Extra Practice: 'Without XP, we would certainly have been lonelier, more stressed, less hopeful, and less creative.'

Extra Practice in 2025 is, you could say, in a process of maturing. We're currently six creators: Kirsten, Emma, ​​Ben, Gijs, Jack, and Elliott. So far, everything has been very natural, almost organic, and Extra Practice has become a really nice clubhouse. We come to work, but also to eat, hang out, talk, sometimes even to make music, watch movies, or repair clothes.

For the past year, we've been trying to reflect more consciously on what we're actually doing, where we want to go, and how we can keep this place going, especially financially. As a freelancer in the cultural sector, scraping together rent can be quite a challenge, and paid work often automatically takes priority over the unpaid work that goes into running Extra Practice. We're trying to combat this, because we see enormous value in non-commercial creativity and collective enjoyment. Doing things for fun, coming together to experiment and exchange experiences and ideas, is something we consider essential to a creative practice. But the financial and administrative aspects of being a creator also become much easier when you don't have to figure everything out on your own.

Funnily enough, the latter has become a kind of project in itself: the tools and strategies we devise for ourselves – so-called support structures – we're now also trying to make it accessible to other creative freelancers in similar situations. We'll publish more about this in December.

Extra Practice regularly organizes workshops and presentations. How are these workshops and presentations structured? And can anyone interested participate?

'It depends on who wants to organize something. Nothing is mandatory, we do things because we like them or find them important. Often it stems from a project someone is working on, and XP is a great place to try things out or make them public. For example, Gijs hosts a research group every other week, and we organized a book launch for The Internet Phone Book by Elliott. Emma used the space as an exhibition space last year, and Jack, Ben, and Kirsten also host Good Times Bad Times We broadcast radio from here, featuring various guest radio hosts. We're also always open to others who want to organize something: Wietske regularly brings people together in XP to repair clothes, but the studio has also proven suitable for dinners, workshops, film screenings, and jam sessions. Everyone is welcome; events are usually free or donation-based.

How do you view the artist initiatives in Rotterdam: zAre there enough, is it diverse enough?

It's difficult to say whether there are enough of them, because we don't know exactly how much is happening beyond the initiatives we already know about. Just like many people don't know about Extra Practice. Perhaps something like that is missing: a way to know what's going on in that area, and to communicate between these places and collectives. We recently created an 'Alliance Noord' Signal group, in which several collectives and places in the north of the city organize events, and it works quite well. Is it diverse enough? Never. And it's only getting harder to find paid studio space, to even survive as a freelancer in the creative sector. That's why collectivity and mutual support are so crucial right now. As a collective, you're simply much more resilient and stable. Without Extra Practice, we would definitely have been lonelier, more stressed, less hopeful, and less creative, we dare say. But we're also incredibly trained to remain independent and maintain our individuality as artists, so that sometimes presents a challenge: how do you form a group without losing yourself in it? How do you make room for each other's work and needs as well as your own?

In a city that's rapidly gentrifying and becoming increasingly expensive, shouldn't there be enough space for non-commercial culture? People who experiment and push boundaries, question existing structures, and respond critically to what's happening in the city and society? And also room for fun, tranquility, and playfulness. Artist initiatives bring fresh new ideas and events to a city, and art brings people together, and that, in our opinion, makes life worth living.

We have a website: extrapractice.space, and a newsletter: on newsletter.extrapractice.space You can sign up for this or read all the old newsletters. We also sometimes share events on Instagram and are quite active on sand and special.fish (a platform by Extra Practice member Elliott) and you can always drop by at Linker Rottekade 5A.'