Rent increase for Utrecht music teachers raises questions

Thirty-five euros an hour for a space that can just fit a piano or a drum kit. That is the rent charged by the municipality of Utrecht to music teachers who wanted to continue their practice on Utrecht's Domplein after their cooperative went bankrupt. For many of the teachers who thus became victims of their board's mismanagement, this means a cost increase of more than 100 per cent: until now, they paid around 15 euros an hour for their lesson space. 

Music and theatre lessons are not cheap. If you want to develop your child's artistic talent, in a city like Utrecht it will soon cost around 20 euros an hour, minimum, although there will always be exceptions downwards. As an adult, you spend at least double, but usually around 60 or 70 euros. So playing an instrument yourself, or singing, or playing, is anyway a hobby that mainly rich people can practice. For less than 1700 euros a year, you will not learn to play notes, not to mention the instrument that comes with it. That a market-based rent for a lesson room should be 35 euros is logical. Margins for cultural teachers are narrow.

Ravine year

Utrecht should also charge such market-based rents because the city is facing huge shortages. Apart from a miscalculation which came to light earlier this year, threatens to cut government revenue from the so-called municipal fund in 2026. That is the so-called 'Ravine year' which every municipality in the Netherlands will have to deal with. 

So how the music school cooperative DUMS could get by with the low rents quoted is now the question. To this day, the club refuses access to its books. The DOMUS Dome, where DUMS was ultimately still the only active member, was declared bankrupt earlier this year. The organisations also had unknown income from renting out rooms to TivoliVredenburg and other professional users. It is not clear what was done with those revenues. Were holes filled with holes? Possibly the rents charged to teachers were far too low even then.  

So teachers are now protesting. Many are seeking refuge elsewhere, threatening to leave the building empty. Indeed, the other main user, the Utrechtse Theaterschool, which offers theatre education to children, young people and adults, will face a significant rent increase from next year. Website RTV Utrecht reports that the rent is going up to an amount a ton above the annual subsidy of 300,000 euros. Whether this makes them 'collateral damage' of the co-occupier's years of mismanagement is not entirely clear 

Breaking with figureheads

The question is whether Utrecht is not cutting itself too fine with the higher rates. The city, where the head of cultural affairs has been out of the office for a while, currently lacks a clear direction in cultural policy. This year, for instance, there was a rigorous break with some of the city's cultural figureheads. Kunsthuis BAK, festival IMPAKT, Nederlands Filmfestival and Festival Tweetakt, longtime fixtures in the city, lost their municipal subsidy because they fell a few points short in the assessment.  

Many great things have taken its place, of course, but the hefty rent increase for music and theatre classes at Domplein does further compromise the chain of arts education.