Toonder exhibition hits target, misses essence
The Literary Museum, with its 'Double Thinker' exhibition on the life and work of Marten Toonder the essence of Toonder's art.
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DUS retains grant, leadership leaves
The Netherlands' most striking company when it comes to handling grant money has been saved. The Theatre newspaper reports that the central government has agreed to the new adjusted budget, which had to be prepared after earlier this year a loss of over 2 million euros had arisen. So the company keeps the one and a half million euros and artistic director Jos Thie and his business partner Jelle Snijder are chased out of the city with pitch and feathers, where they can join the Supervisory Board that had already turned a little too blind eye. After all, putting in an overpriced production to make up for the deficit from an earlier run of that same overpriced production: no entrepreneur would ever allow that.
41.5 million a year for improving cultural education
The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is investing time and money in improving cultural education in primary schools in the coming years. Through a combination of existing pots and money contributed by the state, municipalities and provinces, 41.5 million euros a year will be freed up for arts education in the coming years. And before every self-employed artist starts making plans now: that money will mainly go towards research and procedures, with the most concrete goal being: 'the development of a curriculum for cultural education'.
NFF - 'The rules of Matthijs' mandatory curriculum for emergency workers
The crop of feature-length documentaries screened at the Netherlands Film Festival is good. They are extraordinary stories, sometimes startling, sometimes penetrating, sometimes fodder for much discussion, and almost all very beautifully filmed. We wish the jury much wisdom. The nominated documentary 'The Rules of Matthijs' is interesting for everyone, but should be compulsory reading for social workers,...
'I am here': talking about the now during film class with the ISK #vvu
Documentary filmmaker Femke Stroomer and Sanne Sprenger will make two films in the coming year with two classes of the International Switching Class (ISK) entitled I am here. Part two of a report on this Treaty of Utrecht Community Arts Project.
Milestone in sight
We never actually pat ourselves on the back, but so once every few years it is allowed. For instance, when you are 'top story' within an hour on the global twitter story website 'storify.com'. Of course, we often have a sudden surge in visitors, and certainly last September was a top month with 15000 visitors, but something like that, more than 500 visitors in not even an hour....
'Collective copyright abuse is global problem'
A while back, there was fuss in the Netherlands about the BUMA, the club that collects copyrights for musicians and publishers. Money had been lost in speculation and a director was engaging in nepotism. These cases do not appear to be isolated. At least, they are also mentioned in an overview of all known cases of abuse of power and corruption at collecting societies worldwide.
Gergiev Festival full of Sunday afternoon music
What could be the matter with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival - the official name to emphasise its international appeal anyway? As soon as you enter concert hall de Doelen, you immediately get the feeling that you have arrived at an ordinary, weekday concert, even though Valeri Gergiev is on the posters. No decoration of the large rooms...
Halbe Zijlstra: 'nothing to do with local arts policy'
Halbe Zijlstra is proud of his policy, and keen to come and tell it in front of the entire cultural sector. So on Sunday 26 August, he appeared on stage during the annual 'Paradiso Debate' to reiterate how well things had gone with the 200 million cut in the arts sector. He praised the resilience of the affected art world, and would be happy to do the same again.
Stories to be proud of. Young new Dutch people and the Community Arts Project 'Ik ben Hier' #vvu
Documentary filmmakers Femke Stroomer and Sanne Sprenger will make two films in the coming year with two classes of the International Switching Class (ISK) entitled Me am here.
Culture Council hands out in second round
Yet money for the National Academy of Visual Arts, money for an orchestra merger in the south of the Netherlands and 4.7 million for a knowledge institute for amateur art. The clear-cutting of the Dutch cultural sector has become a little less extreme thanks to a second advice from the Council for Culture. Besides the aforementioned positive assessment, there is also money for a knowledge institute for the creative sector
European austerity map runs out
The Guardian, the newspaper at the forefront of crowdsourcing, has made available an interactive map showing the cuts to culture being made by governments across Europe. We already know that the Netherlands is in the lead, but Spain is not doing well either, as we might have expected. You can help build the map yourself, and that...
Baldwin Live
On Wednesday 1 August 2012, the Performing Arts Fund will announce the results of the lottery that granting arts subsidies has now become. Huge cuts are looming: companies and makers that by now seemed to be a permanent part of the Dutch arts landscape will disappear. Exactly what it will look like, we know
Halbe Zijlstra should fund Culture Card after all.
It was the issue on which he lied the hardest, as we demonstrated a year ago, but the country's most hated secretary of state did not care. Despite its great success, the culture card for schoolchildren had to be killed off, and on spurious grounds. Now the card has been saved by the chamber. A majority voted in favour of a motion by CDA and PvdA,...
Strauss with muscle by Gustavo Dudamel, the sizzling South American. #hf12
The young conductor of Venezuelan descent brought his Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra to the Concertgebouw for the final concert of the Holland Festival last night for the first time. While Hollanders braved the tropical weather in the corridors, Venezuelan beauties walked to the stage vivaciously on their stilettos. After Máxima and Willem-Alexander had also taken their seats on the balcony, Gustavo Dudamel came dancing down the stairs.
Of course the thunderstorm is not too bad. But follow developments here in case it does go wrong. #hf12
For the second time this month, the weather gods are threatening to throw a spanner in the works at the Holland Festival. While the storms announced on 21 June were not too bad, for tonight, 28 June, a 'code red' is currently (10:45) threatened to be issued by the emergency services.
"Why Wagner is beautiful? Give me an hour to explain that. At least..." #HF12
Daniel Bertina took a look around the Oosterpark in Amsterdam with his iPhone, where thousands of people attended the live broadcast of the opera Parsifal, Monday 25 June 2012.
Talk to our reporters. Exclusive: spot in the #hf12 hangout for our most loyal followers
There have been days when we had 1500 page views. You, 2500 of our most loyal visitors, came so far to provide 14000 views on dedodo.co.uk, and you stayed around for an average of three minutes. On average. We are proud of that. Apparently, we managed to attract and keep your attention. So those are good figures for an online festival day newspaper like De Dodo, which has to make do with no screaming, no marketing budget but an overdose of enthusiasm and professional innovativeness.
"Janine Dijkmeijer to National Ballet"
The message below has since been confirmed. But we like to cherish our firsts. Hence. Of course, the merger event in and around Amsterdam's Muziektheater, where ballet, opera and theatre will work in unison, also produced a game of musical chairs. Stijn Schoonderwoerd, for instance, announced a month or so ago that he was going to do something else, and so the Dutch National Ballet was looking...
'Publicity after the show is more important than before'
He is a professor of it, so if there is a problem in the economics of culture, Arjo Klamer knows about it. He says there has been growing resentment against subsidies for years. So the arts sector will have to get used to making a living in a different way from now on.
Less is more? No, less is FAR too much, by Michael Nyman's Potemkin. #hf12
Two days later... Sometimes you don't quite know what to write: even reviewers have writer's block from time to time. Fortunately, Jenny Diski of London Review of Books published a blog just Friday about the functionality of not being able to write (yet). Apparently, more time was needed. Anyway, at some point you have to tie the knot. ...
Save a museum: make sure you make friends
There are funny answers in the way people sometimes try not to answer a question. Dirk van Delft, as director of Museum Boerhaave bring in a sloppy €1 million from the market.
Passio-Compassio calls for philosophical reflection. A socratic dialogue. #hf12
Dodo reviewers Maarten Baanders and Mariska van der Meij both attended the performance Passio-Compassio, and struck up a conversation. - From the programme book of Passio-Compassio - All people experience suffering, regardless of religion or cultural background. Like love, suffering also results in passion. Art and religion are both capable of transcending the cycle of suffering and passion. If...
'I have all of Shakespeare's records in my cupboard'
The press presentation of the open-air opera Orfeo ed Eurydice at Soestdijk at the time attracted just under a hundred people press and sponsors. At the presentation of the performance 'Much ado about nothing', The Utrecht Games attracted only a handful: someone from weblog cultuurpodium.nl, two people from the Stadsblad Utrecht and an indeterminate camera crew who had come exclusively for Suzan Visser....
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