To hatch a good idea (an egg) one needs a ‘chicken’. It’s the famous ‘the chicken or the egg’ (in Dutch: ‘kip en ei’) dilemma. This is how the name ‘Keep an Eye’ was born. The name also includes the objective of the Keep an Eye Foundation: to keep an eye on promising, young artists, musicians and creatives so that these talents have the opportunity to hatch their ‘golden’ eggs.For more than 15 years Keep an Eye. A chance to shine.
On these pages you will find a brief explanation of what Keep an Eye is and what projects we support. Do you have any questions? Feel free to call or email us.
‘I draw inspiration from the simplest things,’ Joan Miró once said. But as a budding creative talent, this is not always easy. That’s why the Keep an Eye Foundation is all about showcasing your talents and developing them further! We work together with leading art schools, conservatoires and festivals in the Netherlands and abroad to support starting, talented artists, designers, musicians and other creatives. We offer them a platform to a wider audience, a chance to shine. Besides this commitment, we are also the driving force behind initiatives such as Maker seeks Maker, New Makers, the Youngsters, The Records, the Keep an Eye Concerts and Galerie Pouloeuff. Keep an Eye maintains close ties with the Culture Fund and stays true to its independence, without any commercial interest.
The Keep an Eye Foundation is all about discovering and developing emerging creative talent! We offer creative talents a platform to a wider audience, a chance to showcase and grow their talents. At Keep an Eye, it is essential to innovate both existing and new projects with elements that really add value to both the participants and the audience.
We work with programmes and festivals for a minimum of three years to come up with new and improved projects, putting students and alumni in the spotlight. We create platforms where they can present themselves, both on physical large and well-known stages and online platforms and in our magazine.
Our goal
In our projects, we pay a lot of attention to mentoring the participants, with coaching, training, workshops and master classes. What is remarkable, and a real credit to our young ‘Keep an Eyers’, is that many experienced regulars and well-known personalities enthusiastically support us in this process.
Keep an Eye is focused on the arts and culture sector, with a special focus on young talent, both students and alumni up to 35 years old. Since its foundation in 2008, Keep an Eye has accumulated more than 15 years of experience and currently supports 38 different projects, both large and small.
- Keep an Eye encourages the organisation of exhibitions, shows, performances and festivals, among others. In competitions, Keep an Eye always works with an independent jury consisting of leading names in the field, who add value to the events with their experience.
- Keep an Eye basically selects its own causes to support and supervises the projects from start to finish. This is why the foundation works with a permanent team of three project leaders and a gallery curator. While this approach may be atypical for a fund, it shows the commitment of the board and staff. So far, this approach has added value to the projects and has also led to excellent relationships with partners.
Do you have questions about working with Keep an Eye? Then check out our Policy Plan.
>> Keep an Eye has no space for new music projects for the time being.
The Keep an Eye approach routes
Keep an Eye is committed to supporting young talent and strives to give them a successful start in their field. We strive to create opportunities that help young talents stand on their own two feet and build thriving careers. This is not only our goal, but also the aspiration of the talents themselves. Today, Keep an Eye follows several routes:
- Collaboration with colleges: This is where it starts for young emerging talent.
- Collaboration with festivals: While training courses end, festivals often offer a hands-on and broader experience on stage. Keep an Eye selects festivals that share the same vision of mentoring young talent.
- Keep an Eye Academy: At first, professional and entrepreneurial skills were taught ‘in-house’ here. But nowadays, under this banner, we encourage and support our partners to impart these skills.
- Keep an Eye Concerts: Exclusive playing experience for musicians in an intimate setting.
- Keep an Eye WWW.orld: We are thinking of online venues for more exposure, but ‘print’ is still relevant. And we follow current affairs with our podcasts.
Backstage
A good idea needs to be developed to really grow into something. Without one, the other cannot thrive. It’s a classic case of ‘the chicken and the egg’! That’s how the foundation was originally called ‘Chicken and Egg’. A cute name, but not exactly serious. However, with a touch of English (our English…), the name sounded much better: the Keep an Eye Foundation. The added meaning of ‘keeping an eye’ was very welcome. Because that’s exactly what we do: keep a close eye on emerging talent and make sure they can truly realise their potential!
The Keep an Eye Foundation is supported by private donors, who prefer to stay in the background because they believe their personal notoriety adds nothing to the projects they support, at least according to themselves. All attention goes to the students and alumni, or ‘Keep an Eyers’.These private ‘backstage’ supporters have proved immensely loyal to the Keep an Eye Foundation since its inception and have provided and continue to provide stable funding. Thanks to them, Keep an Eye can look forward to a bright and sustainable future.