About

SEA Foundation is an artist-led contemporary art network. To fulfil our mission of creating awareness for contemporary art and building cultural resilience, we act as a catalyst in the working lives of artists. In all our activities, we are fuelled by the visual arts. We cross the boundaries between disciplines and always put the context and the idea before the medium. SEA Foundation is well embedded at the local level. Through exchanges, collaborations and working in different cultural contexts we are also part of international networks, where we generate and participate in discussions on sustainability-related issues.

Our activities encompass:

• Residencies Learn more
• Public programme Learn more
• Library Learn more

Peer-learning

Our team consists of volunteers including artists, curators, support staff and board members who share insights and networks through a holacratic collaborative process. They transfer their expertise and knowledge to each other, thus giving shape and direction to our organisation. We are a learning network and jointly devise the programme of activities. Together, we take care of its implementation, including, for instance, finding funding. Working together is about providing services to each other, learning professional skills, being hospitable, adding value by reciprocity and stimulating self-esteem as well as advocating self-organisation.

We believe that artists play a vital role in contributing to the socio-political discourse on contemporary ecological issues in our society. Especially in the role of commenting on the status quo and asking critical questions about moral and ethical aspects concerning what it means to live now, how we can be attentive today.

The fiasco called capitalism, the underlying technological transformation, as well as social and political unrest; the effects these have on the destruction of our planet are enormous. It’s a debacle, both on a local level and a global scale. Moreover, the struggle for social emancipation is comparted and blocked. At the same time, raising awareness about oppression is inextricably linked to our society’s current reprehensible economic aspects.

12 folds

Therefore, we have decided for the years ahead, to further focus and elaborate on the theme of sustainability. With the vision and expression of artists guiding the bringing forward of the speculative and the yet unknown, we explore in 12 chapters, which we call folds, in collaboration with peers, researchers, scholars, and other contributors to the meaning of ecological, political, and social understandings and their implications concerning sustainability.

SEA Foundation is located in the former shop house of Gust van Dijk, who was a tobacco merchant in Tilburg in the previous century. You find the four-story Amsterdam School style building, with its residency studios, gallery spaces and 4-star Bed & Breakfast, in the town centre. The home is owned by a Tilburg artist who graciously offered SEA Foundation spaces to execute its activities. The house is comfortable, welcoming and boasts a lush town garden.

Central in Northern Europe

Tilburg is a bustling town in the south of the Netherlands. It once was the wool capital of the Netherlands. In 1881 there were as many as 145 wool mills. In the 1960s the industry collapsed and by the 1980s the number of wool mills could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Present-day Tilburg is a lively city with a rich cultural climate. The city boasts a unique dance- and music quarter and it is home to one of the best universities in the Netherlands. Museum de Pont, renowned for its contemporary art collection, the Textile Museum with its labs, and the Natural History Museum are in close proximity to SEA Foundation. The European Ceramics Work Centre (EKWC) is but a short bike ride away.

Tilburg is ideally located in northern Europe. Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris, Cologne and Berlin are within easy reach by public transport.