It is actually a footnote in the press release that lobby organisation Kunsten '92 sent out into the world today. But, as always with footnotes, it did contain the most important news. Because Kunsten 92, the club in which organisations in the arts sector polder, is "exploring cooperation" with the Creative Industries Federation. The latter is the Arts '92 of everything that is also culture and creativity, but does not want or should not be called art.
Because so there was a problem there all these years. Web designers, game developers, photographers and fashion kings were not art. Partly because they didn't want to be, partly because they weren't allowed to be. So it could happen that simultaneously with the draconian cuts in art subsidies, the Dutch creative industry got its own leg within the 'Top Sector Policy', into which a lot of money was poured. Matter of a different ministry and a different story.
Silence
You could ask at meetings where the creative industry displayed its wealth why art was not also included in the creative industry. An awkward silence was then the best answer you could get.
Because, according to arts people, 'art' has nothing to do with the harsh commercialism of the creative industries. Conversely, creative industrialists never want to be associated with artists who deliver incomprehensible works for an apple and egg for eternity. Moreover, art was tainted because of all that screaming for culture and marching for civilisation, you didn't want to be compared to that as a fashion designer on the Paris catwalks.
Out of bounds
If only the arts sector had been included in the creative industries earlier. Then the Ministry of Economic Affairs could have taken some of the hit on ocw. But then again, those of the Dutch Design Week and Het Nieuwe Instituut[ref]In this case, that New Institute was a consequence of the cuts, because in it the Architecture Institute and the design club Premsela and the Virtual Platform were forced to collaborate[/ref] were happy to be largely out of harm's way.
But now, therefore, there is hope. In an initial telephone response, Gerbrand Bas of the Creative Industry Federation says that the time is now ripe: "In Europe, the Netherlands is one of the few countries where culture and creative industry are not counted as part of the same sector. For a long time, the image prevailed that art only cost money and produced nothing, while the creative industry only produced money. That picture can now be nuanced thanks to research by CBS: culture also makes a major contribution to the economy.'
The parties have already come closer during the discussions on the labour market agenda, Bas says: 'Now that we have clear figures, it is time to see if we can work towards one sector. Since the Netherlands also wants to profile itself as a creative economy, there are opportunities there.' The fact that the EU also has no separation between Culture and Creative Industry will help: there are earning opportunities waiting.
Footnote
PS: That press release that this news was the footnote of? That reported that the CBS calculated the cultural and creative sector. What emerges? Its contribution to the economy exceeds that of construction and agriculture. Something we actually already knew, of course, but which is still nice to in black and white.
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