Learning from Community Currencies
Many artists and communities use alternative currencies to redistribute value and keep resources circulating locally. These currencies allow them to control their means of exchange, advance their interests, and operate independently of banks, the mainstream economy, and national currencies. By implementing community currencies, local economies can mobilise underutilized resources, meet basic needs, and foster economic resilience.
Could creating a local currency help strengthen connections and the economy within the Amsterdam Alternative network? We’ll explore this question with various experts.

Program:
10:30-11:00 - Doors open
11:00-11:15 - Introduction
11:15-11:30 - Henk van Arkel - short introduction
11:30-12:15 - Thomas Siderius - presentation
12:15-12:25 - Time to reflect on the presentation
12:25-12:50 - Short documentary
12:50-13:00 - Time to reflect on the docu
13:00-13:20 - Presentation Yazan Khalili - Dayra
13:20-13:30 - Time to reflect on the presentation
13:30-14:15 - Lunch
14:15-14:40 - MG Pringgotono - presentation Jalar Collective Wallet
14:40-14:50 - Time to reflect on the presentation
14:50-15:30 - Heidi Leenaarts - presentation United Economy
15:30-15:40 - Time to reflect on the presentation
15:40-17:30 - Henk van Arkel and Thomas Siderius - Workshop - how to set up an alternative payment system slash currency for/from the Amsterdam Alternative network
17:30-18:00 - Closing


Thomas Siderius is a researcher working at the City of Amsterdam, for the Community Wealth Building team that is part of the National Programme Samen Nieuw-West. This approach places a strong focus on the local circulation of money flows and the creation of a more resilient local economy, characterized by extensive internal trade and local ownership. This is achieved, among other things, by structurally encouraging more local procurement, strengthening the existing supply (from democratic enterprises), and better connecting local demand and supply. Now, he is researching if and how a local payment system could enhance the impact of these efforts.
Additionally, he is a PhD candidate at Drift for Transition (Erasmus University), researching the transformative potential of local currency systems. In other words: how does a local payment system influence the fundamental dynamics of a (local/regional) economy? In what ways do they contribute to social and economic transitions, and what can we learn from existing examples? Thomas is a structuralist and systems thinker: always seeking new ideas that challenge the foundations of the current economic model and inspiring examples of alternative currencies or other ‘system bridges’.

Heidi Leenaarts started her carreer in de banking sector. After ten years at ING she felt it was time to follow her heart and focus on contributing to society. After a search of several years she came bag to the subject of money, but then from another perspective. How can we design money in such a way that it supports us in making the world a better place. She is one of the founders of United Economy and we will now hear and see her impact-talk.
United Economy website

Henk van Arkel is CEO of the Social Trade Organisation (STRO). In the 30 years of his STRO leadership, the organization expanded to an internationally operating organization with offices in Brazil, Uruguay, and the Netherlands and with an award winning software department. Van Arkel was responsible for successful projects of STRO in the Netherlands, UK, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador. 
An important quality Van Arkel demonstrates in both his work and in his books and publications is his capacity to think out of the box and find solutions where others do not. 
Henk van Arkel developed several innovations to make money serve society better, some of these piloted in the Digipay4Growth projects such as the Sardex network in Sardinia and the Circular Money Cooperative in the Netherlands that are now ready for scaling. 
Henk van Arkel dedicates his life to the realization of his longtime dream: to contribute to a behavior of money as a system, to make use of the organizational function of money in the economy to provides better opportunities for the poor and reduce the stress on the environment. 
Website STRO

Jalar Collective Wallte
Members of the platform Temujalar.art earn and collect digital points called Jalar for their Jalar Collective Wallet. They generate Jalar by contributing with resources or activities to the platform. They can spend them to join workshops and virtual events, or to build a collective space. The Jalar Collective Wallet resembles the common pot of documenta fifteen, mutually governed by collectives.
Temujalar.art was initiated by Gudskul in 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, as an online platform for collectives and their art ekosistems. It is based on the belief that online platforms enable knowledge exchange across geographical borders and timezones. In Indonesian, Temu means “to meet”, and Jalar means “to spread”. Temujalar.art is dedicated to artists, collectives, curators, writers, musicians, researchers, teachers, creative people, and the art ekosistem in general. The platform wants to help them to learn, collect experiences, and share knowledge.
Website

MG Pringgotono has been involved in arts since 1997 and studied art at Universitas Negeri, Jakarta. His dream was to become a school teacher, but he discovered that being an artist is much more interesting and inspiring. In 2006, together with a group of friends, he founded a teachers and artists collective known as SERRUM, which focuses on public education and arts education.
From 2016 to 2018 he worked as Program Manager at Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem. He currently serves as Director of Gudskul Contemporary Art Collective and Ecosystem Studies. MG has also contributed his skills to several art exhibitions as art director, exhibition designer and curator.

Yazan Khalili (1981) is a researcher, visual artist, and cultural producer who lives and works out of Palestine, currently based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where he is a PhD candidate at Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam. His works have been exhibited in several major exhibitions, including among others: Documenta fifteen 2022, KW, Berlin 2020, MoCA Toronto 2020, New Photography, MoMA 2018, Jerusalem Lives, Palestinian Museum, 2017, Post-Peace, Kunstverein Stuttgart 2017, Shanghai Biennial 2016, Sharjah Biennial 2013. In 2020 he co-founded Radio Alhara, and in 2019 he co-founded The Question of Funding collective.
Dayra website

Please reserve a free ticket here to be part of this program