News from the national culture front

Positive news to start with: in The Hague the municipality is doubling photographer/filmmaker Anton Corbijn's contribution to his youth culture fund Haagse Bluf by €75,000. Corbijn explicitly instructed the fund not to interfere in the subsidised cultural sector. So compensation for the cuts it need not expect.

At Arnhem the alderman is happy with the new Culture Note: more cultural entrepreneurship plus a shift from subsidising organisations and buildings to funding activities. That line would also be supported by the 22 institutions working together in the More Stream initiative group, which just last week criticised that everything stays the same and the small institutions suffer while the big established institutions are left out of the picture.

The 3 foundations working together to be in Alkmaar to start a Lucebert museum, are angry with the renewed municipal administration, which now argues that the 2009 plan was budgeted too ambitiously and carries huge financial risks.

The Waerdse Tempel is closing. The owner of the pop centre in Heerhugowaard thinks it is no longer justified, now that the Alkmaar and Heerhugowaard aldermen have decided that Victorie in Alkmaar's Breedstraat should then become the regional heart of pop culture in the region.

At Sassenheim Theatre 't Onderdak can continue to exist thanks to welfare foundation Teylingen, which will become the main tenant of the building: the theatre function will remain and so will all clubs and associations, while also accommodating the clubs and associations from the Ankerplaats, which is to be demolished. In this way, the municipal cuts will be met by a welfare organisation.

All participants in arts education at The Blue Barge in Horn still get a uniform rate. Originally, residents from municipalities that do not contribute to the Blue Barge had to pay full tuition fees. This led to a price increase of up to 150 per cent. Consequence: course participants from municipalities that do not provide a subsidy cancelled en masse. Stede Broec, Hoorn and Dchterland are now abandoning the requirement that the Blauwe Schuit charge different rates.

At Overijssel the Symphony Orchestra (v/h Orkest van het Oosten, which is being cut 50% by the state) may get €10 million from the province. Through sponsorship and a new marketing policy, it should then largely stand on its own feet around 2018.

At Uden the nevertheless independent Museum of Religious Art is looking for a new [part-time] director: out of financial necessity, it can no longer pay the current one.

Rural there is a proposal to change the media law: in future, TV package providers will have to include at least 30 channels in the digital basic package. Currently, there are still 15. Providers can decide which ones, provided they include 7 mandatory channels (the 3 Dutch public broadcasters, 2 television channels of the Flemish public broadcaster, 1 regional, public television channel per province and 1 local, public television channel per municipality). The minister wants to take the opportunity to scale down the 50 local programme councils: with the increase, there is enough variety in the offer and they would have become redundant.

Also national is State Secretary Zijlstra's proposal to start one library where people can rent e-books via the internet. The library industry will remain responsible for the content, the central government will provide a functioning site. One can wait for it when it gets hacked ...

In conclusion, contrary to previous research, it appears that in Drenthe, Limburg and Amsterdam that free admission and especially free transport does succeed in getting children over the threshold of museums.