Dutch ministry of OC&W bases vision 'renewal' cultural funding system on British example

There is an interesting 'drone' underneath, and that may strike someone as menacing. In any case, the video at the end of this article has more meaning than many culture lovers think.

Indeed, the fact is that the sweeping cuts made by the UK government through their 'Arts Council' have met with hardly any protests afterwards, while the disproportionality in the cut is almost the same as in the Netherlands.

Why is that?

There are whispers in the Dutch cultural world that the British Arts Council has made clear choices, which means there is now a vision that no one can disagree with.

For now.

That picture is not yet there in the Netherlands. The Council for Culture's advice is meeting with great resistance here, and if there are few protests at all, it is more down to the lethargy into which the art world has fallen after all the earlier shouting and clamouring, rather than any satisfaction with the choices made.

During a discussion in Utrecht, Melle Daamen, not only a theatre director of Amsterdam but also a member of the Culture Council, hinted that alternative scenarios were already ready in The Hague, in case the Culture Council did not comply. That sounded like a threat, but we managed to get our hands on the material on which the ministry relies.

The video is one of the most boring powerpoints ever, but don't let that put you off: here you can see the blueprint of Dutch policy, as the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science prefers to see it, which is Halbe Zijlstra may think of that. And what that idiotic extra lottery idea of that VVD-lay may also have consequences.

With then to the Dutch embassy in London.