interdisciplinary music theatre, opera, and audiovisual works with new technologies. Currently they work with deaf performers and hearing musicians on developing a new artistic bridge between the two cultures through music and visual language. Futurists started as an initiative of Netherlands-based Polish composer, stage director and performer, Jerzy Bielski in 2018, with the aim of bringing a completely new kind of music theatre to the today’s Dutch and international performing arts scene. Together with video artist, sound artist and a choreographer who has joined forces with Jerzy in 2020 they create a space, in which truly interdisciplinary works can be made, with different art forms (music, theatre, visuals, VR, XR, dance, sound art, installation) being closely and freely intertwined with each other from the earliest moments of creation.
In the core centre of the Futurists works lie new narratives, deeply rooted in our today’s reality and connected to the current important socio-civilisation related topics. The ongoing theme throughout all the performances is a strive for communication and understanding between people coming from different cultures, backgrounds and realities. All this, combined with immersiveness and non-intrusive participation etched into every piece, led the Futurists to developing new form(s) and creating an artistic language of their own.
Futurists current (2024) partners include Dutch National Opera, Oerol, Innovation Lab / Theater Utrecht, Amsterdamse Bostheater, O. Festival for Opera. Music. Theatre and Gaudeamus.
ZUAM / 2024
NONline Opera / 2022
No-One Show / 2020
not only FUTURISTS / 2015/2019
Futurists foundation focuses on developing, organizing, realizing and exploiting activities and projects in the field of (performing) art and culture in the broadest sense of the word.
The foundation tries to achieve its goal by:
The foundation explicitly does not aim to make a profit.
Futurists board members are not paid for their work for the foundation, nor do they have an expense account: they are volunteers. Theatre maker and composer Jerzy Bielski is the artistic director and the main creative leader of the Foundation’s projects.
The remuneration policy for staff and management at foundation Futurists follows the Dutch Collective Labor Agreement for Theater and Dance CAO Toneel & Dans, and works according to the Culture Governance Code and Fair Practice Code. The salary and employment conditions of the managment are determined by the board, taking into account the legislation and regulations surrounding the Dutch Standards for Top Incomes Act for the public and semi-public sector.
The management consists of Jerzy Bielski (director), Thomas Brand (artistic leader) and Jasper Hupkens (business manager).
We strive for a safe and inclusive working environment in which everyone feels valued and respected, following the Diversity & Inclusion Code.
Foundation Futurists works per project-basis, receiving grants from various local and national, public and private funding institutions, such as Fonds Podiumkunsten, Amsterdamse Fonds voor de Kunst or Cultuurloket DigitALL. Futurists are preparing to apply for the multi-year structural subsidies from Fonds Podiumkunsten and Amsterdamse Fonds voor de Kunst in 2028.
In addition to the income from ticket sales, co-productions and foreign tours, we organize activities such as workshops, lectures and think-tanks. We work together with both public and private parties, such as educational institutions, universities, academies, theaters, production houses, art and theater festivals. Furthermore, project-specific funding applications are made to private funds.
The Futurists foundation has ANBI status (or Public Benefit Organisation in English), which means that donating to the company has tax benefits.
Business Numbers
KvK: 71932321
RSIN: 858909741
BTW: NL 858909741B01
Account
NL42 INGB 0009 1623 69
t.n.v. Stichting Futurists
Downloads
Our financial reports and other documents:
Jaarrekening 2023
Jaarrekening 2022
Jaarverslag 2023
Jaarverslag 2022
Beleidsplan 2020-2024
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Futurists
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email [email protected]
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to [email protected]