Making genre: the aesthetic affordances of governmental funding and its effects on emerging interdisciplinary artists in the Netherlands

Abstract

This paper examines the intricate interplay between public arts funding and artists’ creative practices, with an empirical focus on the Netherlands. Drawing on interviews with emerging interdisciplinary artists, we explore how policies, purportedly aligned with neoliberal values, surrounding public arts funding shape their creative decision-making processes, particularly in aesthetic terms. By putting forth the notion of “genre-making affordances”, we show how these regulations influence artists to conform to specific aesthetic and disciplinary criteria that ultimately impact their creative autonomy and economic security. Here, our paper reveals a tension between complying with funding requirements and maintaining artistic autonomy. Artists who conform to funding demands often compromise their “real” interdisciplinary stance, while those who resist such constraints may face economic repercussions. By unpacking these dynamics, we challenge overly simplistic notions of art versus commerce and draw out the managerial, commercialising logics inherent in public arts funding structures.