Iskra
Foundation
In the spring of 2003 four enthousiastic inhabitants of Castricum founded the Iskra Foundation. Already for quite some time they were developing ideas and thinking of possibilities to stimulate the interest for and the participation in arts and culture amongst the inhabitants of the Castricum community and its surroundings. Direct motive was the organisation of the very succesfull Hungarian Cultural Festival in April and may 2003.
The word iskra means “spark” in several eastern European languages. The Iskra Foundation wishes to be the spark to initiate and facilitate all sorts of cultural events.
The board of the
Iskra Foundation consists of:
Ruud van Gorkom – chairman
Louise de Haas – secretary
Nico Scheerman – treasurer
Inge Gassman - member .
Goals and Aims
The goal of the Iskra Foundation is to initiate, facilitate, organize and find
possibilities for cultural events within the Castricum community and its wider
surroundings.
Iskra
Foundation has its aims on the field of the performing arts, such as jazz, classical
and world music as well as theatre and dance and fine arts. This considers professionals
as well as qualified amateurs. In particular Iskra wishes to offer a stage to
very talented young performers (and those still studying at academy or conservatory)
as these young artists are in need of stage-experience which is so often hard
to get.
Our motto: Support Live Musicians; Listen to Live
Music!
The Iskra Foundation does not have the disposal of any own stage or theatre nor does it own a grand piano. It seeks collaboration however with organisations who do have such facilities. In some cases this might mean paying a rental fee.
The Iskra Foundation also aims at interesting and enthousiasming a broad audience of all ages, and in particular youngsters within the Castricum community and its wide surroundings. Especially as far as is concerned for jazz, classical and worldmusic, it is necessary to rejuvenate the audiences. For enthousiastic youngsters are the audiences of the future.
Iskra
organizes
Iskra aims at putting up several stageprojects and activities each year. This
can be Worldmusic from several nations and peoples all over the world such as
Balkan-, Hungarian- and Klezmerorchestras, Portugese Fado, Argentine Tango,
Flamenco music and dance, Irish Folk, French chanson, Russian or Ukrain songs,
Caribean Salsa, etc. In the field of Classical and Jazz music Iskra wishes to
program musicians, ensembles and bands in various instrumental compositions.
Above all Iskra is always looking for talented young musicians who have just
completed their studies or are still conservatoire students; all aiming for
a musical career. Obviously diversity and high quality come first.
In a time of technologically designed “canned music” Iskra strongly
supports live performances by live musicians. Live performance adds an extra
dimension to music which speaks straight to the heart. In short: Iskra supports
live music!
Upcoming Iskra concerts are described on our page Concerts.
Besides our own pubicity website, Iskra actively promotes concerts in the printed
publicity such as articles with photos in the local and regional newspapers
and specialized magazines (such as tango and salsa), spreading flyers and posters
on several spots in the region and the use of several cultural websites and
digital newsletters. Thus Iskra concerts get a broad public attention.
Concert or
performance in Castricum?
For requests, collaboration, for suggestions and ideas Iskra is always open
to hear from young musicians. With the motto Support Live Musicians; Listen
to Live Music! Iskra urges all those young ensembles, bands and musicians
working in the above mentioned fields of music to contact Iskra for a concert
or performance. Send an e-mail to Iskra with
information about who you are, what you do, your cv, conservatoire education
and recommendations so we can consider the possibilities. We also appreciate
a photo and demo-cd recording.
Presentations
Iskra gladly offers ample space on the website at Kunst
en cultuur in de regio Castricum to cultural organisations and associations
and to artists operating in the Castricum area. They can present themselves
with their logo and a link to their own website. For those who do not have a
website of their own: Iskra offers you the design of a webpage within the Iskra
website. Provide us with info and photos about yourself as an artist or your
cultural organisation. At the payment of a yearly donation of € 25,- you
will have your own webpage on which you can inform the audience about who you
are. A regular update of your info will be neccessary.
From the organisations and artists appearing on this page with a website of
their own we appreciate a link back.
The Iskra Foundation aims at collaboration with other cultural organisations
in the region wherever this is possible. Mostly this will be on an ad-hoc basis.
Iskra also seeks conjunction with individuals who wish to put their knowledge,
experience and talents in the field of culture and organisation at the disposal
of Iskra.
The Iskra Foundation strives for a balanced budget with balanced costs and revenues. This is not always possible because sometimes audience revenues are not sufficient to pay reasonable artists costs. In that case we will write requests for community subsidies and grants from cultural foundations.
Sponsors, advertisers
and frequent concert attenders however form the stable basis for the financial
as well as the warm moral support of the Iskra cultural activities.
Anyone who has a warm heart for the Iskra Foundation and its cultural initiatives
can become a donor.
Starting from € 15,00 or more you receive twice a year the digital newsletter
as well as a reduction on Iskra concerts. These reductions are per person and
do not include any family members.
Commercial companies and enterprises which feel especially connected and attracted to any one of the Iskra projects such as the Castricum Clasical Concerts, the Jazz- & World Music Festival, Gran Fiesta de Tango or a lounge with new, exciting young jazzmusic, can become a special sponsor and thus support the organisation and existance of such projects. Companies can buy an advertisement on our flyers, programbooklets in combination with an advertisement during one whole year on our frequently visited Iskra website. Finally ofcourse a company can fully adopt our concerts or series with a substantial sponsor-offer.
Please contact the Iskra secretary for possibilities and suggestions.