Legacies and Futures: How should our re-naming acknowledge our institutional past, as well our namesake Witte de Withstraat and its relation to Dutch seventeenth century history?

These two forums are held in Rotterdam and focus on how historical awareness is part of our name change. When we remove the name “Witte de With”, how do we continue to be historically aware and how does historical awareness inform our transformation?

Moderated (in NL) by marjolijn kok, an artist, contemporary archaeologist, and the archivist at our institution; and (in EN) by Rolando Vázquez Melken, associate professor and diversity fellow at University College Roosevelt and affiliated researcher University of Utrecht.

2

11 September 2020
Online via Zoom
7 – 9 pm in English

Naming and Communication: How do typologies of naming and branding impact multiple local and international audiences and stakeholders?

This forum focuses on how the choice of name connects with institutional identity. What has the institutional identity been, and what can it be in the future? How is this part of social transformation and re-evaluation? This forum will involve small break-out groups and will be held on Zoom.

Moderated by Prem Krishnamurthy, a designer, curator, teacher, writer, and partner in the multidisciplinary design studio Wkshps in New York and Berlin.

3

19 September 2020
Witte de Withstraat 50
11 am – 1 pm in Dutch
3 – 5 pm in English

Engaging and Changing: How can our re-naming bring us to engage with more people and communities than in the past?

These two forums are held in Rotterdam and focus on how our institutional transformation is connected with social engagement and social change. Who have we engaged in the past, who can we engage in the future, and how is our name part of this change?

Moderated by Quincy Mahangi from Guestwise, a consultancy that guides companies towards the creation of audience/guest experience through a people-driven mindset.


Forum Moderators

marjolijn kok
For over ten years marjolijn kok worked at the University of Amsterdam as a theoretical archaeologist. Not satisfied with the way academic work became more constrained, she started her own company Bureau Archeologie en Toekomst, to focus on contemporary archaeology and art. She did participatory research on Occupy Rotterdam, and set up and maintains the archive at Formerly Known as Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, she works on the postcolonial aftermath of Moluccan camps (woonoorden) in the Netherlands. On incidental projects together with line kramer they form the artist’s collective the KOKRA FAMILY, which focuses on projects that problematize the concept of family. In her own work kok is keen on the aporetic turn of reclaiming historical traces and turning them into contemporary actions. Her work involves long term projects and events that focus on the connections between and the perceptions of people and their material context. She is now working on ‘Relational Theory: The Opera’.

Prem Krishnamurthy
Prem Krishnamurthy is a designer, curator, teacher, and writer based in Berlin and New York City. He is a partner in the multidisciplinary design studio Wkshps. In 2015, Krishnamurthy was awarded Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Award for Communication Design. Through his professional practice and teaching over the past fifteen years, he has championed graphic design’s significant role in structuring narratives that shape a shared social context. He was a member of the Creative Team for the Carnegie International, 57th Edition 2018, juror of the Stedelijk Museum Gemeentelijk Aankop 2020, and co-Artistic Director of FRONT International 2021.

Quincy Mahangi
A husband, father of two children, and a brand strategist by profession. For the past 13 years I've helped brands like Hogeschool Rotterdam, Suriprofs, De Waag en Lions Nederland grow and tell their story. In 2012 I also joined Guestwise. A consultancy that guides brands towards the creation of the right guest experience through a people-driven mindset, and which I became a partner of in 2019. Amongst our clients are de Doelen, Het Industriegebouw, Blijdorp Festival and IFFR.

Rolando Vázquez Melken
Associate Professor of Sociology and Diversity Fellow at University College Roosevelt and affiliated researcher at the Gender Studies Department and at the Research Institute for Cultural Inquiry (ICON) of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Utrecht. Since 2009, he coordinates the annual Middelburg Decolonial Summer School together with Walter Mignolo. He co-authored the report of the Diversity Commission of the University of Amsterdam in 2016 under the direction of Gloria Wekker. He founded the initiative CRIDE (Critical Decoloniality) for sharing of decolonial practices among academic and cultural institutions.