Creativity expresses itself in Dutch politics mainly in bookkeeping. On 29 June, just before the start of the three-month summer recess, the Lower House actually found money to save pop festival Noorderslag and dance company Scapino from ruin. That demise would become a reality in the new arts plan, which takes effect in 2021, because the Culture Council had no place for them in the basic cultural infrastructure, despite a positive opinion from the relevant advisory committees.
That costs money, of course, which is something Dutch culture ministers have not had since 2010. That is why the Lower House has been used to 'cash shifting'. That practice involves finding a pot of money within the ministry's budget that may have the roosters crowing a little less loudly. For instance, a hold was once made on a forgotten pension fund.
Purchase fund
This time - even during the debate - the governing parties found money to rescue the Groningen showcase festival and the Rotterdam dance group in the purchase fund dutch museums. So that pot will have at least 2.5 million less available every year for the next four years. Money, with which, for example, valuable art from private collections can be prevented from disappearing abroad.
The pot of cash shift was the only positive outcome of the June 29 debate. The Corona debate, inserted to underline the special position of culture in the corona crisis, was robust. All parties, even the VVD, blamed the minister for not sufficiently supporting the culture sector in the corona crisis.
Free entrepreneurs
The VVD stood up for the free entrepreneurs at the top of the sector, while the Green Left, SP and PvdA made a loud fuss about the entrepreneurs at the bottom: the self-employed. The Party for the Animals choked on the whole situation, and should come back next year with a well-versed spokesperson.
For everyone, times got confusing as the VVD stood up for the arts and the leftists had to stand up for usually extraordinarily well-earning talents and stars, who are in danger of losing their homes due to an income drop of many tens of per cent, and start retraining for something more future-proof in the Netherlands than an existence as a top violinist.
Crown Jewel
For her part, the minister fiercely countered. With considerably fewer ehh's than we are used to from her, she made it clear that her heart for culture is still beating. That this cannot lead to real action, in turn, is the sad result of the coalition agreement to which she owes her job. There is not a millimetre of room in it for culture, because Prime Minister Mark Rutte, after defeats with the dividend tax and the 100 kilometres, has no crown jewel left if he were to allow a widening of the arts budget.
So Ingrid van Engelshoven kept pointing to the generic measures the government had chosen to take in combating the crisis that Covid-19 is creating. That the cultural sector is going to be hit much harder, and wider, and deeper, and longer than any other sector of our economy, is something she was reluctant to address. Workers in the arts, as well as people who want to enjoy culture, will have to wait until Budget Day before it becomes clear how the arts sector will get through the autumn of 2020. These will again be temporary measures.
Depressing thought
After a decade of tracking art debates, it is clear that there is nowhere near relief. With a festival-less summer ahead, that is a depressing thought. The Chamber's cash shift operations are becoming increasingly pathetic; so is the way in which within the sector the misery is shifted to ever the weakest shoulders. Everything points to a cultural sector that has been totally destroyed thanks to the untargeted cut by the first Rutte administration. The House's hocking of the budget, opportunistic action by officials, ministers and advocacy groups did the rest. The intensely divided lobby organisations tore apart what was still whole.
I go into the summer feeling heavy. We should be glad there is still such a thing as an arts sector, because since 2013 it has thus continued to run on underpaid and overworked self-employed workers. Who never complain because it's bad for client relations. Corona exposes that systemic flaw, and the actions of the Chamber and Cabinet are now turning it into an open wound. Which will certainly continue to stink until Budget Day. Because until then, the wipes for bleeding will be out for a while. The only answer I heard three times: the sector should invest in entrepreneurship courses for artists. If that's not a slap in the face....
Three months
Better is a course on "what is a self-employed person?" for directors. Salient note from the minister: subsidised and rescued organisations would continue to pay self-employed persons employed in cancelled performances. Two errors here: zzp'ers are not employed, and the pledge is about jobs already taken. Not about work for which the entrepreneur had not even been asked yet, because the project was not yet planned, and will not be planned again.
Self-employed people, three quarters of workers in the culture, usually do not plan ahead for more than three months. This summer lasts three months. After that, there is nothing. No compensation measure is equipped for that. Although, at the request of GroenLinks, the minister is still going to commission a study to find out exactly how bad the pain of the self-employed in the sector really is. Because even minister Koolmees had been surprised by the bizarre contract structures in the sector.
Well. If Minister Koolmees says so...
English (UK) 
Nederlands 
Français 
