This
song was written late 2010 or early 2011 specially to perform at a
public debate on Art & Culture which was to be hosted by Theater
Het Park in Hoorn in The Netherlands and organised in collaboration
with the local council. Together with my songwriting partner Laurens
Reij we were basically asked to play at the event as background music
during the break. One of the reasons for the debate was to stimulate
thought and ideas on how to fund and support art & culture
activites at a time when the government is busy carrying out
austerity measures and slashing budgets and funding for Art &
Culture.
Laurens and I wrote the song which tries to raise awareness for the importance and significance of Art and Culture, not only in our current day and age, but also for generations to come. We did perform the song at the debate but we didnt get paid for the gig as I can recall. I guess that set the stage for what was to come. During the debate various speakers delivered their pitches on how to organise cultural events without any money or government funding. It was quite an eye opener for Laurens and myself as we had also been thinking about doing something similar to extend our Singer/Songwriter monthly sessions in Cafe Satchmo to a larger venue. Satchmo is a great little cafe to perform to a small audience but when more than 20 people arrive then it is very difficult for people at the back to see the stage and hence the warm intimate setting is lost. The debat on Art & Culturein January 2011 was the moment we saw an opportunity to present our plan to host Singer/Songwriter events at Theater Het Park. Hence creating a platform for both local and nationwide Singer/Songwriters in the fine setting of the Brasserie with a view across the Markermeer, the former Zuider Zee and room enough to seat about 100 people.
After getting our plan approved by the management ofTheater Het Park we subsequently produced 9 Singer/songwriter sessions under the name Lakeside Stories which were very well received. The first season of Lakeside Stories will actually close in May 2012, however Lakeside Stories will be back with another 9 editions between September 2012 and May 2013.
So yes, this song Art & Culture was the start of something new and lead to collaboration with many great songwriters, people and organisations in Radio, The Press, Photography and Social Media. Information about Lakeside Stories can be found on www.lakesidestories.nl To be continued.