Skip to content

one of our members

Members of Culture Press co-own our cooperative for a small monthly or annual fee, and may also contribute content to the site when appropriate. For members with an institutional membership, we offer the possibility of posting their press releases unabridged. Also want to become a member? You can. Please visit this page

Reply Zijlstra (culture) to question on friction costs confirms chamber did not pay attention in June

It came as a shock that still hasn't quite worked out. Haf September, dozens of arts organisations received a letter from the State Secretary for Culture, informing them that they could start using the subsidy they thought they were getting for projects until 31 December 2012 for redundancy procedures, selling property at a loss and staff lawsuits against... 

Weekers (finance): 'No reason yet to reverse VAT increase' despite dramatic start to season

The story continues. On 1 July the VAT increase came into effect, on 8 July NRC quoted Halbe Zijlstra as saying that 'it was not the most mature scheme' of this cabinet, words he later nuanced during parliamentary questions. In late August, the Berenschot report came out with startling figures: the VAT increase would mainly cost the Netherlands money rather than generate it. Binnenhof TV Meanwhile...... 

Sculpted Ovation for 'ingenious' conductor Iván Fischer

"Programmatic ingenuity goes hand in hand with Fischer's ebullient and finely crafted performances". So when someone says that about you, you have earned a prize. So that is what the jury of formerly the Classical Music Prize thought of Iván Fischer, the Hungarian-born conductor who was therefore awarded the 'Ovation' on Monday 17 October 2011. And so then the 'Ovation'... 

Saskia Kriekhaus has her director's job back. Now all that remains is a workplace.

She was accused of fraud and therefore suspended in September. However, a judgment has now been handed down in the summary proceedings that Saskia Kriekhaus, director of the Lucent Danstheater and the Anton Philipszaal, both in The Hague, had filed against her dismissal. And so Saskia Kriekhaus won that. So that suddenly everyone in The Hague's arts sector is heartbroken,... 

The 1 per cent and the concert hall; classical music as a henchman of the rich against 'the 99 per cent'

While anti-capitalists were plotting to occupy Amsterdam's Beursplein this week - if you can at least put the protesters under that heading - in the US, anger over THE 99 PERCENT shifted to the concert hall. The discussion flared up in response to two events. Wall Street was occupied; and the Metropolitan Opera received $182 million in donations in one year, a record amount.... 

Record amount of donations for New York Metropolitan Opera, but ticket sales down for years

The New York Times reports that the Metropolitan Opera in New York has brought in record donations this fiscal year. The tally stands at $182 million. This is 50 per cent more than the previous year. However, revenue from ticket sales has been declining for a few years. In addition, since general manager Peter Gelb took office, spending patterns are soaring.... 

Henk and Ingrid screwed again: Dutch tax advisers burn new Giving Act to the ground

The new Giving Act, the cultural palliative with which the Rutte Cabinet claims to be accommodating the art world, is flawed. We don't say this, because we only know about art, but this is what the Dutch tax consultants say. And they know a lot about your taxes, and little about art. Extremely reliable, in other words. And what virtues... 

Mayor Hoes provides proof: for the VVD, art is only about sport anymore

Anyone who was still left wondering what the vision of the governing VVD party on art is now out. For that vision is simple. Art is sport. According to the VVD. So said the alderman of Rotterdam, so said the spouse of top wrestler Albert Verlinde, the as mayor of Maastricht ancillary runner Onno Hoes. During the opening of the Dutch Dance Days, he gave... 

Red Bull: the ideal power boost for languishing museums?

"If 1 person can prove that by collaborating with Red Bull, a sixteenth-century painting thins out or falls off the wall, I will stop working on it immediately." Edwin Jacobs, director of Centraal Museum Utrecht, opened his doors to the soft drink manufacturer. Under the title 'Art of Can', the museum is exhibiting artworks made from Red Bull cans. "Red Bull gives you wings,... 

Edwin Jacobs welcomes Red Bull can to Centraal Museum: "It is an inalienable right of everyone to become acquainted with art and culture"

Does a soft drink manufacturer's advertisement belong in a museum? In Edwin Jacobs's view, it can and fits seamlessly into these times. He opened his Centraal Museum to artworks made from Red Bull cans. Something to which not everyone reacts positively. The 'Art of Can' exhibition shows the sixty best creations that both amateurs and some... 

With its back to the community?

This week, the Connecting Arts festival takes place in Utrecht. This festival, contrary to the expectation raised by the title, revolves entirely around the organ. The instrument is in a bottomless identity crisis. The solution lies in connecting with other art forms: connecting arts. The organist. One of those guys with a beard. Not a meticulously trimmed weekend shadow, but a wild... 

We say goodbye to a festival that was once again unique. For the last time? #decision

Image via Wikipedia There was a time, when art did not have to draw full theatres to still be accepted by the population. After all, out of a municipality's total budget, something like art costs no more than a penny, so it doesn't make you worse off, while at best it can only make you better off... 

'Elitist' Wijlre Castle collection preserved for Limburg under fierce protest from PVV

After 'saving' the Limburg Symphony Orchestra and securing a budget for the opera, the PVV had to once again explore the limits of its own opportunism. Indeed, the already disintegrated group was vehemently opposed to securing the unique private art collection of Wijlre Castle on the grounds that this collection of world-renowned artworks would not be understood by ordinary... 

Neutral Hero: Like a steam locomotive tugging slowly over you #dekeuze

'I will never go to anything undergrounds again,' sighs a lady as she leaves the auditorium. She looks pained, after more than an hour and a half of Neutral Hero by director Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players. The paper description of the show may therefore lead a potential visitor astray. A 'country opera' sounds far too... 

Enschede population wants legoblocks church preserved. Support asked for twitter action @stoanloatn

What art can accomplish. At least Enschede gained a church, thanks to the people of festival Grenswerk, which lasts until 2 October. Because, where there used to be a somewhat dull square next to Enschede's railway station, there is now a church made of colourful Lego blocks. Intended as a multifunctional festival pavilion. Temporary too, because the lego building blocks can... 

Musical makers critical of future musicals in the Netherlands: "It's really going wrong in our industry because of touring!"

"What we lose audiences massively with is that if we give seven shows a week, quietly three of them are so substandard that people say 'And now I won't go for three years'. What we need to do is put the performance level back on a structurally high level." One of the statements made by composer Jeroen Sleijfer during the lively roundtable discussion - with no table... 

The International Choice does, what The International Choice has been doing for years: divide opinion and loosen tongues.

"We are blind to the big changes in the world and meanwhile we are arguing with one-liners on Radio One." These words, penned by reporter Robbert van Heuven from the mouth of writer Abdelkader Benali during the Choice Debate on Tuesday 20 September perhaps best captures what The International Choice was all about. Artistic director Annemie Vanackere... 

Seeing, building and tasting the future during an exciting bike ride through Rotterdam with Parfum de BoemBoem #dekeuze

A procession of bright red and green bicycles snakes along the Meuse, ridden by people looking around curiously, conferring with each other and wondering at every moment if 'this is part of it'. The Parfum de BoemBoem ticket in their pocket is proof: this is not an ordinary bike ride, but one with theatrical surprises. Guide Sereh enjoys the questioning looks and leads the group to the first location: the waste incineration plant in Rotterdam-Zuid.

 

[ca...

You can now log in to continue reading!

Welcome to the Culture Press archive! As a member, you have access to all, over 4,000 posts we have made since our inception in 2009!

(Recent posts (under three months old) are available for all to read, thanks to our members!)

Become a member, or log in below:

Future food of nuisance beasts scrambled with talk on energy #dekeuze

Listen here to the podcast/work in progress by Jowi Schmitz who attended the event with chef Natasja Postma: Fantasising about 2020 in International Choice 2011 Liposuction fat. Blood. Vomit. 'You can look at it that way too!' says the Appetitheque's food designer excitedly. It doesn't bother her that her thin-walled jelly pudding, processed cola and her yellow-white lumps of beef salad are still... 

Rebellion and resignation hand in hand during beautiful opening weekend The International Choice at Rotterdam Theatre #hechoice

Opinion pollsters take note: "People give the moderate answer to most questions they are asked in life. The characters in 'This is not a love story' are very ordinary, very average. In that, it clicks between those two. It's an ending where you feel an enormous satisfaction." Enthusiasm prevails after the opening weekend of The International Choice of the... 

Pollesch and Hinrichs turn opening night The Choice into a theatrical philosophical happening #The International Choice

For the opening night of The International Choice, the Rotterdam Schouwburg was briefly transformed into Berlin's Volksbühne. The same black plastic rags on the walls, the same ugly yellow front curtain and - most strikingly - the seats in the auditorium have been replaced by white beanbags. Those beanbags, by the way, are widely despised and mocked in Berlin. They should... 

Budget note: We put together the cultural haircut percentages

Image via Wikipedia Let's start again with yet another sloppiness of the Rutte government: that wretched VAT measure on the arts, which are the only ones to be bounced to the 'normal' rate of 19%. VVD doesn't like it, CDA isn't happy about it, but because tolerance specialist Martin Bosma once had to play a red mushroom in the school play... 

Die Zeit comes up with text from porn poem Frederick the Great. But we are earlier.

Update: the poem in question was not meant to convince Voltaire of the Prussian thrust, but an Italian, Francesco Alegerotti. A scrabeus poem by Frederick the Great has surfaced. A poem, whose existence but content was unknown. Until now, that is. Today, the German quality magazine Die Zeit comes out with the full text. And Bild Zeitung has... 

Private Membership (month)
5 / Maand
For natural persons and self-employed persons.
No annoying banners
A special newsletter
Own mastodon account
Access to our archives
Small Membership (month)
18 / Maand
For cultural institutions with a turnover/subsidy of less than €250,000 per year
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
All our podcasts
Your own Mastodon account
Access to archives
Posting press releases yourself
Extra attention in news coverage
Large Membership (month)
36 / Maand
For cultural institutions with a turnover/subsidy of more than €250,000 per year.
No annoying banners
A special newsletter
Your own Mastodon account
Access to archives
Share press releases with our audience
Extra attention in news coverage
Premium Newsletter (substack)
5 trial subscriptions
All our podcasts

Payments are made via iDeal, Paypal, Credit Card, Bancontact or Direct Debit. If you prefer to pay manually, based on an invoice in advance, we charge a 10€ administration fee

*Only for annual membership or after 12 monthly payments

en_GBEnglish (UK)