Quest for Wisdom foundation

  • Quest for Wisdom Foundation (QfWf) stimulates the Intercultural Art of Living in a Globalized World!

    The QfWf wants to contribute to a culture of openness and to cultural diversity (inter-esse) by tapping into one’s own and shared historical intercultural roots and wisdom traditions.

    Cultural ANBI status

    The QfWf is acknowledged as organization with an culturele ANBI status (NL).

    The QfWf programs have been honored twice by a cultural fund:

    Storytelling programma Animal Wisdom in 2020-2021

    With a subsidy from Prins Bernard Cultuurfonds i.s.m. Fonds zuidoost, awarded in 2020, the QfWf has developed a storytelling-Project- around animal wisdom in storytelling traditions from the four corners of the world. The purpose of this program is to bring ancient wisdom into new forms for contemporary ears, which has led to the development of the website Animal Wisdom and the development of an Intercultural lesson for elementary education.

  • The “Global Citizenship of the streets” project in 2023-2024

    With a subsidy from the Cultural Participation Fund, the QfWf has realized the “World Citizenship of the Street”-project in 2023-2024 in the form of a triptych in 3 phases. Reflecting on the history of slavery (phase 1) and collecting intercultural ingredients of collective and individueal dreams of global citizenship in images, music, dance, stories and other expressions of (inter)cultural heritage (phase 2) culminating in a social experiment with collaborating partner organizations (phase 3) for global citizenship. The result is an intercultural program with the wisdom and beauty from the four corners of the world.

    The QfWf does this by using Art as a magic and collecting it as ingredients in book form, under the title Amor Fati and Amor Mundi, on a digital platform The Golden Ratio and in a co-creative programme; developed and implemented in collaboration with the Cultural Dream Weavers Foundation and the Curinesa Foundation, independent artists, and with the Wehpokamanong association, which preserves the cultural heritage of indigenous groups from Suriname in the Netherlands and passes it on to young generations. This culminated in a final event in the fall of 2024.

    First there was the presentatation of Amor Mundi, the exhibition and the presentation of the QfWf-documentation book in the Pubic Library of Amsterdam (OBA) in Weesp on the 28th of September 2024. Especially the series of aquarelles of Greg Suffanti, in which the harsh (anti) migration policy is denounced and migrants are presented as persons like you and me and their human stories. Also Robin Stemerding, Nour Kayali en Louis van Marissing have contributed to the exhibition. Then the final event was organised on the 19th of October 2024 together with the residents of the Regenbooggroep, the organisation that gives shelter to migrants, refugies, homeless and people in need: sharing an intercultural programme with music, dance and sharing food from each others cultural kitches. A ceramic statue, made by Camile Smeets was presented: this Rainbow Paradise Bird with Cosmic Egg incorporates the world dreams of the intercultural project group. On the 25th of Januari 2025 the exhibition Amor Mundi was reopened in another OBA location, Reigersbos, together with the presentation of the book Amor Fati by giving previews of the seven chapters, in which life themes as world citizens are discussed and portrayed. Read more in Angela Gilds review on intercultural meetings.

    The need for an intercultural art of living

    Being able to deal effectively with our differences is a delicate matter in our current times.
    The objective of the foundation calls for an intercultural art of living as developmental path of ‘the multicultural society’ and visualises its mission with the Wheel of the Intercultural Art of Living.

    The QfWf sees Global Citizenship as the right answer facing the collective fear for strangers, migrants and ‘the others’. Instead of hatred and agression we follow dialogical and spiritual traditions, that see ‘otherness’ as a call for openness and inclusion.

  • The intercultural art of living is the ability to move as nomads between cultures and to be able to see the beauty of cultural differences. To enhance the art of living as world citizens the QfWf-Soul Circle organises every year around a social relevant theme an intercultural programme and presents this on its digital platform de gulden snede as well as by living encounters such as the yearly QfWf-Meeting Day.

    Just like the beauty of the Golden Ratio in natural forms such as the rhythmical growth of leaves and snail shells, as well as in cultural expressions such as the principles how cathedrals are built and the musical harmony in chords.

    This QfWf-vision and mission to contribute to a cosmopolic world order and culture of inclusion is the core of our

  • Quest for Wisdom, meandering along

Dealing with differences

Dealing with differences has been raised as a social issue by Paul Scheffer, in his controversial article Het multicultural drama (2000). Before that, the international debate had been heated up by Samuel P. Huntington’s terrifying perspective on the Clash of Civilizations (1996). Since then, there has been a heated political debate in many lands with multicultural populations, and the social debate in the social media is getting louder and more troubled ….

The QfWf wants to play a role in tilting the debate

Diagram met de 17 duurzame ontwikkelingsdoelen door de V.N. op 25 September 2015 aangenomen als deel van de 2030 Agenda
Diagram met de 17 duurzame ontwikkelingsdoelen

The QfWf wants to help turn the polarized debate about migration, refugees and religious strife from a problem for ‘political experts’, to a relevant issue for all of us, making an ethical appeal to everyone, from the current administration to our neighbours on the street.

How do we deal with, and how do we want to deal with ‘the strange other’?
That strange other can be the foreigner, the outcast, the fringe figure, the refugee and sometimes ourselves …

In order to tilt the debate, the QFWF sees it as a call to recalibrate the awareness of who ‘we’ are as citizens of the cosmopolis: nomads with intercultural identities.
These geopolitical landslides affect all of us as co-inhabitants of our shared planet Earth.
That is why the QFWF addresses this issue as a question, an ethical issue of a practical, social and political nature:

Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Taranto, Italië — foto Joke Koppius

How do we not exclude the other and the others ― the ‘stranger’, of a seemingly different nature ― but to see them as part of us, as ‘the strange other(s)’ in ourselves?How do we create growth inducing inter- and transcultural connections, instead of a divide and rule philosophy, us versus them mentality and an increasingly aggressive environment, as can be heard in the cry: “Who does not belong to ‘us’ (culture, race, religion, ethnicity) is against us …?”

By stimulating the recognition of the beauty of our differences and shared commonality, instead of a fear of ‘otherness’.
The world of the arts and (inter-)cultural expressions create space both in and between people and establish meaningful connections between cultures!

Creating inter- and transcultural connections

The QfWf aims to collect artistic, philosophical and practical forms of cultural wisdom from East and West, North and South and to further develop them into useful forms that inform and inspire the intercultural art of living … so that people interact as willing players in an in-between space (as defined by Hannah Arendt) and also keep in touch with their core selves, so that we can fully develop and happily share our world with each other in a spirit of cooperation, openness and hospitality.
Hospitality, respect and openness and other shared values of humanity are what truly connect people as sisters and brothers ― open to a common playing field for all!

Update 2025-02