From Extra Practice to EU Policy?
Taking place at Foundation We Are during Dutch Design Week 2026, the programme combines a hands-on workshop by Extra Practice with European case studies and perspectives. By sharing practical experiences across different contexts, the evening asks how fairer and more sustainable collective practices can be built when conventional funding and institutional structures fall short.
The programme connects this local, practice-based perspective to a wider European debate on the conditions under which artists and cultural professionals work. Behind every artistic work is an artistic worker, and fair working conditions and remuneration are increasingly recognised at European level as essential to a resilient, diverse and inclusive cultural sector. The EU’s Culture Compass for Europe places fair working conditions, stronger dialogue with cultural and creative sectors, and more accessible cultural funding among its priorities. The EU Artists’ Charter, in particular, sets out principles for fair and transparent working conditions and aims to strengthen compliance and accountability across the sector.
Extra Practice
In five years of sharing a creative workspace, Extra Practice learned that collectivity brings much of what today’s neoliberal system lacks: support, connection, care, resilience, purpose.
But building and maintaining a collective support system takes time and effort. And while sharing costs and responsibilities did create more breathing room, prioritising that necessary unpaid work can be challenging for a freelancer with little financial stability.
How to keep supporting each other together, when everyone is too busy keeping their own one-person companies afloat? This year, five Extra Practice members took the plunge by starting The Pool: they pour all their income into one bank account, and redistribute it as a stable monthly wage. Feelings around money run deep: fear of sharing, guilt about receiving, desires to save your own skin. The Pool becomes an exercise in unlearning hyper-independence: before diving in, we must first change out of our individualist suits.
