Skip to content

ACTUAL

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

Many employers in culture may have to repay emergency NOW aid in full

Many employers (37 per cent) do not know that they have to apply for the final calculation of their NOW allowance themselves. In the cultural sector, it even threatens to go completely wrong. The UWV says it is still waiting for more than half of the applications for final calculations from the cultural sector. This is according to the implementing body's own research. One is worried there... 

Lower Germanic Limes third new Dutch world heritage site

The Netherlands has added three new historical world icons. Placement on the World Heritage List adds them to a selection of areas that are unique in the world. For the Netherlands, the Lower Germanic Limes - the former border of the Roman Empire -, the Colonies of Weldadigheid and the Dutch Waterline have been added to the list. During the meeting of the World Heritage Committee, which... 

'Minister bans art!' - How dangerous propaganda gets a chance in cucumber time

Up to and including the union, the message was shared: outgoing culture minister Ingrid van Engelshoven had allegedly gone overboard with her diversity policy and now wants to ban non-diverse art from universities. It was big in the Telegraaf and former cabaret artist Hans Teeuwen got a few hundred thousand likes with it on Instagram. Meanwhile, it has also reached the columns of Het Parool thanks to 'artist' 

The NUT delivers splendour with Never Work Again.

On the day that Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the world's Facebook, announced his launch to the 'Metaversum', in order to trounce his collegatechies Bezos, Musk and Branson, who had only had a little sniff of the Universe, I attended the performance 'Never work again' by the Nieuw Utrechts Toneel in Utrecht Leidsche Rijn. In these times of lockdown and... 

Nerd podcast #15 with Dick Zijp: 'Humour usually follows power, and is more effective in it than serious expressions.'

With his opinion piece in the Volkskrant, he drew the ire of such gein manufacturers as Bert Brussen and Hans Teeuwen. In no uncertain personal attacks, 'Suck My Dick Zijp' was accused of having a 'gender-neutral rotten head', which showed that 'woke' people had no humour. Reason for the woke nerds, Marijn Lems and I, aka the... 

Joint committee considers plans national museum of slavery history

A joint committee of the Amsterdam Arts Council and the Council for Culture will examine plans for a national museum of slavery history in Amsterdam in the coming months. Amsterdam's Municipal Executive and outgoing minister Van Engelshoven (OCW) have asked the advisory councils for a joint opinion. The advice, expected this autumn, will, among other things, address... 

Dear Hans Teeuwen, art has nothing to fear from boring men.

It is a great thing that there are comedians who keep a finger on the pulse of society. Hans Teeuwen, for instance, has once again made himself angry. He has joined the small chorus of (mostly) men who see the end of the world coming because of a rebuttal. That is the rebuttal that now comes via social media 

Utrecht literature festival ILFU opens ticket sales for festival week in late September, With Roxane Gay, Angie Thomas, Édouard Louis and Max Porter among others

Despite persistent corona uncertainty in the cultural sector, International Literature Festival Utrecht (ILFU) today announces a large part of its programme. The largest literary festival in the Netherlands will take place from 23 September to 2 October 2021 and will programme a host of international writers, poets, musicians and theatre-makers in TivoliVredenburg. On 25 September, the festival theme #WhyFictionMatters will include the French... 

Taking Stock examines Egypt's cultural scene

The exhibition Taking Stock shows the results of an artistic research project that took place from January to March 2020 in Cairo, Egypt. The project is a response to the closure of the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art. The closure prompted an examination of a series of events in central Cairo and Egypt's cultural scene. Taking Stock is... 

November Music 2021 receives international summit - November 5 to 14 in 's-Hertogenbosch

With the contemporary composers Kaija Saariaho and Rebecca Saunders, jazz pianists Brad Mehldau and Vijay Iyer, the groups Musikfabrik, The Gurdjeff Ensemble and Ensemble Modern and guitarist Julian Lage, festival November Music rolls out the red carpet for a great diversity of top international composers. There is also another Bosch Requiem, this time composed by Hawar Tawfiq and performed by philharmonie zuidnederland.... 

Judith Uyterlinde (World Editions) - Animation fits well with the artistic and fictional nature of our novels

As in the animation sector, the book trade is hugely diverse. Within the Netherlands, around 4,500(!) publishing houses operate. From cooking and baking to self-help, from fact to fiction, an awful lot is written and published in the Netherlands. But there is also a publisher, World Editions, which does operate from the Netherlands, but focuses on the English market. They translate existing... 

Ilay den Boer pushes boundary between theatre and journalism with 'Solomon's Judgement'

Je Maintiendrai. Holland's motto of arms ('Ik zal handhaven') adorns the beautiful hall of Utrecht's old Post Office, now Library. The motto also watched over the premiere of the performance 'Solomon's Judgement' with which Ilay den Boer now returns to the public. After all, he was not here for a while. He worked for just under a year at the IND, the Immigration and Naturalisation Service,... 

OFFICIAL 2021 DUTCH DRAMA JURY SELECTION IS KNOWN!

From Thursday 2 to Sunday 12 September 2021, the Netherlands Theatre Festival will show the best productions of the past theatre season. The Netherlands Theatre Jury, headed by jury president Hadassah de Boer, selected the eight best theatre productions of the moment. Today, the jury announced its selection. The full selection can be seen during the upcoming edition of the festival 

Nerd podcast 14: These two reviewers remarkably agree on Catholic theatre, the Holland Festival, ITA and the upcoming summer

We once started this series because we disagree horribly about some things, but in practice things turn out differently. In episode 14 of this fascinating series of insider conversations about theatre and whatnot, we talk about a few Holland Festival performances and look ahead to the festival summer. As it turns out, the... 

FUNERAL FOR STREET CULTURE - A Critical Celebration and Mourning of Counter Culture A group project by Metro54 and Rita Ouédraogo and hosted by Framer Framed

Over the past year, the global pandemic and reignited Black Lives Matter protests have had a huge impact on our daily reality. A Funeral for Street Culture seeks to explore and make visible the sense of loss and other consequences of these events within art and culture. The group project, curated and initiated by Metro54 and curator Rita Ouédraogo,... 

aniamtie animation31 interview siety boerhave

Siety Boerhave - Whether animation can be timeless and live action cannot is an interesting question

Motion design and animation are often used in the visualisation of a leader. Behind the scenes of television programmes, a lot of work goes unseen. We offer an insight into everything that makes a programme. This often starts with an idea that is developed into a concept. Television design Someone who is very good at developing these concepts is Siety 

Rijksmuseum puts names to our slavery past and the effect is stunning

It is very easy not to dwell on things. For instance, I learned at school that we sailed to the East to get nutmeg and pepper. Stuff that just rolled off the trees into the boats there and that we could sell very expensively here. Sugar, another thing. That came to us from plantations just like that,... 

Holland Festival celebrated the live arts in corona time

The 74th edition of the Holland Festival closed last weekend with the performances Transverse Orientation by Dimitris Papaioannou, Age of Rage by ITA-Ensemble and Pierrot Lunaire by Marlene Monteiro Freitas. The festival collaborated with two associate artists, Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and French-Austrian theatre maker Gisèle Vienne. Twenty-three companies played one hundred and eleven performances in twenty-five days. The festival presented seven world premieres and co-produced 11 international... 

Marjolijn Vencken new chair of supervisory board Culture+Enterprise

Marjolijn Vencken will become the new chair of the supervisory board of Cultuur+Ondernemen, the knowledge platform for entrepreneurship in the cultural sector, from 1 July. She succeeds Steven de Waal, who is stepping down from his chairmanship after the full eight-year term. Marjolijn Vencken has been a member of the supervisory board since 2015. An experienced public affairs adviser, she... 

Between Past and Future. Frank Scheffer films a fruitful meeting between East and West #HF21

Saturday 26 June at the Holland Festival, a special evening around two music films by Frank Scheffer: the documentary Inner Landscape and the opera film Si Fan. Supplemented by a short live performance by Chinese musician Wu Wei. This will present a musical journey from the seventh-century Tang Dynasty to contemporary electronic music. An evening with unexpected perspectives.

The bands were dead, but Kukangendai breathes life into everything. Be it inimitable. #HF21

Someone cried the other day that bands were dead. That in a world of digital convenience, loop apps and samples, there was no place left for boys and girls with a guitar, a rickety drum kit and possibly a piano. Last night, while real men were watching football, I sat in Amsterdam's BIM house watching a band. It made me overjoyed. Kukangendai, on... 

Ticket sales Theatre Festival Boulevard started today

Last week, Theatre Festival Boulevard announced the first performances as well as the theme 'Hack the horizon'. Today at noon, online ticket sales start for a large part of the programming. The programme is still under development and will be announced through online channels in the coming weeks. Fans can buy tickets for Jan Martens/GRIP, Nastaran Razawi Khorasani,... 

Charlotte Köhler Translation Prize for Lisa Thunnissen

The Charlotte Köhler Stipend 2021, an incentive grant for literary talent, was awarded to translator Lisa Thunnissen on Wednesday 16 June. In the Van Deysselhuis, she received a certificate and cheque worth €5,000. Lisa Thunnissen receives the stipend for her translations of the work of South American authors such as Eduardo Halfon, Aura Xilonen and Raúl Zurita. The jury,... 

A new layer of management is not going to solve Theatre Rotterdam's problems

Rotterdam and theatre, quite tricky. I should know, I was born there and it was a subject of several working groups during my Theatre Science studies in the 1980s. Since the last theatre reform, a merger where independent performers would work together to provide all the special theatre in Rotterdam, but... 

Bazart on Night of Poetry

The 38th Night of Poetry continues.

The Night is back! Last year, unfortunately, we had to skip because of untidy corona developments, but this year the 38th edition of the illustrious Night will still take place. For now, still in a modified form, as there is no green light to sit in a full house again on 2 October at the moment. During this 'limited edition' 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)