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Wijbrand Schaap

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.

Lower chamber talked about art. We followed the debate for you

We kept a liveblog. Nice and old-fashioned, from the days when every month there was uproar somewhere about the government's handling of art. Now there is peace in the tent, as the PVV sardonically points out, because 'The Left' is now the bearer of policies devised by the PVV. The PVV predicts a black future for 'The Left' once the PVV comes to power.

Below are our updates, which paint a picture of a room that still doesn't really know where it is in d eculture ...

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Turning back the clock 26 years. Four questions and one answer on Bussemaker's letter

Jet Bussemaker is satisfied. For the next few years, there will be little whining about the subsidies under her regime. She states this in her letter this weekend. After all, the basis of the system is fixed: there are great museums, symphony orchestras, opera and theatre clubs whose subsidies are cast in concrete. Or rather carved from classical marble, because money gets you

Read More "Turning back the clock 26 years. Four questions and one answer on Bussemaker's letter

Asscher throws piggy bank of flex-working artists into bottomless pit

A reduction in the ww premium spend on a scheme to keep more people in work is not going ahead because more and more people are becoming unemployed, forcing the premium up. See here the positive effect of austerity by the government. The less you spend, the deeper the problems, the less you can spend, the worse it gets, the less you can spend. And the arts may again be the first to make that clear.

Art was spared, right?

That art is better off under ...

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The National Theatre prevented Stopera from becoming The National Theatre

It would have been so nice: The National Ballet together with The National Opera at The National Theatre, like you have in the capital of any self-respecting country. But so that didn't happen. The home of our National Opera and Ballet clubs is now called 'Nationale Opera en Ballet'. The National Theatre made sure of that, which, like the Nederlands Dans Theater, is not in our capital Amsterdam, but in its residence in The Hague.

Read More "The National Theatre prevented Stopera from becoming The National Theatre

'Figure it out with your books': Bussemaker does a Silk Road trick

Those who think the library's collection is so important then, should see how they fund its preservation. So says culture minister Jet Bussemaker in response to questions by MP Bergkamp (D66). Bergkamp had asked these questions in response to the report that the post-1950 collection is not considered heritage by the ministry, and is therefore shreddable.

In her reply, Bussemaker reiterates her earlier position, but ends her answer with a statement...

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'Content creators' will unite globally

A lot of money is made on the internet from the distribution of text and music, news, photos and films. That money comes in to internet providers, services like Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Spotify, and to the big record companies and film producers, who are almost always also shareholders in the aforementioned organisations. Virtually none of that money reaches the people who make all those films, compositions and books or articles.

For that reason, all over the world, makers va...

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Collection shuffling, Rutte II's new hobby

The Money Museum will close in a month, but its collection (as far as important) will go to De Nederlandsche Bank. The Tropenmuseum has been disbanded, but the collection will be housed elsewhere. However, only half of the library will be saved: everything from after 1950 is not interesting enough to preserve, according to minister Bussemaker. This is evident from the answers given by Culture Minister Bussemaker to questions by the SP.

Read More "Collection shuffling, Rutte II's new hobby

Audience performing arts to low point

Good news from the VSCD: more theatre and concert tickets have been sold in pre-sales this year than last year. The press release reporting this, however, advises industrious journalists not to check with their local theatre to see if this is true. After all, according to the propaganda of the theatre boards, this is a national average, and "things they hear from their members".

All this to disguise the fact that the really bad news is that the dramatic decline in theatre and con...

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'Museum sector buzzing with collaborative initiatives' but keen to keep doing it themselves

An enthusiastic press release in times of severe headwinds. That calls for a closer look. Last Friday, a study on the state of cooperation in the Dutch museum world was presented. After all, cooperation is a must from minister Bussemaker and sort of from the Council for Culture. So it's nice that things are already going ok. Can we get back to doing nice things.

What the press release does not tell, but the research report makes clear, is that it is not at all that fantastic ...

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BPP Kaputt (6): All theatre awards and collective marketing discontinued

Not a cent more goes to the annual theatre awards and all other collective marketing activities, such as the performing arts congress, also go to 0 euros or very little. Says one chairman to another director, who is also chairman, and is actually the same. Because that's how it goes at the Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Directors:

Read More "BPP Kaputt (6): All theatre awards and collective marketing discontinued
Biodesign

Happy jerk or depressed bacteria? Biodesign is the future, according to William Myers

What idiot could come up with that, one of the attendees wondered: that you can make electrical circuits by combining the DNA of an algae with that of a hamster? Just a question that comes to mind when walking around the exhibition Biodesign, on show in Rotterdam from 27 September to 5 January (2014). And then there's... 

Read More "Happy jerk or depressed bacteria? Biodesign is the future, according to William Myers

NRC doesn't count right: not 11, but at least 34 groups gone due to cuts

According to NRC Handelsblad, the culture cuts became fatal for "only" 11 theatre institutions. They base this on groups that actually disbanded themselves. In their overview, however, they overlook the companies that voluntarily dissolved themselves by merging with another company. In addition, there are a number of institutions that cancelled themselves even before the new round because it was already clear that they would not get any money. Do we count those m...

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Oudolf's sturdy sprites replace floating trestles in Rotterdam harbour

Piet Oudolf, the Dutch garden artist who changed the face of New York, is best known in the Netherlands as a glorified plant book author. After many major cities worldwide, Rotterdam is the first city in the Netherlands to have a park designed by the now 69-year-old designer. And immediately it becomes clear what we have missed so much in our 'public green space' all these years. So it is absolutely right that Oudolf is awarded the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund Prize in November.

Last we...

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Daan Roosegaarde for president? Alderman? Councillor?

Jet Bussemaker believes in Daan Roosegaarde. She confessed this on Sunday 1 September during the traditional Paradiso debate. She admires his courage to imagine the unthinkable and his drive to come up not with opinions, but with proposals. Her message to the art sector, once again almost fully present in Paradiso, was clear: stop complaining, start doing something.

The political finale of this year's Uitmarkt was all about 'change'. Because that something needs to change is d...

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'Barter with Robinson' art project in demand by hardcore bargain hunters

Pet van de Luijtgaarden has a thing for collections. So he collects them. But being an artist, he also wants to say something with those collections: 'I am mainly concerned with society. I think we are going down because of overproduction and to show that, I want to go right over the top.' That's why that project 'Ruilen met Robinson' is now in Utrecht: an entire trade fair hall filled with a maze-like landscape, made up of what people no longer use, 'I put all this stuff...

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'Ann Goldstein's departure signals Ann Goldstein's departure'

Wonderful quote in the Volkskrant, which was also copied by the ANP in the news coverage of Ann Goldstein's departure as artistic director of hert Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Or vice versa. Just read carefully:

"With her resignation, Goldstein has indicated that, in her view, her work for the museum is complete and that the museum is ready for a new artistic director to lead it into the future."

How could it be otherwise. This is called 'stating...

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Kevin Spacey: 'Television will be fundamentally changed by arrival of Netflix'

Three-quarters of pilot episodes for series in the US do not lead to a sequel. No pilot episode was made for House of Cards, the series with which the on-demand and streaming video channel Netflix finally broke through in America. Major broadcasters refused to make the series without a pilot, but Netflix immediately recognised that there would be a large enough audience for it. That was no fluke, actor Kevin Spacey explains in this video, but a matter of knowing what your audience wants, and certainly ...

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Bureau Promotie Podiumkunsten kaputt (3): a one and a half million corpse in the closet

The Theatre Voucher has been more popular than its publisher suspected. Theatre-goers have certainly used this performing arts book voucher more than expected over the last decade. One and a half million euros more. As a result, the Foundation for the Promotion of Theatre and Concert Attendance SPTC has faced negative assets since 2011.

So then you are broke, in other words.

It all has to do with the so-called freefall, the number of coupons that are not redeemed. That ...

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10 per cent less ticket sales, but Festival Boulevard is still satisfied.

Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch sold 55,000 tickets this year, 5,000 less than in 2012. The festival, which this year was held from 1 to 11 August, did attract more crowds for the free offerings on the festival square. This brought the total number of visitors to the festival this year to 145,000, 5,000 more than in 2012. As the venue occupancy is still nice at 85%, the drop in ticket sales will mainly be due to a smaller offer of performances.

In 2012, the...

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Performing arts promotion office kaputt

We are far from having all the info, but we have enough by now: the Bureau Promotie Podiumkunsten (BPP), funded by the Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Managements, is quitting as of 1 October. Reason unknown, but surely the malaise in the cultural sector, and especially the performing arts, will have something to do with it.

Earlier, it was revealed that the Dutch Association of Performing Arts, the NAPK, had been virtually decimated thanks to the subisdiction cut that made the performing arts more heavily ...

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House of Eutopia: haunted house of an ideal society

'Eutopia comes from the Greek and means as much as 'Good place'. With this installation, I want to make people think about what that is: a good place.' Architect and visual artist Filip Berte worked on his 'Good Place' for seven years and the result is now on display at Utrecht's Zijdebalen Theatre. His 'House of Eutopia' is set up in the large shed of an old sawmill on the edge of the city centre, an area also known to Kyteman fans as Kytop...

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