Skip to content

ACTUAL

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

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... 

Nerd podcast on Marijn Lems's (NRC) annual list: Mental trauma and struggling with loss and grief.

Marijn Lems has a hobby that coincides nicely with his work as a reviewer for NRC Handelsblad, Theaterkrant and Cultuurpers. After all, he plays countless games, sees bizarre amounts of television series and also goes to the theatre more than many colleagues can afford. Every year, he creates a top list, which he posts on Facebook. Once it was the... 

Logo of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science

Vertegenwoordigers van de culturele sector en minister Van Engelshoven (Cultuur) spreken af zelfstandigen zoveel mogelijk door te betalen

Vandaag hebben demissionair minister Ingrid van Engelshoven van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, de Nederlandse Associatie voor Podiumkunsten (NAPK) en de Vereniging Vrije Theaterproducenten (VVTP) afgesproken met de middelen uit de steunpakketten zelfstandigen zo volledig mogelijk door te betalen. Dit is een opmaat naar bredere afspraken over de doorwerking van de specifieke steunpakketten binnen de gehele culturele sector, die de Taskforce… 

170 million added structurally. The cultural sector can breathe a sigh of relief. Our wish list

Rutte 4 says sorry to Rutte 1, 2 and 3. We cannot explain the new coalition agreement very differently. Almost all the crown jewels of 11 years of neoliberal policies have been abandoned. That the budget for the cultural and creative sector is now (including marginal repairs during Rutte 3) back to 2010 levels is almost unbelievable. That... 

Tony Kushner gives Spielberg's West Side Story a depth you will never tire of.

The opening images of West Side Story (2021) already tell a whole story. It is contained in a few frames. A billboard showing a grandiose new housing project. The camera glides past it almost casually as we glide over rubble of a New York slum, not with the characteristic fire escapes along the facade, as in the first film adaptation (1961) of this 1957 musical theatre piece,... 

Arts organisations, pay your own people decently!

A safety net scheme for freelancers in the cultural sector: fifty interest and industry organisations this week appealed once again to the cabinet and the Lower House for financial support for this large group. This concerns 70 per cent of so-called cultural workers, i.e. a majority who do not have permanent employment. Due to the just re-introduced evening closure of venues, they are seeing their income once again... 

Fear and trembling in the cultural sector: the dark side of the 'trickle down'

Pure panic and existential angst: that's the picture you get when you approach makers in the arts personally about the effects of trickle down (the trickle down of corona funding from the government to those makers). The Creative Coalition may be making a fist for them, talking to the minister about it, the institutes debating it, but the makers are silent.... 

PODCAST: Everything had to be different for Patricia Goduto

Patricia Goduto (37) was on stage in major Stage Entertainment shows early this century when an old childhood trauma played up and plunged her into a years-long psychosis. Her life changed irrevocably, she became addicted to drugs and alcohol and was declared incurable by her practitioners. Now she has been on stage for a few years, cured of her... 

The child without a father became a father without a child. Auke Hulst wrote a novel about mourning an unborn child

Het is misschien wel zijn meest ambitieuze roman tot nu toe, en tegelijk de eerste waarover hij eigenlijk liever niet wil praten. In De Mitsukoshi Troostbaby Company snijdt schrijver Auke Hulst (46) namelijk een gevoelig en persoonlijk thema aan: de rouw om een ongeboren kind. Nabije toekomst  De Mitsukoshi Troostbaby Company is een roman zoals alleen Auke Hulst die schrijft.… 

'Visual arts and the Dutch media' election

Met ingang van dit jaar peilt Jakunst in de vorm van een verkiezing de meningen van kunstenaars en kunstliefhebbers over de Nederlandse media, waar het de aandacht voor beeldende kunst betreft. Daarvoor vragen we jou om je mening kenbaar te maken door beantwoording van enkele vragen. Het meedoen kost je twee minuten of nog minder, want om mee te doen,… 

Podcast KunstZINnig #2: Hanne Hagenaars: 'Art has deepened and in a way saved my life.'

In the second episode of the podcast KunstZINnig, I talk to art curator and writer Hanne Hagenaars about how art gives meaning to her life: 'Art has deepened and, in a way, saved my life'. Hanne Hagenaars wrote the book 'No Cloud: How Art Saved My Life' in 2016. In this book, she discusses artworks that... 

During Ingrid van Engelshoven culture regained some respect from the Chamber. How next? #culture debate

He will not be thanked, the headline above this article. After all, if there is one thing you don't want, it is to give a minister of a Rutte cabinet a compliment. And certainly not one of culture, the sector that, under Rutte's 10-year premiership, suffered the heaviest blows in post-war history. Rutte is the... 

'My housemates teach me to feel and listen' Teun Toebes (22) lives in a nursing home to change the care of people with a faltering brain from within

Teun Toebes (22) deelt keuken, badkamer en wc niet met medestudenten maar met mensen met dementie. Hij schreef er een boek over: VerpleegThuis. Het boek kwam afgelopen week binnen op nummer 1 in de Bestseller 60. Tot zijn grote vreugde, want Toebes wil zoveel mogelijk mensen bereiken met zijn missie: de zorg voor mensen met een haperend brein veranderen. ‘Het… 

Pearl Diving with radio creator Stef Visjager - Pearl Radio is the Canon of the Lower Belgium podcast

We are approaching episode 200 of Pearl Radio, a series of audio material that matters. Face of the cultural podcast is independent radio maker Stefanie Visjager. Delving into listening archives, interviewing creators and carrying the audience along in calm storytelling voice are all part of her remit. Since the birth of the term podcast in a 2004 Guardian article, it has been running wild... 

Creative Sector Taskforce: 'Bite through precisely where the risks are highest!'

'If you introduce a lockdown, do it at places where many infections take place. In fact, due to careful compliance with the Corona Entrance Ticket (CTB) in theatres, concert halls, museums and cinemas, there are few infections there. So targeting that measure precisely at the cultural sector is going to make little difference. Bite through precisely where the risks are highest... 

The lesson to be learned from the sale of Primephonic - and what the Culture Council has to do with it

The Every (The Everything) is the name of a successful and widely loved company, the world's largest combination of a tech giant and a commercial giant. Dave Eggers describes this in his latest novel "The Every", follow-up to bestseller The Circle. On sale from mid-November 2021 at Amazons and Bol.Coms, but those who wanted it earlier could already... 

'I'm much happier than I was three years ago.' Singer Sam Bettens on his transition and new, 'revealing' music video

Friends call him brother. His children say daddy. One day he hopes to become a grandfather. Sam Bettens (49) was known worldwide as the lead singer of Belgian band K's Choice when he decided to transition. And now he walks the beach in swimming trunks: 'I never want to hide myself again.' Tomboy As a young girl, Sam Bettens was a tomboy and wore the... 

Nerd podcast S2A3: With Cees Debets (National Theatre) and Marijn Lems (NRC) on the uncertain times in theatres

The theatres are struggling to fill up, technicians have hung up their lights, but tickets are not on sale for Het Nationale Theater's Trojan Wars. So in this long-awaited Nerd podcast (the AVROTROS thinks the tune is really terrible), we talk to Cees Debets, the director of that great theatre company from The Hague. Marijn Lems also happens to have a few... 

Culture Council in advice: Smart approach to recovery and transition cultural system is now the trick

Het is aan de steunmaatregelen te danken dat de culturele sector niet ten onder is gegaan in de coronacrisis. Maar helaas is de pandemie nog niet voorbij. Er is tijd, geld en ruimte nodig om te voorkomen dat de cultuursector alsnog omvalt. Dat schrijft de Raad voor Cultuur aan demissionair minister Van Engelshoven (OCW). De raad wijst erop dat veel… 

Amsterdam Museum nominated for Friends Lottery Museum Prize 2021

Het Amsterdam Museum is genomineerd voor de VriendenLoterij Museumprijs 2021 en maakt kans op 100.000 euro voor de realisatie van zijn museumdroom: samen met bewoners en bezoekers van Amsterdam de stad van nu verzamelen. Naast het Amsterdam Museum (Amsterdam) zijn ook Museum Volkenkunde uit Leiden en Kasteel Hoensbroek uit Hoensbroek (Limburg) genomineerd. Het publiek kan tot 26 november 2021 stemmen… 

Diepenheim's theatre workshop undermined by 'rules and codes' And Corona.

There is turmoil in the world of circus and open-air theatre as a major workshop cum festival in the famous artist town of Diepenheim loses its director. Ruth Semmekrot, director of Kunsten op Straat Overijssel since 2013, suddenly resigned her post last Friday. In a statement on Facebook, she stated: 'I have struggled. The administrative and political dynamics I was in... 

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)