Broadcaster Wakker Nederland on art: make a damned effort yourself. 

'While many regional museums are struggling, commercial museums are popping up like mushrooms.' Broadcaster Wakker Nederland, since we associate 'awake' with 'woke', rather known as broadcaster 'we' Netherlands, had to do something with 'art'.

The opening lines of The first broadcast of 'de Stand van Nederland', their 'research programme', were immediately hit, so were the images: the museum association in the ball pit of an experience booth for instagrammers, and screaming in the Railway Museum's hilarious mini-coaster.

Line 2: 'Not looking at flat art, but becoming part of the artwork?" (The lady from the experience thing for TikTok with Gaudi, always fun). Voice-over: 'How do you attract the new generation to the museum?'

Follows a personally intended story by the reporter, who does not consider himself a museum-goer, but would like to see the great works, and thus still wants "something" to do with "art, or history.

Art in Teylers Museum?

The latter must have been added later, because it is clear from everything that the angle was 'Boring art, and how much it costs'. But that only becomes apparent at the end of this 20-minute 'investigative report'. The problem was that apparently no art museums wanted to collaborate on something whose premise was 'boring art'. At least, not in a 30-kilometre radius around Amsterdam. So no Voorlinden, no More, no Design Museum, or De Pont. Because too far. And probably too hip, too. Or not in the mood for WNL.

So the team of young researchers ended up at the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, which is not about art, but about science history, and at the Spoorwegmuseum in Utrecht, which is also not about art, but about trains. What was about art, however, was the light show with works by Gaudi, where you can thus walk around in very large slides yourself.

Singer-Songwriter

Victim of all this was the Museum Association, which has not sent us annual reports since we sent them read something too well. And now they are falling into the clutches of formerly Woke Netherlands. With grandma in the ball pit of an 'experience' that, without subsidy, only has to charge 5.95 euros more for a ticket than a subsidised museum. Museum card, anyone?

One more attempt was made to mumble something about 'collection management', to which the editor edited a nice shot of an old gentleman waving a swiffer over a display case of old junk, and the point was clear: the researchers had figured out that ridiculously large amounts of money go into dusty things no one wants to see (also something about a singer-songwriter in an empty room), and that there are insanely cool experiences are where entire families tap-dock to immersive lives of art. Or something like that.

Thirty-first volume

Now I could start explaining here how stupid this research programme is, but I'd rather leave that to old wise men. The question I want to put here is one of journalistic integrity. For I have the strong impression, that they had one premise to prove, and that was that art is boring and expensive, and yet really does cost the taxpayer almost thirty-one-thirds of what we giving all of them away to the fossil industry. Or, well.

The Tros (then still independent) once had a programme series 'Art because it has to'. It featured purchased third-rate documentaries at an hour when the Dutch awake had long gone to bed. Purely to meet the public broadcaster's subsidy requirement that you also have to do art if you are given airtime.

Uncomfortable

Public Broadcasting costs us taxpayers quite a lot of money. And hey, Wakker Nederland is not the only Amsterdam broadcaster to hop on the VanMoof for a nice little survey and not cycle any further than the batteries will hold out, although at WNL that is more likely to be a DikkeBandenMonster. What is especially unfortunate is that they make so little effort to disguise the fact that they don't give a damn, as long as they manage to manoeuvre an art-type into an uncomfortable situation.

So what I do need, for my sour tax money, is programme makers at the heavily subsidised public broadcaster who work themselves into uncomfortable situations for once. Just because they can't, but they have to.

Election programme?

PS: the premise of this investigative report (Art is boring, costs money and speaks millenials not on, so art must undertake more) came straight from the VVD's election manifesto. In the culture paragraph (at the very back, on a quarter A4):

▶ Culture with impact. We challenge the sector to contribute to social tasks, and to involve other target groups such as the elderly and young people.
▶ There will be a library facility in every municipality. The library is a meeting place for young and old, and an important place to acquire reading and digital skills. We are also committed to the online library.
▶ Less art in depots. The tens of millions of artworks in depots are being lent or rented out more often. This way, more people can enjoy art. When artworks are no longer displayed, sales are in order.
▶ Subsidised institutions become more entrepreneurial. Institutions and organisations are given more space to be entrepreneurial; we encourage them to earn more money themselves.  

There's not that much new under the sun here, and the piece is full of incorrect assumptions, but what is new is that Wakker Nederland is pulling the strings at the country's coffee machine cum smokehouse: the daily talk show Op1. Such a mouthpiece for a single political party might be a bit much?