All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.
What does culture visit after corona look like? The topic came up regularly on this site in recent months. I myself wrote two personal contributions on it. Now that cultural institutions may almost reopen their doors, the crystal ball is giving way to reality. In my article on 'the promise of the empty hall', I noted a reluctance to...
An ode to grief. If pain is made into something superficial, can sadness still exist as a connection between people? Spread the sadness - a miss election of tears is an ode to sadness. A tear-jerking performance about shaping your own pain and appropriating someone else's. About how suffering affects your identity and sadness leads to...
Dutch pianist/composer Matteo Myderwyk will be artist in residence at TivoliVredenburg in June and July 2021. Over three weeks, he will play four different concerts in four different venues.* Matteo Myderwyk was trained as a classical pianist, but decided to throw off all musical rules and laws after the conservatory. His goal: to make music in the moment. That's how he ended up...
Five authors have a chance to win the 2021 Golden Noose, the award for the best suspense book. The nominees are: René Appel - Overschot (Ambo|Anthos) Bernice Berkleef - Bloedsteen (The House of Books) Toni Coppers - De moord op Arno Linter (Manteau) Hugo Luijten - Undercover. All or nothing (Lannoo) Saskia Noort - Bonus child (The House of Books) The five nominees...
'The book is a declaration of love to Niña, I dedicated it to her unborn child.' Writer Maartje Wortel (38) lived right by Amsterdam's Oosterpark until recently. Her friend and fellow writer Niña Weijers lived on the other side. For five years, they walked laps of the park together, sometimes several times a day. In The Groove, Carrot tells about...
Arts '92 means business. The umbrella of all umbrella organisations in the arts sector, which kept on poldering when everyone had long since gone into business for themselves, is angry. And rightly so. Enough has happened this week to break down the last shred of trust between the art world and the government. To the point where there was even note-busting over whether the opening up of sex work and...
Jeroen Bartelse is not only director of TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, the former director of the Council for Culture is also a prominent member of the Taskforce that lobbies for the cultural and creative sector to support culture in times of Corona. Marijn Lems and Wijbrand Schaap look back with him on the first corona year, summarised in...
The art of slowing down in times of pandemic. Aceleratio is an interdisciplinary performance installation that aims to confront online and offline audiences with struggle, freedom, courage and comfort, from the need to embody these times. Artistic directors Dayna Martinez Morales & Vincent Verburg are the initiators of Movement Expo Aceleratio. Ten experienced and very different performers in...
A devil child she was called, and that is how her parents treated her. Angélique van Deursen (51) was mistreated and abused for 25 years. It marked her for life, but did not completely destroy her. Although it would have been too close. Two fathers As a child, I felt I had two fathers. During the day, my father was an angry man, who...
Saturday 15 May 2021 marks exactly one year since Mayor Femke Halsema opened the Amsterdam Museum's digital exhibition Corona in de Stad. A digital exhibition about the effects of the corona virus on the city of Amsterdam and its inhabitants. To commemorate 1 year of Corona in the City, the Amsterdam Museum will be showing from 15...
Honourable members of the House of Representatives, It is with great concern that we look at the Temporary Test Act that will be voted on in your House on Tuesday 11 May. This new law means even more hurdles and restrictions for visiting culture. Restrictions that will be introduced but where the end date is not given. This new testing law could be a godsend for...
Those looking for a reasonably priced house to buy in Utrecht often come home with a cold shoulder. Prices of houses for sale are rising to record highs (in Utrecht by 9.4% in the past year) and houses are more often sold far above the asking price. Tenants are also having a lot of trouble finding affordable housing, facing usurious rents, shadowy contracts and...
Under the title 'The Dutch thriller awards 2021', the four most important thriller awards (Gouden Strop, Hebban Thrillerprijs, Schaduwprijs and Zilveren Strop) will be presented from the Utrecht Library on Saturday 5 June. The ceremony will mark the start of 'The Week of the Exciting Book', which begins on Monday 7 June. With 'The Dutch thriller awards 2021', the Utrecht Library, readers' platform Hebban.nl and the...
Today, both Koninklijke Horeca Nederland and the Cultural and Creative Sector Taskforce announced that testing to enter somewhere is controversial as far as they are concerned. The Taskforce wants to enforce testing for entry only in extreme cases, and not for cultural attractions that are already demonstrably safe. In fact, the hospitality industry finds testing completely unmentionable,...
It was Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven of OC&W who, under pressure from the unions, called for the Fair Practice Code in the cultural sector. One of its components is fair and market-based payment of artists. And what is the first thing that happens, now that society opens up somewhat during the Fieldlab Events? The artists are doing this for free, pro...
Distributor Cinéart, which specialises mainly in European arthouse, presents the Directors' Collection. New and old work by leading film authors.
From 5 May, the XL vaccination venue at the Jaarbeurs Utrecht will be brightened up several times a week by performances by Utrecht music ensembles. Utrecht has a very diverse musical life that is eager to serve the city. The Netherlands Bach Society kicks off on Wednesday 5 May. Utrechters receiving vaccinations must wait 15 minutes after the jab. GGD region of Utrecht...
'Why I commemorate? Because I am so afraid of what might happen if we forget.' I said this to my iPhone a few weeks ago, relatively happily, on my easy chair in the sun in the backyard. I had a glass of white wine in reach and I was enjoying the suburban spring - a white, content...
Dutch museums, partly due to the recent digital Museum Week, have been able to retain a large part of their audience. There is - reports the Museum Association on its website - a slight turnover though. And the hitherto loyal public will not find their way to museums automatically and to the same extent. But the picture is that the...
Many avid readers will dream of their favourite author sitting at their table one day, talking about her work. Perhaps just as many avid readers will take their dream author on a stroll, want to drink lamb on a café terrace or take them to a darkroom. Or to a classical concert at the Concertgebouw. All can be done. Some will even just...
TivoliVredenburg is a building like a festival. countless stages, bars, a café and a restaurant, hundreds of people at work, thousands inside on a night. I always came there too little. But when I did get there, it was a party. A building run by and attended by super-motivated people with only one goal: as much music as possible for as many people as possible. Until...
Recently, US geopolitician Joseph Nye1 drew attention once again to the fact that transnational culture is one of the great forces of the European project. For those looking at the European Union from the outside, this common culture is evident, but we, citizens of the Union, are less and less aware of it. Moreover, we tend to...
In the coming weeks, you can enjoy the following livestreams at Concordia: Storyteller, Shaffy, Next Generation, Most Beautiful Songs and Cameretten finalists. More information about the performances below. BOI AKIH - Storyteller Theatre programmer Ellen saw this band at Podium Witteman a while back and thought it was so cool that she immediately booked them. Especially for this evening, there will be a...
'We think we can think diversely, but ultimately there has to be an exchange in that thinking. Then you also have to let other perspectives come in. So you don't have to come up with it all by yourself.' Samora Bergtop has views on theatre criticism and how it could come out of its white bubble. Marijn lems and yours truly enter the conversation
A night walk where, for once, it is not about talking to each other, or exercising the muscles, but about being very aware of where you are. Mindfulness as a theatre experience, then, and if all the coronagraph remains against us, the only part of the Holland Festival that can go on live because of sufficient distance and outside. It needs to be that bad...
English (UK) 
Nederlands 
Français
You must be logged in to post a comment.