The 10th and final Critics' Choice at IFFR. Time for a new stir
The tenth and final Critic's Choice programme at IFFR: anything that provokes conversation.
policy
Access to culture; Towards a new system in 2029
People do not have equal access to culture in the Netherlands. This is because the supply of culture varies greatly from region to region. Also, artists or cultural institutions do not yet have an equal chance of financial support everywhere. There are calls for change from the cultural and creative field. Therefore, at the request of the State Secretary for Culture and Media on 26 January, the Council for Culture...
Utrecht Arts Education embroiled in fighting divorce
It was a chilly Thursday evening before Christmas 2023 and a grim atmosphere hung in the wedding hall of the old Utrecht city hall. Where during the day countless Utrechters were saying yes to each other, two partners were now facing each other. They no longer looked at each other, each had gathered their own supporters. Angry words rang out from one, bewildered words from the other. Members...
Reisopera seeks new director. And an artistic colourist.
'Nina Hiddema and the supervisory board have concluded that this is a natural time for Nina to step down.' Nice sentence in the press release that appeared in the mailbox on 15 January. De Reisopera, the Enschede-based opera company that performs operas especially for everything outside Amsterdam and Maastricht, is bidding farewell to director Nina Hiddema after two years. Whether it...
New lesson from Manchester? 'Free the arts from colonisation by the middle class'
"There is a fear among the artistic middle class of oversimplification, as if working-class people are not smart enough for art. I find that really insulting. My great-grandfather would be offended." I found this combative quote in The Mill, an extremely successful local news site for the Greater Manchester Area, a kind of northern English Randstad with a few million inhabitants. It...
Before we forget everything: this is how the new Chamber president thinks about culture
"In the short term, the threat comes from black-racial activists and their leftist slaves. A very small group of activists with an obsession with skin colour have opened the frontal attack on the symbols of Western culture. They claim to speak for all of black Holland. This must eventually end in reparations because of slavery and job quotas against whites, like in South Africa....
In Brabant, arts subsidies are already going under
In North Brabant, the annual provincial subsidy for professional art will go down by €629,000 a year from 2025. Whereas prestigious, and very vital, organisations such as Boulevard, Bosch parade and Matzer could count on an amount of 8.25 million until now, from the new culture plan period it will be only 7.6 million. The Brabant cultural institutions, united in The Art of...
Sociologist Roy Kemmers: 'It is not the cultural institutions that should be protected, but the values they stand for.'
"The unease of the voters who gave Wilders 37 seats is not solved by the position of power the PVV has now achieved." Roy Kemmers (43) is an associate professor at the sociology faculty of Erasmus University in Rotterdam. On Tuesday 28 November, he wrote an opinion piece in De Volkskrant, commenting on the rise of populism. He obtained his PhD...
The Arts and Culture discount can start as early as 13 December
On 6 December, the new House of Representatives will be sworn in. a week later, the deliberations on the budget tabled by the incumbent caretaker cabinet in September will begin. The then secretary of state for culture, Gunay Uslu, has since flown the coop and cannot be challenged on her budget. Someone else will now have to defend that budget. Those who wondered whether the peace...
Research: fair pay in arts sector will cost an extra 180 million by 2025
The research is there, and the figures are not uplifting. In the arts sector, underpaying especially freelancers and not honouring overtime is standing policy. If this is to be made up from now on, with the existing budget, small institutions and festivals in particular will fall over immediately. The study on this was presented yesterday to outgoing Culture Secretary Uslu. Principal Arts...
Children's Book Week figures drop, but KVB Boekwerk likes to tell it otherwise.
"Sales of children's books during Children's Book Week edition 2023 are higher than in 2019, 2020 and 2021. This applies to both sales through physical shops and e-commerce." KVB-Boekwerk, the research institute of Dutch Booksellers, has been publishing trend reports on the book market for a few years now. This year, for the first time, these include figures on sales of children's books,...
Collective Creative Culture Debate shows desperation art sector
"But in the next week, can't you still come up with a law that enshrines art education in primary education?" A striking moment in the 'Collective Creative Culture Debate' held in a packed Herz of TivoliVredenburg on Wednesday 15 November. The Creative Coalition and Kunsten '92 made one last attempt to put arts and culture on the agenda of the...
IN PERSPECTIVE 18: Has it already started, or is jazz policy in the Netherlands already over?
In the series In Perspective, Erik Akkermans looks back and ahead at developments in cultural policy and practice. Today: policies for jazz and improvised music. From the Oude Schans to Rijswijk May 1983, Monday morning, a quarter past eight. Location: the soulless office tower in Rijswijk housing the Ministry of Welfare, Public Health and Culture. Minister Brinkman addressed the members of the Working Group on...
Theatres join forces and take on co-producer role
The Coproducers is an initiative of 12 theatres whereby they act as co-producers of productions by theatre makers who are no longer starting, but also not yet established. By corona there is a gap in the career development of younger creators, last year the Council for Culture and State Secretary for Culture and Media Gunay Uslu sounded the alarm. This season push...
NSC and BBB election programmes: get cultural money for region from national funds.
There it is, the long-awaited election manifesto of the 'Who Says A, Must Say B' party New Social Contract. Until now, Pieter Omtzigt has not been known as an art lover. Nor are there any notable culture people on his candidate list, so the fact that it contains anything about culture at all is a bonus. It's 9 points, I'll highlight 2 of them: "To promote the creation of...
What does Culture Press do with your press releases and invitations?
The other day I had an unpleasant conversation with a public relations officer of a medium-sized festival. He thought it would be a good idea if I came to write about that fantastic festival because of that unique opening event. I asked, "Are you members?" He said, "No." I said, "Then I don't know if I will be able to, because during that time there are also activities....
Why does the world of culture excel at conflict?
Labour disputes in the Netherlands are on the rise. In 2021, the number of labour disputes increased by 17% overall. This increase will continue in 2022 and 2023, writes nu.nl, among others, based partly on the increased demand for legal aid in labour disputes. The arts and culture sector is certainly no exception. The media regularly show conflicts and abuses within the cultural sector. Add to this...
Nice paragraph on culture in the speech from the throne. And good news for the library.
"A good example of how the government wants to encourage that power from the bottom up is through culture. Culture confronts, inspires and bridges contradictions. From festival grounds to concert halls, and from museums to music schools. That is why the cabinet continues to promote the enjoyment of culture, for instance with the Culture Card for young people. The cabinet also wants the public library in as many...
Agreement collective labour agreement for theatre and dance 2024
Amsterdam, 12 September 2023 - The collective labour agreement for theatre and dance has been declared approved by both NAPK and Kunstenbond supporters. The collective agreement agreed on a general salary increase of 5% plus a flat-rate increase of €150. This salary increase means an average pay rise of 9.44%. On 6 July last, the Arts Union...
One region, one love: Oeds Westerhof's political declaration of love
In Zutphen, I attended Jeroen den Herder's congenial small-scale cello festival. There, two young Portuguese students gave a lecture/recital on their research project on the music of the fado singer and composer José Zeca Afonso, an important voice in the 1974 Portuguese Revolution. At home, I looked up that music. It turned out to be the perfect background when reading "Friesland, my...
Fair Practice Awards for November Music and Black Pencil show how much there is still to be gained
Of course, we can continue to complain about the poor treatment of our artists, we can also approach it with a positive slant. That must have been the consideration of composers' interest group Nieuw Geneco when establishing the 'Fair Practice Awards'. On Friday 8 September, they were presented for the fourth time at Utrecht's TivoliVredenburg: prizes for commissioners who for once...
Eric De Vroedt in State of the Theatre: 'We have to question the system we ourselves are part of.'
The hardest part of going back to work after the summer holidays are the holiday stories from colleagues. Or from yourself. That fantastic view, that unique campsite, that beautiful beach, that restaurant where you got the best food in the world for no money, that indigenous people you visited first with your tour bus. That moment of climate embarrassment that you had a few more...
Where does the Dutch cultural sector stand on 22 November? A first inventory
The Netherlands is a country of culture. Not an art country. Because the word 'art' appears in almost none of the election manifestos we have to choose from on 22 November. Only the VVD talks about 'art in depots'. It does talk about culture all the time. About whether we shouldn't once again start making a rock-hard distinction between art and culture,...
Dutch version Theatre Green Book in the works
The VPT (Vereniging voor Podiumtechnologie), VSCD (Vereniging van Schouwburg- en Concertgebouwirecties) and NAPK (Nederlandse Associatie voor Podiumkunsten) are joining forces to publish a Dutch version of the Theatre Green Book. The reference work is being used in more and more countries within Europe to structurally shape the achievement of sustainability goals. In our sector, too, the...
Remains the question after #Summerguests s23a3: What was that snippet killed from The Singing Detective?
Fascinating television, for sure. Cabaret artist Theo Maassen, who is emerging as an excellent interviewer in this Summer Guest year, went 'full Paxman' on Khadija Arib. Following in the footsteps of famous BBC Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, he pulled out all the stops to elicit a confession from the former Lower House Speaker. It didn't work, and at half past 12, after a very exciting hour of interview television, it stood...
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