Skip to content

ACTUAL

All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.

TASK FORCE WANTS TO OPEN IN TWO STEPS: 15 FEBRUARY AND 8 MARCH MAKE OR BREAK THE CORONA POLICY OF CABINET RUTTE IV 

While in most countries in Europe, cultural life is already well underway, Dutch audiences still have to wait for full-fledged programming of concerts, film and theatre performances, festivals and night culture. Great is the desire, gone is the mental stretch. The new cabinet presented a glimpse of its new strategy. But the most important thing of all is missing: a... 

Kabinet versterkt aanpak seksueel grensoverschrijdend gedrag en seksueel geweld met regeringscommissaris

Op voordracht van het kabinet wordt Mariëtte Hamer regeringscommissaris seksueel grensoverschrijdend gedrag en seksueel geweld. Verschillende incidenten in de afgelopen jaren leggen een breder vraagstuk bloot waarop actie vereist is. Met de nieuwe regeringscommissaris wil het kabinet meer doen aan bewustwording en een veilige cultuur, want intimidatie en misbruik horen niet thuis in Nederland. Daarbij moet onder andere de cultuur… 

Publishers but also journalism on blast in show Newspaper

With the performance Krant, Dutch playwright Joeri Vos of De Veenfabriek aims to criticise the major Belgian newspaper operators in the Netherlands. But it also paints an unflattering picture of journalism. Vos, he revealed beforehand, has serious concerns about the independence of news supply. After all, Dutch dailies such as AD, Telegraaf, Volkskrant and NRC, as well as many... 

Task force: 'Emergency support must not lead to structural increase in reserves'

Today, the Cultural and Creative Sector Taskforce sent yet another letter in draft form to the ministry of OCW. In it, the assembled umbrella of all creative and cultural organisations reiterates its earlier criticism of the relaxation of coronagraph measures, which brings no relief to the cultural sector and nightlife in particular. Special attention is given to DJs and... 

Don't F*ck With Artemis: Aluin's revenge comedy offers solace in times of despair

In terms of religion, we are badly off with a single supreme and omniscient god who is also Love. Theologians and philosophers have therefore been earning a fat living for a couple of decades explaining all the misery in the world where God is only love. No. Then the classical Greeks. With them, free will ruled. Not... 

Club Gewalt shows depth but not feeling in 'Anthropocene the musical'

Sometimes I dream of a subsidy system where artists can actually carry out their wild plans all the way, to the extreme. Or, indeed, are obliged to do so. That, for example, if you make a musical, you actually have to put a live band on stage, and are not allowed to use a studio recording. And that you then have to pay money for that... 

Tessa Smeulers and Dana Kibbelaar form new management of Theatre Festival Boulevard  

The Supervisory Boards of Stichting Theaterfestival Boulevard and Stichting Bosse Nova announced on 1 February that Tessa Smeulers and Dana Kibbelaar will be appointed as director-directors of both foundations. They will succeed Peggy Olislaegers from 1 April, who, as interim director-director, was tasked with finding a new governance model for the festival, appropriate to its mission, environment,... 

Ozu, and 5 more reasons not to miss Shochiku 100 at Eye

Under the title Shochiku 100, Eye presents a magnificent programme in February that covers a century of films from one of Japan's most important studios. Here, previously unknown work, alongside titles by celebrated directors such as Masaki Kobayashi, Nagisa Oshima, Takeshi Kitano and especially Yasujiro Ozu. Four Ozu films, including Tokyo Story, go out simultaneously in movie theatres.

How did that foot get there? A raw and cruel, but also moving story by Claudio Morandini

Snow, Dog, Foot is the great title of the first book translated into Dutch by Claudio Morandini, published by Koppernik, a publisher specialising in literary gems. The novel, which was already published in Italy in 2015 and received rave reviews, is set in the region where the author lives, the Valle d'Aosta. Main character Andelmo Farandola... 

Logo of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science

Additional support for cultural and creative sector, especially for self-employed workers

Since 26 January, the doors of the cultural and creative sector have been open again, but with conditions. There are still strict restrictions on the number of people in a venue and a mandatory closing time at 10pm. That is why, on top of the previous support of €195.1 million for the period from 12 November, the cabinet is drawing an additional €56.5 million... 

Subject: Application for programme manager Culture & Social Domain

Dear Library South-Kennemerland, I would like to apply for the position 'Culture & Social Domain Programme Manager' that you published on the 'Cultural Vacancies' website. You see, I am a huge supporter of the idea that a library should associate itself with books as little as possible. After all, that's where the clouds of dust meet you. Of course, you also knew all along that a bookcase... 

Amsterdam Museum moves temporarily to Hermitage Amsterdam

3.5 years of permanent presentation, temporary exhibitions and programming The Amsterdam Museum will move to the Hermitage Amsterdam, where it will be open to the public from Saturday 5 March 2022. The Amsterdam Museum's current location, the former Civic Orphanage at Kalverstraat 92, will close due to a large-scale renovation. From March 2022 until 2025, the Amsterdam Museum will display... 

'Weeping people desperately sought family photos'. Franco Faggiani wrote a novel about the earthquakes in Italy

Houses, monuments, shops and streets were wiped off the map. Nearly three hundred people died under the rubble. Franco Faggiani (73) wrote a gripping book about the earthquake that hit central Italy five years ago: Sometimes I'd like to be the wind. Success Whenever possible, Franco Faggiani treks into the northern Italian mountains. Once again, he finds himself in the Piedmontese... 

Supervisors come to ministry with cry for help: 'What is gone once is hard to rebuild.'

'We are coming up with this heartfelt cry because we are genuinely concerned that the cultural sector is not overcoming the lockdowns of the past two years.'This is what the chairmen of the Supervisory Boards of a large number of cultural institutions write today in a letter to Ernst Kuipers, Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport, and Robbert Dijkgraaf and Gunay Uslu, Minister and State Secretary of... 

Entertainment industry turns vulnerable amateurs into serfs

By now, everyone with a modicum of fame in the Netherlands has participated in a show where secrecy is essential. This can range from the relatively innocuous concealment of the winner of De Slimste Mens to the extreme secrecy that is the subject of Wie Is De Mol (WIDM) and which ultimately leads to the strangulation contracts attached to talent shows like The... 

Taskforce: This is the opening and recovery plan the cultural sector needs 

Today, the Cultural and Creative Sector Taskforce presents its Opening and Recovery Plan to the cabinet and the House of Representatives. The aim is a predictable and careful corona approach for audiences, creators and cultural organisations. An approach where the policy reflex is no longer 'closing', but 'staying safely open'; an approach with prospects for recovery. In the plan, the Taskforce makes six proposals to... 

Many theatres became rich because of the pandemic. But their future is darker than ever.

Nobody understands yet why the theatres, museums and concert halls have to stay closed, while shops and contact professions are back in full swing. And rightly so: we all want a normal life again, going to the movies together, dancing at a cool concert, and strolling past art in a museum. We need relaxation. However, there is also a downside to this... 

The government is digging in where precisely cooperation with society is needed. 

I suspect that the decision to keep the museums, concert halls and theatres closed, while sports and Bijenkorf can open, was not born out of cultural hatred. A year ago, I would have doubted it. Now it is clear that those of you from the OMT do not actually want relief at all, but want to curb the biggest threat of civil disobedience. Sportsmen and middle-class people are more likely to throw... 

Cultural and creative sector taskforce: open up the cultural sector!

The Cultural and Creative Sector Taskforce calls on the government to adopt consistent policies across sectors and assumes that: - now that commercial flow-through venues (such as the Bijenkorf) are reopening, cultural flow-through venues such as museums, monuments and presentation institutions can also open their doors. - now that indoor sports are possible again, active arts and culture will also be possible again. This... 

Amsterdam Museum displays Golden Coach in open air despite lockdown

Today, King Willem-Alexander announced that the Golden Coach will not be used for the time being. However, the restored Golden Coach, which will remain in a glass enclosure in the courtyard of the Amsterdam Museum until 28 February after more than five years of restoration, will be on display again. Indeed, the Amsterdam Museum is opening the gates to its courtyards 

MESH GIVES LIGHT THANKS TO CHILDREN

The façade of the Maaspodium in Rotterdam will be colourfully lit with children's drawings for the next few weeks. In the idea of "theatre gives colour to life", children could submit colour plates over the past few weeks, which the theatre uses to drag its façade through the dark days and a lockdown. Business leader Bernadette Stokvis: "Children literally keep our stage alive". A lockdown during the... 

TASK FORCE: CABINET, OFFER CULTURE SECTOR A CLEAR PERSPECTIVE 

The virus may be unpredictable, but how we respond to it need not be. The Cultural and Creative Sector Taskforce calls on the government to quickly come up with a predictable government strategy aimed at different stages of the pandemic. Indicate at which corona signal values restrictive measures for the cultural sector come into effect or can be lifted. Link... 

Performing Arts Fund works to clean up grant jungle

It all goes into effect only in 2023, at the earliest, but the first gusts of fresh wind blowing through the Performing Arts Fund are stirring the treetops. Under new director Viktorien van Hulst, the Fund wants to put an end to the many subsidy schemes that in recent years, under the guise of 'customisation', have become a bureaucratic jungle... 

Legend David Bowie guarantees perpetual exploitation

In honour of David Bowie's 75th birthday on 8 January 2022, the long-awaited album "TOY" will be released on 6×10-inch vinyl, cassettes and a 3 CD set a day before. In fact, this previously unheard album is part of the Brilliant Adventure boxset, which fans have been able to buy for 150 euros since November 2021. Is this a long-awaited sign from the afterlife, or... 

This is why Culture Press exists - The most read stories of 2021.

These are the stories that stirred mouse arms and click fingers in 2021, and this is exactly the material from which Culture Press derives its raison d'être. It is the top ten most-read stories, in a year that saw over 250,000 page views. Fear and trembling in the culture sector: the dark side of the 'trickle down' Ingrid van Frankenhuyzen did... 

Small Cultural Membership
175 / 12 Months
For turnover less than 250,000 per year.
Posting press releases yourself
Cultural Membership
360 / Year
For cultural organisations
Posting press releases yourself
Collaboration
Private Membership
50 / Year
For natural persons and self-employed persons.
Exclusive archives
Own mastodon account on our instance
en_GBEnglish (UK)