According to Rotterdam alderman Visser, the current subsidy system is unsustainable. The system, in which cultural institutions submit a plan every four years and thus have to look years ahead, no longer fits with the times. Nowadays, there is a need for flexibility and change, not rigidity and certainty. The alderman said this during the presentation of the sector analysis by the Rotterdam Council for Art and Culture (RRKC) on 17 February in the Rotterdam Schouwburg.
What this vision will mean in concrete terms remains unclear. It will be necessary to examine what form of subsidy suits the vagaries of these times. The RRKC report states the following: "The RRKC wants to explore with the municipality how to differentiate more within the current Culture Plan systematics (e.g. four-, two-, or one-year support, or just more than four years) to make it more attractive for young creators and/or new multi-year initiatives to follow innovative pathways.".
So little changes in the short term. The budget will also remain the same in the coming period. After the severe cutbacks, this seems good news, but it does not end the discussion that has been going on for years: if there is no extra money, tension will arise between preservation and renewal. After all: every euro you put into subsidising new initiatives comes directly at the expense of established institutions. And vice versa.
Therefore, the sector is asking for vision: what does the government want? To this, the RRKC puts a counter-question. According to the Council, in recent years institutions tended to direct their applications towards the spearheads of policymakers. In doing so, they sometimes forgot what they stand for.
This has to change. In the coming cultural planning period, institutions must once again assume their own unique position in the city. They must make their voices heard more clearly and contribute ideas on what they want to be judged on.
So wait and see.
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