All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.
Culture and Media State Secretary Gunay Uslu today presented her recovery plan for the cultural sector. Recovery, renewal and growth are central. This year, it involves €135 million structurally and then rises to an extra €170 million a year for culture. The future of the cultural and creative field has been under great pressure due to the corona crisis and is...
It is obviously good news: the German federal culture minister is increasing the budget for culture by 148 million euros to 2.3 billion. At a time when cultural funding, especially in the 'developed West', has been steadily declining (since 2010), such an increase is of course wonderful. For the Dutch, who point out with some regularity how well the arts are doing in Germany: per head of...
KAZAL - Narrating Haitian Memories is a photo project that traces the memories of François Duvalier's dictatorship in Haiti by looking at the history of Kazal. This village north of Port-au-Prince, is the site of a traumatic event in the country's contemporary history that has been erased from official history: the Kazal massacre....
Asko|Schönberg premieres Mary Finsterer's new opera at the Holland Festival. Antarctica takes us into the mysterious world of the southern continent. A multidisciplinary performance in which the Australian composer links historical, mythical and scientific images and stories about Antarctica. In doing so, she uses an enchanting combination of musical elements from old and new styles....
Een harde, maar ook gevoelige roman is Als een steen in de stroom van Mauro Corona (72), en een weerspiegeling van hemzelf. De Italiaanse schrijver en beeldend kunstenaar wordt in het dagelijks steeds meer als de egel uit zijn boek, die uiteindelijk al zijn stekels laat vallen. ‘Ik probeer de zachtheid die ergens vanbinnen verstopt zit, meer naar buiten te…
On 18 May this year, the Volkskrant carried a scoop about strikes and dropouts among technical staff at the country's largest company: ITA. In Trouw on the same day, the united theatre directors (VSCD) sounded the alarm about the lack of technicians. It is even so bad "that performances have to be cancelled". Two reasons in particular are cited: technicians have...
From now on, can we agree to replace all DJs with real drummers? I mean, what I witnessed at the premiere of Eros, Schweigman&'s latest project, was so overwhelming that I can't imagine I've ever gone out of my mind on a drum machine. Two living drummers, splashing and at the same time individually starring at the...
On Monday 16 May, the Safe on the Floor conference took place at Amare (The Hague). This conference was organised to address transgressive behaviour in the workplace in the cultural sector and discuss how to tackle it. The conference was opened by state secretary of culture and media Gunay Uslu. During the opening, NAPK board member Ernestine Comvalius presented...
In Flanders, or rather in its cultural capital, Antwerp, the theatre sector is faltering. The Toneelhuis, founded in the late 1990s as a merger between the legendary Blauwe Maandag Compagnie and city company KNS, is in crisis after the departure of Guy Cassiers. It is now losing more than half of its subsidy after a scathing opinion. The Flemish government is stopping...
'For me, the world of Wotan equals the world of Putin.' Christopher Ruping, director of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen to be shown in Amsterdam in June, makes no bones about it: 'Siegfried [central character of Wagner's monster production, ws] is a very problematic character. He kills the dragon without asking questions. We give the dragon...
Bosch Parade 2022 is the 9th edition of this extraordinary art event on water with Hieronymus Bosch as its inspiration. This year's theme is 'seduction'. From 16 to 19 June, it promises to be another inspiring cruise of the incongruous through the historic centre of 's-Hertogenbosch, with nineteen quirky artworks in and on the water. For Bosch Parade...
Screen Daily bracht twee weken geleden al het nieuws dat het International Film Festival Rotterdam gaat herstructureren. Niet vreemd na twee corona-jaren: dat heeft er bij elk festival, bij elke culturele instelling, hard ingehakt. Zorgwekkend werd het toen de afgelopen dagen de sociale media vol stonden met berichten over massa-ontslagen bij het IFFR. Alle senior programmeurs zouden zijn ontslagen. Omdat…
Once upon a time, Ben Frost started out as a composer of laden ambient music. Not necessarily upbeat, more contemplative and just a little depressing of the kind that can be used to add some colour to a dip. Take the piece "You, Me and the End of Everything," which can be found on YouTube. Compared to the score of The Murder of Halit Yozgat,...
It attracted widespread media attention in late 2020. Putin opponent Alexei Navalny survived an assassination attempt with nerve poison, revealed the suspected perpetrators and ventured back to Moscow despite everything. In this documentary, we witness it up close.
In the week that already began dramatically with the deaths of Jan Rot and Arno Hintjens, Henny Vrienten has now joined musician heaven. Far too young at 73, but still 41 years older than he was in one of his most famous songs. A bit weird, but mostly very sad. One of the most sympathetic musicians...
In the best-read newsletter of cultural Netherlands (on average 60 per cent open and 12 per cent click links, where the national average for peers is 30 and 2 per cent respectively), I wrote recently that the news, that visits to theatres and museums have not yet returned to precorona levels, seemed to come as a surprise to some. I mentioned...
Nederland leerde de Frans-Senegalese auteur David Diop enkele jaren geleden kennen met zijn roman Meer dan een broer, een indrukwekkende vertelling over een stukje Frans-koloniale geschiedenis, die werd bekroond met onder meer de Europese Literatuurprijs en de International Booker Prize. Ook zijn goed ontvangen nieuwe roman, Reis zonder terugkeer, of de verborgen cahiers van Michel Adanson is een belangrijk boek…
How beautiful art for children can be when a real artist is involved. When themes like death, falling in love, loneliness and exclusion are made palpable in such a beautiful way that you step outside with a deeper feeling about life? With theatre-maker Moniek Merkx, you can. A year ago, she stepped down as artistic director of...
That you are suddenly back in 1996 at Black Snow, the television series in which actress Tamar van den Dop managed to hook an entire generation of viewers at the time. Since then, her raven-black curls have turned into a glittering cloud of silver, but those who go to see Het Nationale Theater's Leedvermaak trilogy suddenly see that young Tamar again. A miracle of talent in...
Babeth Fonchi Fothchind. Onthou die naam, want ze gaat groot worden, als ze het niet al was, maar dan buiten mijn zicht. Kan gebeuren, met al die bubbels en vinkjes waartussen we ons een weg door het leven banen. In juni 2022 komt haar debuutbundel uit, en dan kun je het zelf lezen. Ik zag haar op een dinsdagavond tijdens…
Opdat we nooit vergeten, dat Nederland ook hulp nodig had om vrij te worden. Ksenia trekt met haar theatershow ‘Zij zagen Oorlog’ door Nederland en speelt op bevrijdingsherdenkingen. Of op dagen dat een stad, dorp of buurtschap in 1945 bevrijd werd. Ze volgt het spoor van de bevrijders. In 75 minuten neemt Ksenia de toeschouwer mee naar de levens van…
ILFU lanceert 12 april een online platform voor fictie die reageert op de actualiteit. Fictie is volgens de initiatiefnemers minstens zo belangrijk om de wereld te begrijpen als de feiten die we horen in het nieuws. Het platform wil met bijdragen van schrijvers, denkers en dichters tegenwicht bieden aan de BN’ers, influencers en opiniemakers die de media domineren. Schrijvers als…
Now that the cultural sector can slowly but surely put the corona crisis and lockdowns behind it, it is time to look back. How have they done, the theatres, the clubs? Earlier, this site discussed the book TivoliVredenburg wrote about its first year (Off/On). Now it's time to look at how a theatre in 'the region' managed the...
Een super groot park, midden in de stad. Festival Circolo verhuist in oktober 2022 naar het Spoorpark in Tilburg. Met het festivalhart in het Spoorpark en diverse satellietlocaties in de binnenstad, is het tien dagen lang één groot circusfeest in Tilburg. Met deze verhuizing kiest Festival Circolo voor een plek midden in de stad. Het Spoorpark is het grootste burgerinitiatief van…
The Culture Council believes that there is now a unique opportunity to make the cultural and creative sector more agile and resilient, while at the same time creating space for the sector's recovery after corona. However, this requires a broad view of the cultural system as a whole and sufficient time to discuss this. The usual four-yearly...
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