All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.
Paul McCartney had – zo blijkt uit Philip Normans biografie (2016) – als ondernemende muzikant een mooie extra inkomstenbron ontdekt: de muziekrechten van collega’s. Hij kocht de rechten van anderen op en het geld stroomde binnen. Vriendschappelijk en naïef tipte hij Michael Jackson om hetzelfde te doen en jawel, tot zijn schrik waren enkele jaren later muziekrechten van The Beatles…
It could be because of the weather, or my mood, but 2022 was one of the best editions of Theatre Festival Boulevard I have experienced in decades. From the interesting, and also a little disruptive opening to the final night, which I experienced yesterday, I saw guts, passion and pushed boundaries. Not everywhere all at once, but...
We take stock halfway through this edition of Theatre Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch. Host Wijbrand Schaap does so together with Dana Kibbelaar, since this year a member of the two-headed management (with Tessa Smeulers), writer and journalist Jowi Schmitz, dance critic Helen Westerik, and makers Oscar Kocken and Jellie Schippers. We talk about what is so special about...
For a while it looked like we had walked into a live version of The Square, but it was just the official opening performance of Theatre Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch. Now, that festival is miles away from the self-absorbed elitist art world that is rocked by a human gorilla act completely out of control in that Danish film, but uncomfortable was...
In the series In Perspective, Erik Akkermans looks back and ahead at developments in cultural policy and practice. Today: artists' interests. Above the children's circus The ground floor of the building on Passeerdersgracht in Amsterdam housed children's circus Elleboog. On the second floor were the chess federations: the national federation and Max Euwe's international federation FIDE, which you could sometimes see in person....
This summer, the ILFU Storytelling Competition will be organised for the third time. The Netherlands' only interdisciplinary storytelling competition is open to stories in all forms. Prose, films, poetry, photography, non-fiction, columns, comics, spoken word, music or TikToks: all stories are welcome. Because at ILFU, we believe good stories can be told in all kinds of ways. There are five categories to enter in...
Happy faces, a reunion with old friends, water, cake and a magical moment that closed the day with a golden edge. On Wednesday, the Stadslab on the Indiëterrein in Almelo was the stage for the press presentation of the theatre performance Van Katoen en Water. The headline is off. Wednesday saw the kick-off of a unique city musical that will bring Almelo and the surrounding area...
For her first solo exhibition in the Netherlands, Peruvian artist Andrea Canepa (Lima, 1980) has de Appel's Aula space at her disposal as the venue for her ongoing investigation into the organisation of the physical and social structures, or organisational systems, that shape our daily lives. Canepa shows that although the spatial and architectural parameters of these organisational systems may seem clearly marked,...
'We are used to thinking in extremes. It is still the only way to be heard. Loud action is the only thing that matters anymore, it seems. Therefore, we have to be careful to remain curious about where that action comes from, what desire there is. That personal attention is needed, to crawl under that actionism
Let's start yesterday with a fundamental dialogue with the entire arts sector, using the vitality and creativity of the arts as inspiration, both for the sector itself and for society as a whole. Our sector talking, thinking, participating, deciding! in good times and in bad times. Never be silent again ...
A dance concert with a standing audience promises to be something new. Because how often does it happen that in the audience, whipped up by music and dance, you have to sit on your hands. This sounds like the outcome! We get to watch and move ourselves to Krautrock, mixed with trance-like repetitive parts. Lisbeth Gruwez and Maarten van Cauwenberghe invite us...
Amare hosted for the first time the final performances of one of the new residents of The Hague's cultural colossus: the dance department of the Royal Conservatoire. What stands out. The pandemic over Last year, in the old conservatory, a maximum of 50 visitors could attend the final performance, with mouth caps on and with two chairs away from each other. The new dance theatre in Amare...
On 10 July 2022, the four nominees for this prize were announced for the BNG Bank Circus Prize 2022. From 32 graduation acts from the two Dutch higher vocational circus schools, the jury selected four that have a chance of winning the €5,000 prize. The nominees are; - Fenja Barteldres (Codarts) with her cyr wheel act 'Cyrrealism' - Harvey Cobb (Codarts) with his object manipulation act 'Something about Pink'...
Shabnam and Theatre Group Aluin meet as part of her directing internship for the performance I Say Sorry. Aluin considers it important to give young people with an interest in text theatre the opportunity to develop as autonomous creators. Being able to create alongside your writing can be a great added value. This residency gives Shabnam...
3 to 13 November in 's-Hertogenbosch Never before have so many new works been heard as during the upcoming edition of festival November Music. With no fewer than 50 premieres by makers and performers from home and abroad, 21 composition commissions and more than 100 different concerts, the 30th edition of November Music shows how diverse and vital the latest music is. November Music...
Expectations are high for Stations, the latest work by dancer and choreographer Louise Lecavalier. She has been a household name in the dance world for decades, first as dancer and muse of Edouard Lockes La La La Human Steps, and since 2006 with her own Fou Glorieux. Her intensity and athletic abilities are impressive, she terrifies the limits of her body. Also.
Nice scoop from the Noord Hollands Dagblad today. Rick Engelkes, the perpetually wobbly soap opera actor who learnt the trade as a successful producer at Joop van den Ende, devised a musical that was never performed because of coronasteun. It earned him millions. Read the story here. Tl;dr: Engelkes announced in 2020 that he was working on a musical to...
There has been quite a lot going on around Rotterdam's Arts and Culture Council recently. For instance, based on a ramshackle investigation, to say the least, the alderman had rather bluntly decided to abolish the independent advisory body. It is too self-serving for his officials. His decision was debated at length at a City Council meeting in late June. Redundant debate...
Seven new, very different animated films coming to cinemas this summer showcase the richness and power of this genre.
It was announced today that the great theatre innovator Peter Brook has died. He was 97 years old. In those years, he became one of the world's most influential directors and theatre innovators. He sought world-wide stories and told them through actors who were as diverse as the stories he told. I visited his theatre a few times,...
"Miss, please give me the minister!". Henk Vonhoff's voice sounded as commanding as it was eloquent as he addressed his secretary over the intercom. Vonhoff was commissioner of the Queen in Groningen, but also chairman of the supervisory committee of the Groningen State University of Applied Sciences, the only college still directly under the minister. We, faculty directors, were at... for the umpteenth time.
4 million Dutch people have a brain disorder. The Brain Foundation comes up with that figure in a campaign to make people more aware of the consequences of brain injury. Often that injury leads to extreme sensitivity to stimuli. Then loud noise, bright light or sharp smell is suddenly a big problem. People affected by these can find it difficult to go outside. That is why ...
When he was appointed chairman of Rotterdam's Arts and Culture Council in December 2021, nothing seemed wrong. But less than six months later, he is virtually on the street now that Arts alderman Said Kasmi (D66) has decided to disband the Rotterdam advisory council. After 17 years. Gonçalves is baffled, certainly...
Cross-border behaviour in the culture and media sector is a persistent and urgent problem that cannot be solved easily. The rising number of reports in recent times shows only the tip of the iceberg. So says the advisory report 'Across the border, towards a shared culture', which the Council for Culture today presented to state secretary Gunay...
If humanity goes extinct, there has been a woman somewhere who was the last not to have a child. To whom does that honour belong? At the Holland Festival, an ensemble of 12 performers now perform a requiem for that last non-mother. Actress and singer Joy Wielkens is the extraordinarily disarming high priestess in this at times quite heavy evening, in which the end of...
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