Culture Council makes recommendations for new cultural system

The Culture Council recommends a structural adjustment of the subsidy period for cultural institutions and funds from four to eight years. This offers more room for artistic renewal and encourages cooperation and deepening. It also reduces the administrative burden and strengthens the position of institutions as cooperation partners for co-financing and new initiatives. Besides this adjustment, the council stresses the importance of better coordination between governments' cultural policies. He advocates laying this down in the Specific Cultural Policy Act.

With these two recommendations, the council provides input in a letter to Minister Eppo Bruins of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) for the letter on cultural subsidies from 2029, expected this spring.

In line with its previously published advice 'Access to Culture', the council remains of the opinion that investments are necessary for a future-proof, broad and accessible cultural system. At the same time, even without an additional budget, important steps towards a new system can already be taken, for which there is broad support in the field.

New grant period

A new eight-year grant period strengthens the position of institutions in the cultural ecosystem. It gives them more flexibility to develop long-term trajectories and partnerships, including in the field of talent development and cultural education. In return for the above-mentioned advantages, institutions in the BIS will more explicitly fulfil their responsibility in the system, with a focus on innovation and their social role. It also gives funds more room to shape their policies more flexibly and differentiated.

To properly support this development, agreements are needed between governments on a shared long-term vision of cultural policy, with room for regional differences and administrative autonomy.

Strengthening cooperation between governments

By better coordinating and legally enshrining cultural policies of the state, provinces and municipalities, there will be more coherence and less fragmentation. The council recommends laying this down in the Specific Cultural Policy Act, together with four objectives it formulated earlier in 'Access to Culture': public access, support for creators, pluriformity of supply and the role of culture in society.

The recommendations came about in consultation with IPO, VNG, Kunsten '92 and the Performing Arts Coalition, among others. They build on the advice 'Access to Culture' and are first steps towards a cultural system that better reflects the diversity and dynamics of the cultural field.