Join GROND!

What is GROND?

GROND is an art space and a collective at Het Nieuwe Bajesdorp. Centered around collectivity, sustainability, cross-pollination, and sharing creative processes. At GROND, we aim to develop new recipes for living and working together to fight alienation, which is increasingly dominant in our society.

To share this vision and run the space collectively, GROND/one of the artistic groups is putting out a call for new members. Join us in building a safe space to experiment, play, grow, and think differently together!

Who are the current members of GROND

GROND currently consists of a dozen individual members and one duo. These members include sound artists and composers, dancers, social art practitioners, film makers, theatre makers, light artists, visual artists, and artists with interdisciplinary practices.

Whom are we looking for?

GROND is open to all sorts of makers and/or artistic researchers: graphic designers, writers, curators, independent publishers, filmmakers, interdisciplinary artists, visual artists, storytellers, chefs, and musicians. We are looking for people who love to work within an open and flexible structure. As a member, you can contribute to shaping that structure and take responsibility within a collective.

The community of Bajesdorp and GROND is based on this very collective principle. We believe that when you work and live as a collective, you learn to embrace the process, to give and to take, to be flexible, to share authorship, to deal with conflicting interests, to be creative in an organic way, to be generous, and to let go. We aspire to learn these skills together and eventually learn to practice solidarity, which is highly needed in society today.

We are currently experimenting with organising ourselves in three decentralized artistic groups (going pretty well!):

• SOCIAL PRACTICES > Within Social Practices, the collaborative, community-oriented process is central: the artwork is shaped through social interaction, dialogue, or activist action. Social Practices are informed by theories and practical methods from Radical Pedagogy, including bell hooks and others, and Deep Democracy. Artistic affinities include artists and institutions such as Jeanne van Heeswijk, BAK Basecamp, and (A)WAKE/moezeum. Work is carried out in co-creation with different communities to address broader social, political, or ecological questions, but also to shape GROND itself.
• EMBODIED PRACTICES > start from an exploration of the connection between body, mind, and environment. Our bodies and minds develop in relation to the environments in which they are situated: our natural, social, and technological environments. Through a holistic approach, in which the mind is understood as part of the body rather than as something separate, we learn to recognise, restore, or deepen our connection with the body. Embodied Practices take shape through somatic workshops, dance and performance, gardening, food, and activism.
• SONIC PRACTICES > Within GROND, we offer experimental space and platforms to composers, musicians, and data artists working with sound art. We aim to serve as an incubator for emerging sonic makers. Within Sonic Practices, a new language is developed: one that is not limited to words, but explores the deepest grounds of feeling in relation to technology. Through interplay and co-creation, abstract dialogues emerge between different participants, enabling new forms of connection.

Let us know which one feels closest to you.

What are the spaces of GROND?

Together we run a black box theatre, three studios, a canteen, a kitchen and two gardens.

• The Blackbox theatre (ca. 60 m2) is a flexible soundproof performance space that is equipped with theatre lighting, a sound system, and ,soon, a projector.
• Studio 1 (ca. 36m2) is an Open Studio for workshops, gatherings, discussions and rehearsals.
• Studio 2 (ca. 34 m2) is the Maker Space where you can work with textiles, wood, and other physical materials.
• Studio 3 on the third floor (ca. 60 m2, on the third floor) will be the office space for writing, printing, discussing, meeting, thinking, and editing with a small sound studio to be built.
• Makers’ space (NEW!) ca. 40m2
• The canteen connects two studios and the black-box with a kitchen and a bar. We have two gardens. Bajestuin has been functioning as a community garden. We are aspiring to build a second garden with edible plants and a small amphitheater in the middle.

Where are we currently working on?

All the spaces are functional (and lovely!) and we are already running a public programme.

However, we are still working towards strengthening a stimulating and accessible public program of social, cultural, ecological, communal, and culinary activities. In doing so, we are testing out a bottom-up and organic way of programming in which different program components flow into each other and bridges are built. We connect different domains and invest in building relationships based on reciprocity.

Next to this, we are currently working on launching the ‘Friends of GROND’ campaign and designing an economic model in which everybody benefits from the (future) resources in a fair way. We are also in the process of writing a few big funding applications (MONEY! Fingers Crossed!)

How do the four types of GROND membership work?

We have four different types of memberships:

1. The individual non-private desk membership fee is €200 ex VAT per month. This means that you can use the shared spaces on the ground floor for production, programming, experimentation, and collaboration.
2. The individual private desk membership for € 300 ex VAT per month, which gives the same rights as the first membership, but with a private desk space in studio 3 on the third floor.
3. The price of the duo membership is € 360 ex VAT, per month.
4. For collectives, the membership fee is € 500 ex VAT, per month.

Note 1: at the beginning of your membership, there is a one-time deposit of €500, which will be returned to you when you decide to leave the project.

Are you interested and do you want to apply?

To apply, please fill out this online form. You will receive more details as soon as you have applied.