Spui25 launches Madame de Staël fund for creative talent
Yesterday afternoon, in the academic-cultural debate center Spui25, the Madame de Staël Fund was launched with the specific goal of developing creative talent. The fund supports literary, musical, theatrical, visual, and other creative contributions.
Spui25 seeks to find new donors with the fund, even in a time of rising costs, “to combine the academic with the cultural and vice-versa,” says Barbara Coolen, content leader of Spui25. Coolen continues: “Thanks to the structural support of the UvA and 20 paying partners, we have a solid financial basis, but due to increased costs it offers less and less room for realizing the cultural component of our programming.” So it’s time to broaden the financial base.
Madame de Staël
So with the motto “The Literary Salon 2.0,” the Madame de Staël Fund was established yesterday afternoon in Spui25, named after the eighteenth-century French-Swiss novelist, essayist and philosopher Germaine de Staël (1766-1817). The daughter of wealthy Swiss parents, de Staël organized literary salons in Paris, was expelled by Napoleon Bonaparte, and subsequently traveled around Europe, where she established intellectual contacts, meddled in politics, and amassed considerable influence.
"Germaine de Staël brought together the crème de la crème of European writers, thinkers, and politicians to debate literature, science, politics, and socially relevant issues. A nice match with the purposes of Spui25,” says Coolen. An exquisite figure, then, to name a literary-cultural fund after.
51 Staël sponsors
Various speakers from literary-cultural circles were present at the event yesterday afternoon, including Margot Dijkgraaf (the founder of Spui25), emeritus professor of Dutch literature Marita Mathijsen, and Maarten Asscher, who was there in the early days of Spui25 in 2007. To raise money for the Madame de Staëlfonds, potential donors were also invited because the fund is looking for “51 Staëlgenoten” or 51 Staël sponsors.
Colen explains: “In addition to several founding fathers, we are looking for a total of 51 Staël sponsors—in reference to the fact that Germaine did not reach the age of 51. These sponsors would support Spui25 annually with (at least) €500 for at least five years. Twice a year we would then organize a special literary salon for the Staël Society to explore a social issue at a special location with several thinkers.”
