Municipalities pass on most cuts to the arts

Culture cuts have now reached 450 million euros. The Lower House earlier decided on cuts of 200 million. The cut in the municipal budget by the same House of Representatives now leads to a further cut of 250 million euros. This is calculated by research firm Berenschot in a report which will be presented on Thursday 30 January in Rotterdam.

There are positive outliers. Utrecht, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands, is not cutting back on culture. This makes the city, which was hit hard by national cutbacks, one of the few. The vast majority of municipalities are passing on the reduction in their budgets to the arts. After all, the extra cut by the government to the so-called municipal fund amounts to approximately 360 million. Berenschot's figures now show that just over two-thirds of that amount is depreciated on art: €250 million.

[Tweet "Of 360 million cuts, 250 million will be at the expense of our culture"]]

Rotterdam and The Hague stand out as big art savers. After additional cuts for 2014, Rotterdam stands at minus 45%, and The Hague at minus 20%. On average, municipalities cut 9% from their arts budgets. But given the totals, almost all of them are tackling the arts harder than any other sector.

That's a signal. Right?