What is your Plan C? Interview with Mary Ann DeVlieg

Introduction

On 15th of April, 2010, IETM (International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts) invited over 500 cultural operators and performing artists from over 50 countries to come to Berlin for four days to find new ways of dealing with crucial conflicts and challenges in our world. The invitation says: “Having tried Plans A and B, from Capitalism to Communism,... we are now searching for a third way... A Plan C to turn the crisis of this new century into a chance for culture. It is not a contradiction – chaos and creation are close comrades and between cooperation and competition we have to find the right centre.” (Creative Crisis Economy by Dirk Pilz).

Having a long term interest in creating new economic models for sustaining creative practices, I was invited by IETM to participate in their meeting and encouraged to lead a session during the ‘Open Camp’. For 2010LAB.tv, I will post four different personal interviews with the following people and conclude with an article about the concept of Plan C in relation to the value chain of artistic thinking and creative process.

Part 1: Mary Ann DeVlieg, IETM Secretary General, Brussels
Part 2: Phelim McDermott, Improbable Theater, London
Part 3: Jochen Sandig, Folkert Uhde, Bettna Sluzalek, Radialsystem V, Berlin
Part 4: Bernhard Vierling, Consulting Arts and Friends, Berlin
Part 5: What Is My Plan C?
 

Part 1- Interview with Mary Ann DeVlieg, IETM Secretary General

In this interview, Mary Ann will guide us through the evolution of IETM, from Informal European Theatre Meetings to International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts, from few members to over 500 subscriptions of professional performing arts organizations and address the issues of job flexibility/fragility of contemporary cultural workers. 

This interview is joined by Annka Erichsen, freelance journalist for Theater der Zeit.  For more information about IETM, http://www.ietm.org

• What are the values of IETM today?
• What are the decisive contributions of IETM in the evolution of critical thought on performing arts and culture?
• Why does IETM still exist?
• What are the IETM’s intuitions about opportunities for art and cultural development in the future?
• What is the future of theater buildings without public funding?
• How will IETM combat the issue of diversity with its existing membership structure?