THE PROBLEM
The median Dutch visual artist earns €16,000 a year — the lowest of any creative category, well below the social minimum of €18,800. More than one in four artists lives structurally below subsistence level.
(Source: CBS Monitor Kunstenaars, 2025)
THE OVERLOOKED MAKER
No recognised diploma — and so, no official starting point for funds that require institutional credentials.
Working between disciplines. The work falls just outside every recognisable box.
A practice too broad for the institutional expectation of a single, consistent signature.
Decades of work, never institutional recognition. Quality has no expiry date.
HOW WE CURATE — THE DIMENSIONS
Every maker, every work, every exhibition is tested against four conditions. Each is necessary. A maker who meets three of the four is not curated.
Points forward in content, aesthetics or material. Not nostalgic — direction-giving.
Activates a positive, connecting response in the viewer.
Forward-looking and human-centred. Critical is welcome. Cynical is not.
Objectively new in form, medium, technique or material.
THE MODEL FOR THE MAKER
MADART Foundation finances the maker's exhibition: production, presentation, fee. 100% of the sale proceeds go to the artist. No exclusive contract. No fee to participate.
WHAT MADART IS NOT
| Not an event agency | We don't sell logistics, we curate meaning. |
| Not a gallery | No exclusive contracts, no commission that limits the maker. |
| Not an agency | We set the curatorial line and invite the brand to the table. |
| Not subsidy-dependent | The ecosystem finances itself. |
| Not activism | Critical is welcome. Cynical is not. |