Derde Wal Foundation is a nomadic initiative founded to promote artistic experiments in the public space of the Dutch province of Gelderland. We support research, interventions, and wild ideas in the spaces we all share. Physically, digitally and in the ether. This website, for instance, is both an archive of our activities and one of the public spaces that artists could use. The foundation realizes commissions and process-based coaching trajectories that give our participants the opportunity to develop themselves outside of the comfort zone of their own studio practice. Simultaneously, we offer the broader public the opportunity to have a chance encounter with contemporary art. An experience outside the known boundaries of institutions and in the middle of their lived experience. We strive to create artistic productions that exist in the center of everyday life. With some rough edges and a healthy DIY mentality. Art that stands in contact with society at large, asking it for a response. We want to surprise, deregulate and develop. We want to enrich public space and to challenge artists to look at their own practice with new eyes.

We realize very divergent artistic productions that will find a new audience with each iteration. Our central trajectory is called Social Aspects. Each year, a diverse group of artists is brought together by a single proposal: relate your practice and thinking to the public space of the urban region of Nijmegen/Arnhem. This leads to 'Acts' – short experimental interventions – and more finalized presentations of work and research. The artist formulates a central research question and develops the necessary research in collaboration with Derde Wal. During the year, we ask the artists to spend time in the region as residents. Besides Social Aspects, we organize commissions for temporary public works of art and participate in local art events like the Kunstnacht, Festival de Oversteek, and the Young Art Weekend. We're also keen on sharing our 10 years of collected knowledge on the art of producing art in unexpected places with local partners and artists. We regularly collaborate with local art institutions.

Third Wal has stopped programming in 2023.