The current Dutch government may have decided to slash all cultural funding, yet this so far hasn’t stopped the official art world from increasingly embracing comics as an artform worth subsidising and promoting. This is not necessarily a new development — the Joost Swarte spearheaded Haarlem Stripdagen has always had the support of the city council and corporate sponsors — but it has been increasingly prominent in the past few years. Which is a good thing, especially when it leads to initiatives like Striptember, a month long celebration of comics organised in Amsterdam. From the description on IAmsterdam (sic), the official Amsterdam tourist site:
Amsterdam dedicates the entire month of September to the art of cartoons and comic strips. Taking place in various locations across town and encompassing a large variety of exhibitions and events, Striptember is a perfect month for lovers of cartoon art.
And there’s good reason for highlighting the genre in Amsterdam. The city has long been associated with the best of comic illustrators and artists and the art form has a diverse and rich history here – stressed by the fact that Amsterdam boasts the oldest cartoon shop/gallery in the world: Lambiek, open since 1968.
Iconic international comic illustrators such as Peter Pontiac, Peter Kuper (USA), Edmond Baudoin (France) and Daniel Bueno (Brazil) take part in this year’s edition of the festival. Expect the best in comic art strips, fanzines and associated paraphernalia!
(There’s more information at the official Striptember site, but it’s written in not very good English.)
Having an annual, month long festival is a very ambitious project and it’ll be interesting to see how well this works. The events lined up are impressive and the organisors have managed to rope in quite a few institutions you’d not normally see involved in a comics festival. There is e.g. the Maison Descartes (the French cultural embassy comparable to the British Council) holding an Edmond Baudoin exhibition, as well as exhibitions in city hall itself.
A great initiative and I hope it will be succesful.