Breaking the Bank II

Breaking the Bank II
The past decade the contemporary art market exploded from a niche economy to a globalised operation. What are the ins and outs of it, the makers and breakers and what kind of effects and dangers do the fluctuations of the market have on how art is valued? In addition, the economic downturn and cuts in arts and culture have led many institutions to re-evaluate their operations, sometimes resulting in rash actions that do not quite square with the institution’s mission. What are the consequences of franchising museums and institutions? How has the reverse flow of capital from South to North, different forms of corporate and private patronage affected the arts institutionally?

Georgina Adam, correspondent for the Financial Times, Art Newspaper and author of Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century, unpacks the workings of the art markets and the relation between contemporary art and luxury goods. David Batty, acting weekend digital editor of The Guardian and writes for The Observer, responds to Georgina Adam and addresses the expansion of museums in the Gulf states.Artist Bill Balaskas addresses his position as a commercially selling artist whose work addresses issues of financial crisis and globalization. Former chef of the Financieele Dagblad and director of Art Amsterdam Edo Dijksterhuis co-hosts, asks sharp questions, and translates the speakers’ points to a Dutch context.

Thursday 13 november, 20.00h
Language: English
Admission: €3,-


Georgina Adam has been writing for 30 years about art and the art market. In 2014 she wrote Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century, in which she makes an analysis of a major shift in the art world from a niche market to a globalised operation worth an estimated €60 billion per year. She also writes for various journals and gives lectures at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s in London.

David Batty is the acting weekend digital editor of The Guardian and writes for The Observer. He was previously a news editor and a reporter. His specialist areas are visual art, higher education, the Middle East, and health and social affairs. He has worked at the Guardian since 2001 and previously worked at the BBC. He studied fine art and photography at Central Saint Martins, English Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham, and journalism at Cardiff University.

Bill Balaskas has been working since 2005 in London and is currently a PhD candidate in Critical Writing in Art & Design at the Royal College of Art. His background as an economist and his artistry are combined in this work, which addresses the global economic crisis, its cultural origins, and its socio-political consequences. In 2012, Balaskas was nominated for the ALICE Awards, an award for the most promising international artist, and in 2013 for the Audi Art Award of Art Cologne. Since 2012, he has also been editor of Leonardo Electronic Almanac (The MIT Press), an academic journal about new media and art.