Invest in culture for all

A strong cultural sector has an important economic and social driving function. Culture not only contributes positively to mental health and well-being, but is also an important building block in the recovery from the current corona crisis. To maximise this booster function, almost 500 million extra per year is needed. This is the conclusion of the Council for Culture in a letter to informateur Tjeenk Willink, based on an analysis and run-through of its advice from the past cabinet period. The investment agenda focuses on innovations, transitions and the broadening and regional distribution of cultural supply.

Culture can strengthen society in many areas. In economic terms, too, the value of culture is often much greater than thought. At 25.5 billion euros, the cultural and creative sector contributes up to 3.7 per cent to the gross national product of the Netherlands every year. The total sector accounts for some 320 thousand jobs, 4.5 per cent of total employment, is about the same size as the construction sector and even almost twice as large as agriculture. To this must be added the positive effects in terms of turnover and employment in adjacent sectors such as hospitality, security, infrastructure and engineering. The national government currently spends about 1 billion euros a year on culture; this is less than 0.3 per cent of the national budget. Provinces and municipalities together invest 2.3 billion euros. The investment agenda for culture is a minimal necessary investment in relation to the measurable and non-measurable yield of culture for the economy and society, the council argues. Investing in culture will soon help the Netherlands recover from the crisis.

The council sees a widely shared desire to make culture more of and for everyone by further broadening and regionalising cultural provision. Yet fewer and fewer Dutch people have a library and good amateur arts facilities in their neighbourhood; this supply is dwindling fast. Moreover, local public broadcasters are not available or strong enough everywhere. The council points to previously identified structural bottlenecks in funding, such as necessary extra costs for fair pay and strengthening the labour market position of makers. Furthermore, the sector will have to invest in necessary adjustments and innovations to keep up with the times, such as digitisation and audience reach. The current budget is insufficient to address these bottlenecks, and the corona crisis has exacerbated the problem. As a result, a substantial part of culture's potential for society, economic recovery and well-being is at risk of remaining untapped. This makes the investment agenda imperative.

The council's investment agenda assumes a structural increase of 477 million euros in the national budget: 285 million euros extra for broadening, regional distribution and fair remuneration of culture, 27 million euros for heritage, 70 million euros for media and 95 million euros extra for libraries. In addition, according to the council, 83 million euros is needed incidentally, earmarked for digitisation and strengthening the revolving production fund and the National Acquisition Fund for heritage preservation, among other things.