One Page Summary

We create a Lab for change makers, connecting artists, grassroots initiatives and a diverse public to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Big global issues such as poverty, inequality, the impact of technology and climate change are complex, fluid and often beyond the horizon of direct experience. We connect these so called wicked problems to the imagination, beauty and play that define the artist-mindset, making them tangible on local level, visible by a diverse audience and irresistible for active participation.

We see how creative, dedicated people build new pathways towards the future. Not by providing solutions directly, but by posing better questions about the world we live in. Doing so, they show us a fresh way of seeing, thinking and acting. Their vision, passion and skills inspire us and move us to participate, invest and believe in an alternative for the current status quo.

The Turn Club - a tribe of artistic change makers
Since September 2017, The Turn Club creates a space of exchange, collaboration and inspiration for about 250 entrepreneurial artists, change makers and matchmakers, supported by a following of 1300. We are building our collective vision on the role of art in society, exchange our knowledge and experience and build bridges between our own, individual R&D and the questions and challenges of communities, non profit organisations and local governments.

Our movement connects the ideals, work and audience of artists and creative entrepreneurs to the SDG’s. We collect, amplify and share the stories of musicians, dancers, theatre-makers, visual artists and many other creatives about the co-creation with their specific environment and community. We create new links between artistic work, science, journalism and research by turning the creative process from an individual affair to a collective journey. In this way, we transform the fragmented and distracted individuals that we used to call “the public” into active participants - a tribe of change makers appears.

Four steps towards impact
We are convinced that impactful creation can only take place in an empowering circle of show, connect, share and learn:

First, we build a storytelling machine (“show”). Not an online magazine, but a bottom-up movement of writers and researchers that spread examples of socially engaged, diverse, artistic work that takes place all across Amsterdam, The Netherlands and The World.

Second, we design a practical method in which artist share their ideas, vision and questions with a dedicated, growing group that is present in their direct, local environment (“share”). In a routine of 3 hours a week, the participants follow a step-by-step method to turn their artistic-entrepreneurial practice from independent and self-managing to interdependent and team-based. The participants coach and support each other in this is radical shift from a self-supporting mindset to leadership.

Third, we collect a team of entrepreneurial matchmakers that actively connect artists to places and organisations in Amsterdam that seek to diversify their tactics towards social impact (“connect”). We make sure that, when an organisation is dealing with topics that are uncertain, complex and constantly changing, they need to reserve a seat at their table for the artist mindset. With our matchmaking, we generate income too for artist so they can further professionalize.

And fourt, we explore, describe and share the results of these unconventional collaborations and newly developed team-dynamic (“learn”). We are convinced about the power of art-thinking and the connection between art, communities and innovation. But we are aware that it’s not a commonly shared belief. Therefore we will build our case; show how imagination, beauty and play are not merely adornments of society, but shape the way we can see, think and act - forward towards a sustainable world.

Merlijn Twaalfhoven - initiator
Merlijn Twaalfhoven, Amsterdam Art Prize nominee (2016) worked as a composer and artistic entrepreneur on socially engaged projects in The Netherlands, across Europe and in the Middle East. He designed projects that made local artists become visible, audible and impactful, such as music programs with Syrian refugees in Jordan, an opera written by inhabitants of Aleppo during the siege and a secret festival in living rooms in occupied East Jerusalem. After years of experimentation, he became convinced that the current way we give art a separate space in society is a waste of potential. He decided to help change makers to apply the artist mindset in their work. Between 2014 and 2017 he developed “A Sharing Academy”, a successful method that unites the artistic process with entrepreneurship and social impact.