Skip to content

Strong push needed to make cultural sector more sustainable

THIS IS A PRESS RELEASE

Cultural organisations with a Cultural Membership can place their press releases on our site without restrictions. Participate too? Take a Cultural Membership.

Culture Council president Kristel Baele said: "The cultural sector can harness its power of imagination and change for its own sustainability and that of the Netherlands, becoming a legitimate partner for governments and business. It is a real shame that the role of culture in societal sustainability transitions is still so underexposed and underused. This is an opportunity for the Netherlands."

Transition workshops

Both making the cultural sector itself more sustainable and positioning culture more firmly in the social sustainability transition is a major task for which financial and substantive support from the government is indispensable, the council believes. With this support, the sector can make a transition to new ways of organising, producing and presenting. To this end, the council recommends using transition workshops, where knowledge is developed through exchange and experimentation on shared themes and challenges. The solutions that emerge from the transition workshops not only help make the cultural sector more sustainable, but also those of other domains. In addition, the council recommends making knowledge on sustainability easily and centrally available.

Zero measurement and transition plan

Accelerating sustainability starts with operations, the advisory states. This applies to both the subsidised and non-subsidised parts of the sector. The first step is to gain insight into its own ecological footprint through a baseline measurement and to draw up a transition plan with the aim of being climate-neutral and circular by 2050. Governments must play a facilitating role here, the council believes, otherwise it will not succeed. For the subsidised part of the sector, moreover, sustainability of operations can be included in subsidy rules, as the council recently proposed for the Cultural Basic Infrastructure 2025-2028, for example.

Cultural property

Cultural property is a story apart: making it sustainable is costly and complex. Much of the real estate, for instance, is not owned by cultural organisations themselves. The council therefore recommends a separate cultural property roadmap in addition to the 12 sectoral roadmaps that already exist.

The opinion was prepared by a committee chaired by Derk Loorbach, director of the research institute DRIFT and professor of socio-economic transitions at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Other members are: Conny Bakker, Deirdre Carasso, Willemijn Maas, Harald Tepper and Jasper Visser.

Documents

one of our members

Members of Culture Press co-own our cooperative for a small monthly or annual fee, and may also contribute content to the site when appropriate. For members with an institutional membership, we offer the possibility of posting their press releases unabridged. Also want to become a member? You can. Please visit this pageView Author posts

Small Membership
175 / 12 Months
Especially for organisations with a turnover or grant of less than 250,000 per year.
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
5 trial newsletter subscriptions
All our podcasts
Have your say on our policies
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Posting press releases yourself
Own mastodon account on our instance
Cultural Membership
360 / Year
For cultural organisations
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
10 trial newsletter subscriptions
All our podcasts
Participate
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Posting press releases yourself
Own mastodon account on our instance
Collaboration
Private Membership
50 / Year
For natural persons and self-employed persons.
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
All our podcasts
Have your say on our policies
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Own mastodon account on our instance
en_GBEnglish (UK)