Minister Bruins (OCW) adopts the Culture Council's recommendations for the allocation of state subsidies to 115 institutions in the cultural basic infrastructure 2025-2028.

Decisions Cultural Basic Infrastructure 2025-2028
17 September 2024 | 15:39

Bruins adopted the Council for Culture's advice to grant 117 applications, from a total of 115 institutions, for the basic cultural infrastructure (bis). At 13 institutions, the council gave a conditionally positive advice. Those institutions must meet the required conditions by 1 November 2024. The national cultural funds jointly honour 306 multi-year applications in the period 2025-2028.

A total of 115 bis institutions and the six state cultural funds will receive €559 million in grants per year. This is €146 million more than in the 2021-2024 period. The difference between the two periods is determined, among other things, by the investment in fair pay and the usual compensation for inflation and cost increases.

Geographic spread

In the new subsidy period, more than half of bis institutions are outside one of the three big cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague). In the provinces of Friesland, Gelderland, Groningen and Limburg, the number of bis institutions increases. In the province of Utrecht, the number decreases, while in the other provinces it remains the same.
More institutions outside the three big cities will also be honoured in the new culture period than in the current period in the national culture funds.

Minister Bruins: 'Proper support for the cultural and creative sector is very important. Culture is indispensable for our democratic society. The freedom that underpins our society is inseparable from the freedom offered by art. In theatres, museums and festivals, people come together, share stories and our identity as a community is formed. Culture binds us together. In the period 2025 - 2028, I am therefore investing, together with the state cultural funds and other governments, in a strong basic cultural infrastructure spread across the country.'

Talent development in classical music.

Decisions by the Cultural Participation Fund have created a bottleneck in talent development in classical music. In the area of talent development, not a single application had been fully honoured, putting pressure on the flow to the professional sector. Therefore, an annual amount of 1.9 million has been made available with which the Fund for Cultural Participation can set up a multiannual scheme to maintain talent development in classical music.

Strengthen supervision

The quality of governance in the sector, especially internal supervision, will receive extra attention in the coming period. Plans for this will be worked out in the coming period and announced in the autumn. Among other things, strengthening supervision is important for increasing social safety in the cultural sector.

The culture system

The subsidy scheme for the basic cultural infrastructure (bis) also contains bottlenecks that deserve attention. These are mentioned in the advice 'Access to culture' by the Council for Culture. In the coming period, we will further explore ways to improve and simplify the system within the available resources.

Important economic factor

The overall cultural and creative sector is an important economic factor for the Netherlands, with a GDP share of 3.4% and an employment contribution of 4.3%. The sector accounts for 410,000 jobs. It is important that people working in the sector are paid fairly. This has not been the case everywhere so far. Therefore, an additional €36.4 million has been made available to make the step towards fair pay. Institutions that receive extra funds for fair pay are thus also obliged to pay fairly.