In the Netherlands, we love the word spreading. Especially when it comes to art and culture. Then it quickly sounds good: culture should not only be for the Randstad, but for the whole country. Totally true.
Except that something typically Dutch often happens afterwards: we put it in a policy document, nod in agreement, drink coffee - and then just continue on the same course.
This is why spreading rhetoric is such a useful word. It sounds a bit vitriolic, but it is mostly precise. We have the language of dispersion in excellent order. Now we have the practice.
Talent
Because let's face it: the difference between Randstad and region in art is not about talent. In Twente is talent. In Groningen is talent. In Limburg there is talent. That's not where the problem is. The problem is where the infrastructure is. Where the institutions are, the networks, the media, the funds, the visibility. And also: where the people sit who determine what is called “nationally important”.
In the Randstad, that's all close together. That's not a conspiracy, that's history. But it does have consequences. There, a good idea gets air under the wings faster. In the region, a good idea often gets a form first.
That is the difference in one sense: in the Randstad, culture is mostly infrastructure, in the region it is too often project.
Camping
And then you get a familiar pattern. Great work is being made in the region, with audiences who are really there, makers who are rooted, venues that are in the middle of society. There is plenty of energy. But something is often missing in the chain: training, production, presentation, development, throughput. As a result, much remains dependent on temporary impulses. A regulation here, a pilot there, a programme for three years, applause, evaluation, end of project.
That's not building. That's cultural camping.
I don't say that to be sour about the government. I have been working with governments long enough to know that there is a lot of good will there too. But the government is not a speedboat on this issue. The government is an oil tanker. Big ship, slow turn. Everyone on the bridge sees that the course is a tad off, but you don't turn a thing like that with a memo and a sympathetic speech.
And that is exactly why we need to be sharper in what we ask for. Not yet another “extra attention for the region”. Not another nice passage about outreach and accessibility. We have had that. That's the language. Now the structure.
System change
If OCW really wants something, it should stop just talking about distribution and start with system change. Then it's not just about where performances play, but about where culture can grow sustainably. Then you have to treat regional culture not as a nice addition, but as a full-fledged part of the national base.
Every day in Twente, I see what is already there: makers, venues, audiences, education, cooperation, stories, identity, craftsmanship. The question is not whether the region is ready. The question is whether the system is finally ready to take the region seriously.
Because as long as the Randstad remains the place where structure is taken for granted, and the region the place where everything has to be requested over and over again, “dispersion” will remain a neat word for a skewed reality.
And we are really, after all these years, done with that.
The oil tanker must run.
Not on paper.
In practice.
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