Hot, Cold or Lukewarm? The Visual Arts Climate in Mid-sized Dutch Cities

In this research project several aspects are covered that together make up the climate for visual arts in mid-sized Dutch cities. The research design entails to different research stages, with a quantitative exploratory research making up part one of the project and qualitative semi-structured interviews shaping the results of the second research stage. Object of study in part I are visual artists with an active practice in one of ten municipalities in the Netherlands that house between 90,000 and 110,000 inhabitants. An online survey is conducted to gather information about the importance of several factors when selecting a location for artistic practice. Information provided by respondents is analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Results from this survey also form the basis of the second stage of the study, in which arts organizations named by respondents of part I are approached for a semi-structured interview. Members of these organizations are interviewed through videocalls and results of these interviews are analyzed according to several different themes. Conclusion and discussion are presented to synthesize an approximation of the temperature for visual arts in mid-sized Dutch cities.