Just like we did during the first edition of the cultural programme Arcadia in 2022, this year too we presented a major literary project for 100 days. We collaborated with 100 authors, as well as with many other creators and organisations. We’ve compiled the facts here. Where did the writers come from? In what shapes did the texts appear, and how many people saw that?
54 women and 46 men wrote a text for Small Delights. The youngest was born in 2012, the oldest in 1947.
The authors were free to choose their own genre. This resulted in 44 stories, 41 poems, 11 essays, 2 comics, 1 song, and 1 performance.
40 authors came from Fryslân, 33 from the rest of the Netherlands, 9 from Flanders, 12 from our fellow Cities of Literature (Barcelona, Bucheon, Durban, Heidelberg, Jakarta, Melbourne, Okayama, Quebec, Reykjavik, Slemani, Tartu en Vilnius) and 6 other, international authors. Of the international authors, 2 came from North America, 1 from South America, 1 from Africa, 1 from Oceania, 4 from Asia, and 9 from Europe.
There has been written in 15 different languages, of which 52 texts in Dutch, 25 in Frisian, 2 in Bildts (Frisian regional language), 8 in English, 2 in French, and 2 in Spanish. In addition, the following languages all occur once: Catalan, German, Icelandic, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Slovenian and Dutch Sign Language.
The website kleingeluk.frl containing all the texts has been visited 20,079 times during the 100 days of the project. A total of 1,878 people received the daily delights email in their inbox at some point. The posts and stories on Facebook and Instagram were viewed 431,151 times and reached 88,624 people.
Fragments of texts or complete stories appeared in 100 different ways. For this, we collaborated with artists, designers and various smaller and larger organisations. The main categories for the publication forms were:
There were live and online performances, for instance at literary events Dichter op de Deel and Hoge Woorden. Also, there were surprise performances: on the ferry to the island of Schiermonnikoog, in the festival hub Bouwurk and on Omrop Fryslân Radio. In total, around 12,000 visitors saw (or heard) these performances.
Complete texts could be read in literary magazines de Moanne and Ensafh. In door-to-door newspapers of Groot Media and Mediahuis Noord, and in Heit&Mem magazine, texts were printed too. Together, these editions had a circulation of more than 600,000 copies.
We also created moving publication forms. These include a stickered Qbuzz bus, a screen in Arriva trains, a sign on a bicycle and one on a driving school car, and stickers on car licence plates. But also a sail on a Valk sailboat at sailing school Pean, a ‘tail’ behind an airplane, and a quote on sports shirts. We estimate the reach at over 8,500 ‘spotters’.
Many hands make light work. Literally! Numerous artists got to work for Small Delights. They placed a fragment on the Observeum, projected a line on Museum Belvédère, wrote in sand and on skin, dug out a sentence in a meadow, depicted in miniature, and made little vases. Over 3,000 people experienced these art forms.
Of course, you can also purchase advertising space. So that is what we did. You could see texts on an LED screen, at Slieker, at self service desks at dbieb, on a checkout divider, on road signs and on real estate signs. The poetic fragment on the elevator floors of the Oldehove Parking Garage is still there. Together, these publication forms reached at least 21,000 people.
In this category, texts literally appeared on products or media from partner organisations. Some examples: a fragment on Fortuna beer, Frison wine, tea at ’t Famke drugstore and strawberry punnets from Fryske Strawberries. Moreover, you could find a placemat, a sidewalk sign, and an entrance ticket. A total of over 15,000 products.
Small Delights was also up for grabs! You could find a ‘gadget’ with a short text at various times and in various locations. The collection included socks, caps, flower seeds, bags, notepads, handkerchiefs, coffee mugs, pens, and bookmarks. And now they’re being worn, sown, and used by the lucky finders. In total, there were 9,700 items.
Just like we did during the first edition of the cultural programme Arcadia in 2022, this year too we presented…
The hundred days of Small Delights were also captured in images. We were able to take some of the photos…
It has been quite a demanding task, but we managed to get a hundred writers to contribute, and to develop…
The beauty of Small Delights is that the hundred texts are still available to read. Just like the hundred stories…