Cultural journalist since 1996. Worked as theatre critic, columnist and reporter for Algemeen Dagblad, Utrechts Nieuwsblad, Rotterdams Dagblad, Parool and regional newspapers through Associated Press Services. Interviews for TheaterMaker, Theatererkrant Magazine, Ons Erfdeel, Boekman. Podcast maker, likes to experiment with new media. Culture Press is called the brainchild I gave birth to in 2009. Life partner of Suzanne Brink roommate of Edje, Fonzie and Rufus. Search and find me on Mastodon.
'Last (Silent, ed.) Saturday we ventured out to dinner at friends', my husband and I once again. We were tired of just talking about Corona. Then we agreed to have a music night. We all work in classical music, but agreed to listen to precisely no classical music. It became a...
While the Belgian government has just announced the cancellation of all festivals until 31 August, Mark Rutte in the Netherlands pronounced two very difficult words: 'theatre' and 'museum'. This was followed in Hilversum by a worship service for the minister led by the high priest of our culture, Cornald Maas. While they sat at the non-existent make-up, the...
Update Wednesday 15-4, 16:00: this afternoon, the government has decided to come over as yet with additional schemes for the cultural sector, which are now no longer taken out of the culture budget. Apparently, the massive pressure helped. We will let you know when more is known about it. Update Wednesday 15-4, 20:00: Drop in the ocean arrived, leaving the below message only....
The Culture Council will soon be commissioned to produce a plan for the cultural sector to survive the one-and-a-half-meter society. The commitment of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is, to solve this within the existing financial frameworks. This is what sources at the top of that ministry have reported.
'When the lockdown came, we actually decided right away to continue, but online. So we opened digital studios.' Like so many others, the Hague Theatre House also entered the digital world of Zoom, the app with which Culture Press also records podcasts remotely. 'People rehearse for presentations and performances. We have created a talent environment for that. An online place with films,...
We take a post from the site 'Cultuurmarketing.nl', adding that the main purpose of the scheme is also to compensate the creators, the performing artists. So don't think: "my theatre gets subsidy, right?", because that subsidy is usually just enough to pay the rent. Performances are almost always paid for directly from ticket sales: Comin' To...
We always try to look for a bright spot anyway, but sometimes you just have to let it go. On Monday 6 April 2020, we brought you a post on how the corona crisis is having long after-effects, which have been casting their shadow for at least a year. Today, we talk to Victorine Plante and Erik Snel of Alum, the bringer of that first post. In the...
(Volume podcast corrected) This crisis will accelerate the disappearance of small shops run by small independents. Although it would be nice if actions to do your shopping right there made a difference, competing with the gigantic offer of the big online chains is almost impossible. That is why we should cherish them while they are still around. And not...
Utrecht-based theatre group Aluin is in dire straits. Like all other theatre companies, they cannot do their work, and performances have been postponed or cancelled. That it does not only apply to ongoing tours is now apparent. Performances scheduled for autumn and next spring have also been cancelled. The company reports this in a press release. Alum would...
Lot Douze delivers to your home. By bicycle. With her bookshop Over Het Water, she focuses very specifically on her neighbourhood, Amsterdam Noord. Now that everyone has to stay at home as much as possible because of the corona situation, she experiences an increase in demand. Online, customers in Amsterdam Noord now also know how to find her well. Because of her customer focus, she has a...
'Your hands can't stop you anyway, so I will always make things. But I'm not just an artist pur sang, I also want to keep communicating.' Chantal van Heeswijk is an artist. She had a packed schedule, until mid-March. 'I am always busy in many ways. But that's almost always work involving a lot of people....
'Exercising at home is very nice to do. In your own living room, you have no shame.' Dereck Cayla is associated with ICK Amsterdam, the capital's urban dance company. Now that all performances are down and he can no longer train with the company's dancers in the studio, he offers his lessons online. For ICK's own professionals,...
Just a breather from the stress. Today I am talking to Yolande Melsert. She is cultural attachée of the Dutch embassy in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. Because of the corona-lockdown, she is temporarily back in the Netherlands. Reason enough to look back on an eventful year in relations between the Netherlands and its former colony. Indonesia is still a young country. You notice...
Slowly but surely, the absurdity of the rescue measures for the cultural sector is sinking in. The national museums will not have to pay rent for three months for a while, but will have to pay it back retroactively once the crisis is over. Entrepreneurs can get extra support worth 4,000 euros, provided they have business premises outside their homes. Actors, directors (also freelance journalists, by the way) and artists...
It's not 50 billion, like in Germany, but it's more than nothing: the support measures Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven announced today for the hard-hit cultural sector. And, who knows, this may offer openings to do a few things completely differently after this crisis. For instance, it is great that the national museums do not have to pay rent for a while,...
'It may sound very double, but somewhere a moment of peace, a moment of contemplation, is something you always long for. That the trigger now is that pandemic is not nice, of course, but still." Fedor Teunissen is artistic director of Asko|Schönberg, the world-class ensemble founded by the world-renowned conductor, composer and pianist Reinbert De Leeuw. Die...
Machteld Kooij sees at least three or four people she has trained pass by every night on the news or the big talk shows. She calls herself The Secret Weapon of Hilversum and now there is also a book: The Monster with the Golden Eyes. We all have to deal with it from time to time: stage fright. And Machteld Kooij has excellent tips ...
An online party with a few close friends, and that you then invite a musician to perform live there. It can be done, and Deborah Jacobs would think it a fantastic idea. The musician, music teacher and lyricist from Breda had just about got her act together when Corona struck. All at once, all performances were cancelled and the...
'Keep doing your daily routines as much as possible when disaster strikes' Willem Jaap Zwart is director of theatre, film house and arts centre Concordia in Enschede, and he knows what he is talking about. As a resident of Enschede, he experienced the fireworks disaster, and even then the motto was: show resilience, and stay close to yourself: 'On the day it...
Yesterday, I read this update from Madeleine Matzer on facebook: 'Two years ago, I chose this view. So beautiful. So quiet. So serene. And so well suited to the hectic and dynamic life I normally lead. Insanely meaningful work with wonderful and inspiring colleagues, a large and delightful social network, and then also all those opportunities for...
Leon Giesen, also known as Mondo Leone, said goodbye to mainstream theatre some time ago. He played - until Coronoa struck - increasingly at meetings and seminars, where the audience is more massive and attentive. But now that market has fallen away, and Leon has come up with something new. Listen to this race storyteller's story in our podcast in...
'Like asking after a play or a concert which seats they had in the auditorium.' According to Gerrit Heijkoop, it is not interesting to know what software you can use to share knowledge online, or organise video chats. 'You can go to Facebook, to YouTube, and then there are all kinds of programmes. If you want to communicate, it goes...
'It was very strange to leave here. Such a place that is always on, where it is always busy, where it is always light, that was now just black.' Lieke Timmermans, manager of Marketing and Communications at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht still can't quite grasp it. On Thursday 12 March 2020, after the government's press conference, the programme had to...
When he started for himself in 2006, the CoC's question was not, how Oscar Kocken would later deal with a global pandemic of apocalyptic proportions, income-wise. This is just to show what a toughass our minister of economic affairs is, and how we still get some understanding of the wall of misunderstanding where the...
UPDATE Friday, March 13, 9:30 a.m.: After the Culture Council sounded the alarm on Thursday night, the House of Representatives passed a motion urging a support package for the affected cultural sector. The text of the motion, tabled by D66, Groen Links, PvdA, Partij van de Dieren, Denk and 50Plus, reads as follows: 'The Chamber, having heard the debate, whereas meetings with...
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