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.
Thursday 15 December saw a conference in The Hague. A festive intended gathering with workshops celebrated the creation of the 'Code of Cultural Diversity'. In the final debate, the same code was openly buried. View the story "'Cultural Diversity' disappeared into the dustbin faster than drafters 'Code' could write" on Storify] The code can be found here:
It was Europe Day in cultural Amsterdam on Monday 12 December. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science officially opened the application procedure for cities wishing to become Europe's cultural capital in 2018. And the European commission presented and plan of 1.8 billion for culture. We reported via Twitter. And collected the results on 'storify'. View the story "Europe wants to invest in culture....
That this cabinet does not like the creators of art is well enough known by now. That this klabinet also wants to get rid of complaining artists as soon as possible, too. That is why the cabinet is rushing to end laws that give artists a helping hand, such as the Work and Income for Artists Act (WWIK). That law now regulates that professional artists for...
It has finally been scientifically proven: a work of art does not stand alone. A work of art is only truly appreciated when the viewer is told that it is real art. British professor Martin Kemp conducted research with brain scans at Oxford University and provided proof that the way we look at art is "completely irrational". The research...
That Martin Bosma, culture spokesman for the PVV, wants to withdraw the subsidy to Toneelgroep Amsterdam because that company plays works by 'enemy of the people' Tom Lanoye, was not even the most bizarre incident of the culture budget debate on 21 November 2011. More bizarre, too, than the PVV's demand for the establishment of a Colonial Museum celebrating the glory of 'Our Indies',...
Je kunt je kont tegen de krib gooien, als kunstsector, maar je kunt ook iets anders doen, terwijl je met je grote konijnenogen in de koplampen van een aanstormend kaalslagmonster staart. En wat is dat andere dan, vroeg de Amsterdamse kunstraad zich af? Doodknuffelen, was het antwoord. Toen de Amsterdamse wethouder van Cultuur vorige week haar plan ontvouwde voor de…
A nice side effect of the Giving Act is that it gives the tax authorities a vital role when it comes to determining what is art, and what is not. That was the outcome of the hearing on Tuesday 11 October in the House of Representatives. The MPs there listened to people from the philanthropic sector and tax experts in turn. Outcome of the two...
Can a plastic rag be sad? It does in the hands of a puppeteer in a performance by Lotte van den Berg. With a few pieces of tape and a lot of well-aimed buttons, the plastic rag has been transformed into something with four limbs and a head. And the plastic rag mourns in its performer's hands dozens of similarly knotted...
At the end of August came the figures. And what figures they were. Due to the stacking of extreme cuts by government, provinces and municipalities, the abolition of the successful Work and Income for Artists Act and the equally successful culture card, plus the VAT increase on the arts, the Netherlands' cultural sector would end up missing out on €1 billion in revenue. Berenschot had estimated that in...
It is the most frequently asked question to actresses: whether it is difficult, crying on command. And invariably Carice van Houten or Halina Reijn then replies to Matthijs van Nieuwkerk or Jeroen Pauw that there are all kinds of tricks for that. For crying. Just think of something nasty, tiger balm, onions, and Vaseline. Now, however, it turns out there is something where even...
Spain and God. The two have had something in common for a long time. And to outsiders, not always in a positive sense. Spaniards invented the Inquisition and converted the entire native population of South America to the eternal hunting grounds. When artists delve into the relationship between supreme being and Spaniard, it also quite often produces confrontational works. Take...
Strange how quickly history detaches itself from your memory. We had gradually come to think here that the camping uprising in Cairo's Tahrir Square was a kind of summer of love. That everyone there was cramming roses into cannon shells singing together and that the whole world was just there to give each other love and hugs. Time for a lesson in rebellion....
Het wordt met temperaturen boven de 25 graden een broeierige, maar ook unieke zomerdag, die 10e september. Het Cultureel Persbureau is die dag en zondag met 4 journalisten aanwezig op de voormalige Vliegbasis Soesterberg om verslag te doen van festival De Basis. Wanneer u daar komt, maakt u veel natuur, nog meer indrukwekkend oorlogsverleden en een stuk of wat theatervoorstellingen…
Het wordt met temperaturen boven de 25 graden een broeierige, maar ook unieke zomerdag, die 10e september. Het Cultureel Persbureau is die dag met 4 journalisten aanwezig op de voormalige Vliegbasis Soesterberg om verslag te doen van festival De Basis. Wanneer u daar komt, maakt u veel natuur, nog meer indrukwekkend oorlogsverleden en een stuk of wat theatervoorstellingen en beeldende…
'And why do all these art institutions have to open on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and even Thursdays? I don't understand that. I'm far too busy working on those days.' Just a question during the Paradiso debate,
Turntables and theatre have something in common. Especially in recent years, theatre-goers increasingly run the risk of facing a so-called rotating stage. After Johan Simons made use of this technical style figure in his direction of Hiob at the Munich Kammerspiele and Christoph Schlingensief made the stage turn spectacularly in his swan song Mea Culpa, it is now...
Last year, it was still about 'a sense of belonging': the ability to feel at home somewhere, to know you belong somewhere. This year, the motto of the quirky Rotterdam festival De Internationale Keuze is almost diametrically opposed to that: parallel reality. Instead of one place offering warmth, the festival now says that place is there...
With a few creative friends and a nice budget, romp around in a playground of many tens of acres of pristine nature. Surrounded by the remains of military might. It automatically makes you go roaring. But that's how it goes sometimes. With art. So, to get right to the point: cuts are not always bad. For instance, divesting the...
Clever, of course, but also perilous. Although - hanging over the abyss - there will be little else to do, but turn the TIN (Theatre Institute of the Netherlands) into a Performing Arts Museum. From 2013, because then the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science's money tap will close. In doing so, the institute will implement a rescue plan that will at least save the collection. Whether this will also save the...
Actually, there was only one compliment for the cabinet, which is in the process of cutting an average 30% from a sector that employs tens of thousands of Dutch people. At the hearing convened by the second chamber on Monday 20 June, only cultural sociologist Arjo Klamer was positive about the decisiveness shown by State Secretary Zijlstra. That he did subsequently think that...
Cologne and Paris may not have been built in a day, but it took less than three days to fly to the moon. A warped comparison to say that a show that rattles three days before its premiere can turn out to be an unimaginable hit on the premiere itself. So something like that could happen with The Russians, the latest show
In very different places, people can sometimes have the same idea. And even more sometimes, those similar ideas both lead to something wonderful. A few years ago, thanks to Brabant theatre Bis, mime company Kassys performed the beautifully sad tragedy 'Kommer', in which colleagues spent pointless time in a funeral room full of lease plants. Every gratuitous phrase was magnified by powerfully helpless gestures to the...
Firs is his name. And he always arrives late. Because of the gout. Poor houseboy. Firs was created by Anton Chekhov. His masterpiece The Cherry Garden is about the boredom and lameness of the old rich, and Firs is the house servant who sees it all happening. Chekhov lets him die, at the end, when the departing house owners totally forget about him...
Stronger than ever in recent years, the influence of spin doctors on politics has been noticeable. While at first it was only the PVV, in the person of Martin Bosma, who introduced the American methods of 'framing', it is now also standing Cabinet policy. We all know the Henk and Ingrids, the hardworking Dutch and the head rag tax. And now there is the...
Actors wearing sort of harem trousers and bamboo sticks on a nondescript playing surface. Some of you may think back nostalgically or with trepidation to the days when there were 'Akademies voor Ekspressie' in the Netherlands. Summits of socio-art. Sometime deep in the 1970s, that is. Maladype Theatre, from Hungary, fits seamlessly into that picture, which...
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