On Tuesday November 11 the third lecture in the series ‘Now is the Time’ was held in Amsterdam. The topic is Globalisation and the effect on art itself. Questions addressed are: Do increased mobility and intercultural exchange lead to a ‘global art vernacular’, a new mainstream in which differences in aesthetic appearance or thematic content have been reduced to a minimum, regardless of the geographical or cultural provenance of a work of art? What about critical countermovements: can art provide an effective platform for these alternative voices? The two key speakers are Julian Stallabrass and Hou Hanru.