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Vincent Wijlhuizen is working on a coronaproof What You See Festival: 'a very large group of people are now much less visible.' 

Immediately after the lockdown was declared in March 2020, Vincent Wijlhuizen, co-founder (along with Annette van Zwol and Ieme Soes) and director of the What you See Festival, set to work to come up with alternatives for the festival, which takes place in the autumn. 'We made several plans. We already had an ordinary plan, which went to all the funds... 

National Theatre plays on simply brilliantly

Thank God the theatres are reopening to more audiences and The National Theatre is still playing for a while, for instance with the infectious Every Brilliant Thing with Tamar van den Dop or Bram Suijker. At the Theater aan het Spui on Wednesday 1 July, Tamar van den Dop in the afternoon and Bram Suijker in the evening played their first Every Brilliant Thing. It is,... 

Cultural big earners: jump through your karma for once

My story about cultural big earners turned out to be the talk of the town in the cultural sector. Not publicly, i.e. mainly behind the scenes, I was approached. One of the few people who did speak out publicly was Henk Scholten. On Facebook, he responded to a column by journalist Aukje van Roessel about the questions raised by The Hague city council 

Eurosonic/Noorderslag and Scapino possibly saved. But at the expense of new art acquisitions. #tkculture

Creativity expresses itself in Dutch politics mainly in bookkeeping. On 29 June, just before the start of the three-month summer recess, the Lower House actually found money to save pop festival Noorderslag and dance company Scapino from collapse. That demise would become a reality in the new arts plan, which takes effect in 2021, as the Culture Council... 

The Lower House will only make the disaster for culture worse. (Unless it chooses to change.)

On Monday 29 June, the Lower House will discuss the advice of the Council for Culture. An advice that, as the Volkskrant rightly noted on Friday 26 June, receives much more criticism than previous advice. In doing so, the newspaper reaffirms what we already wrote down immediately after its release on 4 June: there is a total lack of transparency, a... 

With local rooting of subsidised art, you take the wind out of populism's sails

In recent days, tentative proposals for a new system to fund the arts in the Netherlands have appeared in various places. Tricky pieces, and so far not attesting to very much incisiveness. In Het Parool, a number of prominent figures, including Tinkebel and advertising man Kessels, think that we should think less in pigeonholes, and that, besides quality, we should also... 

#Corona-classics 4 Hannes Minnaar: 'I rolled into the frame of classical-romantic piano virtuoso'

Hannes Minnaar falls head over heels. His #corona tour with Bach's Goldberg Variations starts on 1 July, exactly the day when the maximum number of concert visitors is released. - Provided 1.5 metres distance et cetera. Although the Grote Kerk in Zwolle can admit considerably more than 100 people, the concert is already completely sold out. Those lucky enough to get a... 

The House of Representatives has until Monday 29 June to save the culture (sector).

2.6 billion euros. It is a sum so large that it means nothing to anyone. It is less than the tax support KLM gets, though. Today Kunsten 92, the arts-wide lobbying organisation, in an unprecedented collaboration with all interest groups and industry associations, brought out that that 2.6 billion is the damage to the arts sector caused by the restrictive measures.... 

'Living with others is hard.' French writer Leïla Slimani on identity, roots and the feeling of not belonging anywhere

Following the publication of social science books such as In the Garden of the Beast, Sex and Lies and the Prix Goncourt-winning novel A Soft Hand, French-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani (39) has become an important voice in French literature in recent years. She was appointed ambassador of French language and culture by President Macron and by the... 

Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón (55) has died. 'I put a lot of pressure on myself.'

With the million-seller The Shadow of the Wind, the first part of the four-part The Graveyard of Forgotten Books, Carlos Ruiz Zafón established his name as a writer in one fell swoop. His novel The Labyrinth of Spirits, published in late 2017, was the culmination of a year-long showdown with himself. Not long after, he fell ill; in early 2018, Zafón was told that... 

#metoo and me

In the Theatererkrant, 445 theatre makers posted an open letter addressed to Toneelgroep Oostpool, calling on creators and players to stop being afraid and report abuses to https://mores.online/. Summary of the foregoing: there were several complaints of sexual harassment by Oostpool's artistic director Marcus Azzini. An investigation ensued and Azzini... 

Improper governance? Looks like it. Holland Festival expresses justified anger at Culture Council's arbitrariness (edited to make criticism of Oerol and lobby insightful)

The Council for Culture acted contrary to all policy agreements, its own advice and rules when it reduced the subsidy for the Holland Festival by over five hundred thousand euros. The Holland Festival, which is in serious trouble as a result, is now expressing its anger in a letter that went to the Lower House today. The organisation even speaks of "improper administration": a... 

'Only now do I have a fairly comforting life.' Frank conversation with Hans Dorrestijn

Cabaret artist Hans Dorrestijn is known as a gloom and professional grumbler. But in recent years, Holland's blackest joker has less and less to complain about: he has had great success with his nature books and his cabaret shows, and won several awards. This week he turns 80, but he does not want to stop - his new book Wensvogels has just been published. In nine candid questions 

Sound designer Richard Jansen created a very special soundtrack for hallucinatory German Three Sisters

'We did get quite a kick out of spectators at the beginning: "How dare you treat the actors like that? First you put a mask on them, then you steal their voices and make them playback!'' Richard Jansen couldn't care less. He is part of the creative team as sound designer 

Love & Revenge aims to reshape the Arab world

You take film classics like Dracula and Star Wars, track down their Arabic remakes, and edit these fragments on a live soundtrack that fuses Arabic pop history with electronic music of today. This, in short, is the recipe of the dynamic collaboration between musician Rayes Bek and video artist Randa Mirza, better known as Love & Revenge. With their compelling show,... 

Holland Festival opens online with Memories of my body. About the body as a battlefield

In the pre-corona world, Garin Nugroho would open the Holland Festival with his performance The Planet - A Lament. It would no doubt have been as impressive an experience as his Setan Jawa staged in 2017. We would be enchanted by his dancers and purified by the story. In the stripped-down online version of the Holland... 

Oui-Ja-Yes for more Games on stages. Before and-especially now-after the stage.

What is the similarity between recorder player Lucie Horsch, pianist Nynke Eekhof, oboist Dorine Schoon, singer Tim Akkerman, this Music Storyteller and many others. What binds them apart from the music? They open their mouths. Give an insight into life behind the scenes. By speaking out in newspapers (Eekhof and Akkerman), on platforms, within organisations and via blogs... 

When art is offered at such a high level, you can also expect value to be placed on it.

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who made it possible for me to receive the Dutch Music Prize here today. Not only all the people who have helped me during the years of my trajectory and given me so much inspiration and motivation, but also everyone who has supported me from an early age in my... 

Culture is good for nothing

On 4 June, the Council for Culture issued its opinion on the subsidy applications of cultural institutions in the so-called basic infrastructure. The Council for Culture is the legal advisory body of the government and parliament in the field of art, culture and media. The Council advises on current policy issues and subsidy applications, solicited and unsolicited. It is very worthwhile www.raadvoorcultuur.nl af... 

The BIS is dead, long live the Puppets

Let's just start with the good news: De Staat is a regular fixture in the Netherlands from now on. And so we are talking about the band De Staat. Who make fantastic music videos these days. They have been promoted from a four-year grant with the Performing Arts Fund to a four-year grant according to the Cultural Basic Infrastructure (BIS). With 55 other newcomers. All weighed... 

The advice is here. What will happen in Dutch subsidised culture over the next four years?

This is the recording of the presentation: And here is the full text of the press release. Explanation follows, but we will read first. More room for innovation and culture outside the Randstad provinces 04-06-2020 | 14:00 | The Hague The Council for Culture advises giving more institutions with innovative cultural offerings and institutions from outside the Randstad provinces the chance to be on... 

'I want to leave my children something substantial'. The eventful life of creative jack-of-all-trades Marc de Hond (1977-2020)

It still came as a shock, the sad news that comedian, presenter and theatre-maker Marc de Hond died yesterday. Around the beginning of corona, we were still in touch briefly about his theatre tour Voortrijdend inzicht, which he made as a legacy for his children. How unfortunate it was that most of the performances now had to be postponed indefinitely. His health situation... 

The Q of figurehead and bassist

I have always found the Q to be a nice fresh thing. Now unfortunately I am not a synesthete, but my imagination tells me today that the Q feels cheeky. Sounds nice and succinct. The Q qlaps into my qeel and is punchy blue. Or shiny. Not ordi, but tough. Of shiny metallic seventies leather. The Q in a catsuit. Supple now plays... 

One-half meter art is an economic disaster. But it is also a godsend. Turn it into a lottery.

As a professional art visitor, I rarely find myself in empty halls. Premieres are always full, so are press viewings and vernissages. Full is of course really cool. Although those full rooms I am in then usually cost more money than they bring in, because the tickets are free and the drinks on the house. Outside the premiere, but especially outside the premiere city, the... 

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