To who we are

Art is under fire in the Netherlands: it is a left-wing hobby, an elite toy, a big fraud of subsidy-guzzlers. Populists shout in election programs that not a penny more should go to concert halls, museums or theaters. While these are precisely the places where we not only celebrate beauty, but are also formed as human beings. Art makes us who we are.

But how does art do that? How does a poem, after all nothing more than a handful of letters on paper, manage to touch you to your deepest core? Why do bus tours go to the Mona Lisa, how can Bach make you cry over all these centuries? And what is it in art that makes the surly householder nervous, but artists literally want to die for it?

In Until Who We Are, Joost Oomen explores what art is and how we should defend it in these wild times. With the best, most moving and funniest anecdotes about sculptors, poets, directors and musicians, Oomen shows that art is not a nice frill, but the backbone of our society. Until Who We Are is a heartfelt but certainly hilarious plea for the arts, as only Oomen can.