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.
An enthusiastic press release in times of severe headwinds. It calls for further reflection. Last Friday, a survey on the state of cooperation in the Dutch museum world was presented. After all, cooperation should be from Minister Bussemaker and kind of the Council for Culture. So it's nice that things are already going ok. Can we get back to fun things.
Er gaat geen cent meer naar de jaarlijkse theaterprijzen en ook alle andere collectieve marketingactiviteiten, zoals het congres podiumkunsten, gaan naar 0 euro of heel weinig. Zegt de ene voorzitter tegen de andere directeur, die ook voorzitter is, en eigenlijk dezelfde is. Want zo gaat bij de Vereniging van Schouwburg- en Concertgebouw Directies:
What idiot could come up with that, wondered one of the attendees: 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...
According to NRC Handelsblad Culture cuts became fatal for 'only' 11 theatre institutions. Here they assume groups that actually dissolved 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 disbanded before the new round because it was already clear that they would not receive any money. If we do count those, we come to at least 34 companies. That is already 25% of what was on offer before the cuts.
Piet Oudolf, the Dutch garden artist who changed the face of New York changed, is best known in the Netherlands as an ennobled plant book author. After many big cities worldwide, Rotterdam is the first city in the Netherlands to have a public garden designed by the now 69-year-old designer. And it immediately becomes clear what we have been missing in our 'public green space' for all these years. Quite right, then, that Oudolf received the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund Prize gets awarded.
More seats do not bring more spectators. The only way to get more spectators to venues and museums is: drop the price. This is according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics.
Thibaud Delpeut, up-and-coming talent in theatre land, has been appointed artistic director of The Utrecht Games. Jacques van Veen has been appointed as managing director to exude sufficient confidence in the business field as well. He previously won his spurs at the Holland Festival and Groningen City Theatre.
Jet Bussemaker believes in Daan Roosegaarde. She confessed this on Sunday 1 September during the traditional Paradiso debate. She admired his courage to imagine the unthinkable and his drive to come up not with opinions but with proposals. Her message to the arts sector, again almost fully present in Paradiso, was clear: stop complaining, start doing something.
The dissolution of the Performing Arts Promotion Office continues to stir minds. So another piece, even though we are actually supposed to be walking around the Uitmarkt to expensive advertising leaflets to sell.
Enfin.
Pet van de Luijtgaarden heeft iets met verzamelingen. Hij verzamelt ze dan ook. Maar omdat hij kunstenaar is wil hij ook iets met die verzamelingen zeggen: ‘Ik ben vooral bezig met de maatschappij. Ik vind dat we ten onder gaan aan overproductie en om dat te laten zien wil ik juist over de top gaan.’
Wonderful quote in the Volkskrant, also copied by the ANP in the message feeds on Ann Goldstein's departure as artistic director of hert Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Or vice versa. Just read carefully:
Three-quarters of pilot episodes for series in the US do not lead to a sequel. For House of Cards, the series with which the on-demand and streaming video channel Netflix final breakthrough in America, no pilot episode was made. Major broadcasters refused the series without pilot to make, but Netflix immediately saw that there would be a large enough audience for it. That was
Dat de boekenmarkt het moeilijk heeft, is inmiddels wel bekend. In de strijd tussen papier en ereader gaat het er hard aan toe. Uitgevers vinden digitaal lezen eigenlijk een vorm van diefstal. Mag u een gekocht papieren boek behalve lezen, ook verknippen, uitlenen, weggeven, doorverkopen en verbranden, met een ebook mag dat allemaal niet.
De Theaterbon is populairder geweest dan de uitgever vermoedde. Theaterbezoekers hebben zeker de laatste tien jaar meer van deze boekenbon voor podiumkunsten gebruik gemaakt dan verwacht. Anderhalf miljoen euro meer. Gevolg is dat de Stichting voor de Promotie van het Theater en Concertbezoek SPTC sinds 2011 te maken heeft met een negatief vermogen.
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.
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.
'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 can now be seen in Utrecht's Zijdebalen Theatre.
"I am very curious about the audience's reactions. People always have an image at a festival. They come, expecting to experience all sorts of things. What you get here is the terrain, an exploration and a story that emerges as a result. The main energy that exists on and around this terrain is, "I get to go on it, and what's there? On that energy, I want to build on."
69,500 visitors, at least 5,000 fewer than previous editions, but the halls were fuller. With 82% audience occupancy, the Holland Festival organisers are satisfied with the 2013 festival. Whether that higher occupancy rate, apart from the smaller number of performances (14 fewer than last year) is also due to smaller halls, is impossible to find out from here, but the fact that the large Theater Carré, with its many unsellable low-visibility seats, was also hardly used this year will certainly have helped.
There are those who spend nights queuing for a ticket. After all, the Berliner Ensemble is mythologically big. As big as the Royal Shakespeare Company in England, or La Comédie Française in France. Monuments to cultural history, dedicated to one writer, like Brecht or Shakespeare, or to an entire history, as the French are used to. We Dutch have
You don't really give it much thought, how weird standing still in a shopping centre like Hoog Catharijne is. At least: if you are not standing still with your head towards a shop window or your fingers in a bowl of fast food. The code for glancing around a shopping mall is so common that it takes some getting used to even for yourself when something forces you to suddenly
Holland Festival
Seagull, an early play by Anton Chekhov, is about drama in the same way that his equally famous play Cherry Garden is about cherry growing or real estate fraud. Not so. It seems to be a mistake that stage artists often make and that Chekhov cites in his 115-year-old play: thinking that everything is always about you. Which is why Thomas Ostermeier, lauded German director, cannot be blamed for the fact that his direction of The Seagull at Toneelgroep Amsterdam is about theatre.
So there is figurative music. Music that, like a figurative painting, offers a fairly accurate depiction of reality. Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo's composition 'Hurricane Transcriptions' is just such a picture:
Jet Bussemaker, minister of culture since last autumn, is slowly but surely starting to repair the damage done by the previous cabinet supported by the Dutch culture-hating party PVV.
5 million back for culture card, 2 million for museums, something more soon
Ah, what the heck. We can, of course, study the piece for ourselves first and then come up with a peppery response and interpretation to it, and it will certainly come. But why
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