NEW ATELIERS CHARLOIS| ROTTERDAM NL
The Wolphaertstraat with doors painted, installations to hid the anti-parking measures and the W Lf_rt project space. Stichting NAC
Introduction The New Ateliers Charlois (NAC) Foundation is a not for profit organisation base in the neighbourhood of Charlois in the south of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It was set up by a group of artists and local residents in 2004 to manage live-work spaces for visual artists, typically in spaces that have previously been vacant long term. The impetus for setting up the organisation and starting this project was the impending demolition of 45 houses in the Wolphaertstraat (Wolphaert Street), which had fallen into serious disrepair, and owned by the housing association, Woonstad. NAC now manages 84 studio across 3 locations: the houses on Wolphaertstraat; a U-shaped housing block called the Otje, both in Charlois; and a number of properties in a nearby neighbourhood called the Wielewaal. They also have three project spaces (Attent, W Lf_rt #1 and W Lf_rt #2) a large greenhouse/shed called De Kas, two guest houses (Zimmerfrei #1 and #2)
and an international artists’ residency programme (Around the Corner). The rent for each of the live/work spaces is €105/month, up from an initial €100. This money is used to pay for maintenance and overheads of the organisation, with the remainder going to fund arts projects in the neighbourhood, via the ‘Mind Your Area, Move Your Ass’ fund. Additionally, within NAC, pay for artists is limited to €10/hr, a figure which needs to be seen in the context of the low rent. This means that it is possible to carry out a very large number of projects and to invest a huge amount back into the local neighbourhood.
[The idea] was already there for a long time, to not only be an organisation that just runs studios or that we run an anti-squat organisation. We wanted to create extra value and to see what we can do with the small amount of money that we have. www.killingarchitects.com