Coming Saturday, (May 14th) at 14.00 h. in De Kunsthal, Rotterdam, Jos ten Berge will present (in Dutch) a lecture entiteld “But is it art? A survey of criteria for art and outsider”. The lecture is prompted by the present growing attention, if not “hype”, for outsider art, with a new Outsider Art Museum in the Amsterdam Hermitage, the Museum of Everything show at De Kunsthal, and a series of art talks about the subject, like Sunday the 15th at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

The Museum of Everything shows the collection that James Brett brought together in only a few years. Art as you’ve probably never seen it, and presented in a unique manner (Brett having a background in film). Ten Berge has long been researching outsider art, wrote a chronicle of its history in the Netherlands, and is involved with De Stadshof Foundation, that had a show last year at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. His lecture will take about an hour, after which he and James intend to talk with each other as well as with the audience about such questions as why this art is almost never shown in musea for modern or contemporary art. After that, Jos will gladly walk and talk visitors through the phenomenal exhibition at De Kunsthal, that only lasts for week or so more. (JB)