'There are provinces where you can vote VVD or CDA just fine'; new website gives voting tips to art lovers

It looked like a party. Coffee and flan, a Maastricht song, brass band music and a speech by Prince Carnival. The launch of the website nadeschreenowudestem.co.uk is surrounded by optimism on 21 February. Surely, the cry for culture in November was mostly a voice of dissent. Now there is a chance to take forward-looking action. 'Mobilise everyone you know to come and vote on 2 March and think what your vote can mean for culture.' That was the message proclaimed in a joyful tone at the Theater aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht.

Its presentation is embellished by local arts practitioners. In the run-up to the provincial elections and in the cultural austerity debate, there is a strong focus on national developments. Initiator of the website, Gable Roelofsen, thinks it is actually important to show what culture means at the local level. "If you look at the Concertgebouw Orchestra, 80% of the wind players there originally come from a village in Gelderland or Limburg. Or take Theu Boermans, that great leader of a company there far away in the capital. His father was city opera director of Venlo. That's where it started, watching along with his father. That's how every province has its stories. All those characteristic characters, they all live in Amsterdam now, but they are not from there. They come from the province, from club life."

Gable Roelofsen, a Maastricht drama school graduate, is one of the founders of Platform Ludlum. That is a club 'that wants to organise special protests against the art cuts. Prior to the shoutout, he was one of the participating artists at the KunstWake. At the entrance to the Lower House, they alternated to show politicians and other passers-by 'how much beauty art has to offer'.

One merit of the cry is that that action got a lot of people on their feet. Roelofsen: "A fire has been lit there. Now we want to continue. A symbolic action can be disregarded in an instant. Politics may ignore a cry, but not a voice. We hope that our poster will soon be hanging in every brass band club, in every museum. And that we can thus stimulate the motivation to vote."

Culture is leftist. At least, that is a perception that is persistent. "There are provinces where you can vote VVD or CDA just fine. They too have a soft spot for culture and do not agree with how it is talked about. The importance of culture has often reached the parties at provincial level. But yes, if you want your vote to have weight in the composition of the Upper House...But we are not giving voting advice. We offer insight. There is an insert on the site: these are texts from the parties themselves. So read seriously between the lines. There are wolves in sheep's clothing among them."

The cry also drew criticism from the cultural world itself. It would portray culture too much as a victim. "We're still on the defensive now too, but no longer in the thick of it. Take the fado that Hadewych Minis sang at the launch of the website, which is still somewhat lamentable, but powerful. She is raising a voice that is no longer sitting on its hands. Politics needs to be more careful with culture. We want nuance to return to the debate, to stop being dismissed. That dismissive tone with which national politics talks about culture, we should no longer tolerate it. We put our voice up against that - a well-formulated voice."