Slowly but surely, the absurdity of the rescue measures for the cultural sector. The national museums will not have to pay rent for three months for a while, but will have to pay it back retroactively once the crisis is over. Entrepreneurs can get extra support worth 4,000 euros, provided they have business premises outside their home. Actors, directors (also freelance journalists, by the way) and artists can benefit from income support at assistance level. Very nice if you were on that level anyway, very unfortunate if your successful career had bought you a house near your work - Amsterdam.
The cabinet's support for the cultural sector is thus as absurd as all the measures with which the two ministers after Halbe - Putin's Dacha - Zijlstra carried out reparations. In all those cases it concerned budget shifts and a single vest pocket that is in a pocket changed, and vice versa. And this only applies to those arts organisations lucky enough to stay in the government subsidy carousel anyway. Those outside will - when in hopefully a year's time the venues can be filled again - have ended their careers and businesses.
Rembrandt for sale
Are artists different from other self-employed people? Yes indeed. They are completely dependent on audiences, on proximity, and on other institutions. They cannot divert to other jobs, or they must decide to abandon their craft.
Take the joke of rent. Suppose the minister were to be tough. Then the Rijksmuseum would be evicted from its building in three months by the National Property Administration. 'See what you do with those canvases, Rembrandt or not, please deliver the place clean by 1 July.' Of course, that won't happen. Nor will The National Theatre have to deliver the Royal Theatre empty on 1 August. We are not America - yet. That deferred - not tuned - rent just doesn't flow for a while from the Ministry of OCW through the subsidised buildings to the National Property Company or the municipal real estate club. The government's sacrifice here is minimal to non-existent. Pocket says sorry to pocket for a moment.
So what's left? The minister promises not to be difficult if you don't meet your grant conditions. What a wonderful gift. Of course, from her colleagues in the Cabinet, she actually has to be tough: no own income, then no subsidy, and don't moan about there being no one in your auditorium, that's cultural entrepreneurial risk. I'd almost bet that at least one of the ministers has been toying with that thought out loud. But so now: we're not going to bother. Keep that money, and for the third quarter you can spend it now. Not a word about the fourth quarter - of course.
Image damage
So that is the only helping hand the Ministry of Culture is offering the cultural sector: we won't put you on the street (which we wouldn't do anyway) and we won't take your money away (which would lead to image damage and which we would therefore never do). That the Lower House agrees to this implementation is even worse.
Meanwhile, an entire sector is going to look for other work, in a labour market that is not really waiting for them. Everything built up could be lost, and you don't help that by giving spectators vouchers for unused tickets. You don't make up for the damage done now until 1 June in one season. And even then we are being optimistic.
Without generous long-term government support, our cultural sector, and especially its entertainment arm, is doomed. In fact, there is only one thing left for the sector: all those online states that the minister is so happy with? Pull the plug. It only costs all those art institutions money and time, it doesn't deliver anything and the government is making good cheer for your survival instincts, which they have been doing for ten years. Stop doing that. Also with those online collections. Put your site on black.
Strikes.
I fully agree with what Fedor Teunissen, artistic director of Asko|Schönberg, said there on Friday in our podcast about said: everyone has been talking about a culture strike for years. Never before has it been so easy to call one. Do it. Make everyone feel what a country that despises its culture feels like.
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