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

World Broadcasting Archive next victim of cuts

Radio Netherlands World Broadcasting no longer exists. The subsidy was withdrawn because no one in the VVD knew what it was: shortwave. And because the PVV, which was also in government at the time, finds everything scary that contains the word 'world'. Bad for those who miss calls from the ANWB emergency centre at breakfast for the Alpenkreuzer, even worse for... 

Critics' Choice back at IFFR 2015 with new tools for the film critic

Film and film criticism. Image versus the word. But what happens when the critic starts using visual language too? Well, something like this, for example: Transformers: The Premake, by Kevin B. Lee. Romance or amour fou It seems so obvious in today's digital online world. Is the video essay an answer to the crisis, perceived or otherwise, in art criticism? Film critics... 

Carrots, potatoes and a dash of lard on Writers Unlimited

How do you get back home mentally after a war? David van Reybrouck in conversation with Stefan Hertmans and Ian Buruma Carrots, potatoes, maybe some celery and a dash of lard, this was the monotonous winter diet of the underclass in rural Flanders in the late nineteenth century. But, outlines professor and guest speaker Louise O. Fresco in her opening column, these days it is the... 

Super-sympathetic performance by Phillipe Quesne: Next Day

The children introduce themselves one by one. They build sets, make music and play scenes. A catastrophe is imminent. They speculate loosely: will it be a nuclear or biological attack, a plane or a missile, a tsunami or a bombing? In Next Day, shown last weekend at Theatre Frascati, they rehearse an attack by 'aliens'. That... 

In 2016, we will conquer Germany, if it is up to Bart Moeyaert

He had had a TED training. It couldn't be otherwise. Bart Moeyaert, poet, writer and multiple award winner, sometimes literally wriggled into numerous corners to warm up the Dutch literary guild to his plans for 2016. That year, for the first time in a long time, the Netherlands will host the Frankfurter Buchmesse again, the Art Basel of the literary world.... 

Kees 't Hart pontificates on literary Holland

'Do you not agree with me that many of you - like members of Roman Catholic curia - are already trying to make yourselves immortal and indispensable? That you are suffering from severe mental and spiritual petrification?' Kees 't Hart measured himself a papal role on Sunday 18 January, when delivering The State of Dutch Literature,... 

It wasn't about weltschmerz, but it didn't make the sauce any less

Rarely have I seen two female artists at a table more different from each other than Dominique Goblet and Leela Corman. Two female comic artists, on either side of Peter Breedveld who is flown in every year as a connoisseur of the comic genre at Writers Unlimited. Corman, a comic book artist as well as a dancer, writes her stories in a fairly recognisable style. Impressive stories, historically, like her latest... 

From world politics to the most intimate story: in search of what touches at Writers Unlimited '15

Writers Unlimited's Friday night kicked off with an Islam debate. In no uncertain terms, religious historian Karen Armstrong argued that Islam and jihad are not the same thing. There are only 41 jihads in the entire Quran, most of which are the peaceful struggle to help the poor when one is destitute oneself. But after the Paris attacks... 

Karl Ove Knausgard opens Writers Unlimited with strong appeal to individualism #wu15

"Everyone who writes will sooner or later run into a wall, a limit of what cannot, should not and should not be written. And almost everyone will flinch at that moment and refrain from writing it. Because that wall is there to protect us from what we don't want." Karl Ove Knausgård, already compared by some to Marcel Proust,... 

And the 2014 Dance Photo nominees are...

The Official Nominations for the first Dance Photo of the Year election have been announced. From 43 entries, Hans van Manen (choreographer) and Thomas Cott (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater) compiled a top six. We couldn't think of a better jury for a preselection. Now we are curious to hear your vote. The Dance Photo of the Year election puts dance photographers and their work in the spotlight. Because. 

Masha Bijlsma’s come-back verandert Zeister Bovenkamer in zwoele jazz-club

Een bovenzaaltje op een verlaten bedrijventerrein wordt een knusse jazzclub, een meisje van 43 uit de Achterhoek wordt een zwarte jazzdiva en haar band maakt een comeback na het verscheiden van de muzikaal leider. Bij Masha Bijlsma zijn de wonderen de wereld nog niet uit. Muziek kan de tijd doen stil staan. Dat gebeurt héél soms maar; ik maak het… 

Vote now! Nominations Dance Audience Award 2014 announced

The Official Nominations for the 2014 Dance Audience Award have been announced. Check out the 10 favourite dance performances and 10 favourite dancers of 2014. You can also vote for them. Varied entries For the Dance Audience Award, nearly 800 dance performance visitors sent in nominations of no fewer than 105 dancers and 65 dance performances. From Igone de Jongh of the Dutch National Ballet to the young Carlos Puts in... 

De scene die filmgeschiedenis schreef

Vanochtend is Anita Ekberg gestorven in een ziekenhuis in Italië. Ze is 83 jaar geworden. Maar voor ons is ze eigenlijk altijd 28 gebleven en stond ze eeuwig in de Trevifontein. Ekberg begon haar carriëre als Miss Zweden en is gewapend met die titel naar de VS vertrokken. Daar heeft ze een aantal kleine filmrollen gespeeld waarin ze voornamelijk mooi… 

DUS is now called Theatre Utrecht. Not to be confused with Stadsschouwburg Utrecht

Toneelgroep Centrum, Utrechtse Theater Inititatieven, Jeugdtheaterplatform Utrecht, Theaterplatform Utrecht, De Paardenkathedraal, De Nieuwe Paardenkathedraal, De Utrechtse Spelen. The ostentatious names for Utrecht theatre companies had run out of steam over the past 30 years. Not entirely unexpected, then, that the city theatre company of the Netherlands' fourth city opts for sobriety and clarity. Since Sunday 11 January, 5pm, De Utrechtse Spelen has been called... 

City marketing makes a city of the Netherlands

They were always a bit of the drain of marketing land: city promotion people or city marketers. Especially arts and culture marketers would rather see them go than come, as it only costs them money. So nice idea of Culture Press partner ACMC to bring them together for once. After all, Citymarketing now has the wind in its sails. City promotion is hot, and has discovered where its strength lies: outside the... 

Another black day for independent journalism

After the brutal attack on the staff of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris yesterday, journalists, cartoonists, politicians and the general public rallied worldwide to defend the freedom of speech. Many a front page of today’s newspapers showed the cartoons for which chief editor Charb (Stéphane Charbonnier) and 11 other were brutally murdered by Said and Cherif Kouachi,… 

Zwarte dag voor onafhankelijke journalistiek

Ik ben in shock: twaalf doden bij gruwelijke aanslag op Frans satirisch tijdschrift Charlie Hebdo. – Vlak voor de aanslag twitterde het zijn nieuwste cartoon: een spotprent waarop de leider van IS een nieuwjaarswens uitspreekt. Humor verbindt, humor verbroedert, humor helpt taboes doorbreken, humor relativeert pijnlijke levensthema’s…. Althans, dat heb ik mijn leven lang gedacht, tot in 2005 mijn wereldbeeld kantelde.… 

Gooische Vrouwen beat Hobbit. Cinematic year 2014, eerily stable, with five caveats

Stable, stable, stable. That refrain sounded again and again at the announcement of the cinema industry's annual figures at the New Year meeting in Tuschinski. Hajo Binsbergen, vice-chairman of the Netherlands Association of Film Distributors, informed that in 2014, with the high number of 30.8 million visitors, the passage to the cinema was almost the same as 2013. The Dutch market share was with again... 

Bicycle shed gives way to redundant office of The Symphony Orchestra

650,000 euros. The municipality of Enschede is prepared to lend that amount to HET Symfonieorkest. Not for a special cultural project in the city, no, for a renovation. Not surprising, since municipalities, after all, prefer to invest in bricks and mortar rather than culture. But in this case, we are talking about very special bricks. According to director Harm Mannak, the barely used bicycle shed needs to be converted into a... 

Copyright: Erik Bindervoet

The five theatrical performances you want to see in January 2015, and you already have to head back to the province

After the annual lists, the recommendations for the new year. All dailies participate in it. Problem: much is not yet known. Festivals and companies present their programmes sometime in February, March. So we cannot yet give the tips for the whole of 2015. But we do have the tips for the coming month, in chronological order, because ranking performances we still have to... 

2015 is not left: 5 reasons why art is becoming more exclusive

Art ends its 70th anniversary as a 'Leftist Hobby' in 2015. There is not much more to predict for this year. Art goes back to the bourgeois status it held since the start of the industrial revolution. 1: Art was never left Art, of course, has never been 'left'. Subsidy may have come from the thinking tubes of social and Christian democrats, but art an sich... 

Lesson 1 for 2015: don't make your annual lists too early

Last weekend, we thought we were on the safe side with our list of best-read stories on Culture Press. True to old media laws, we thought the days between Christmas and New Year's would be quiet. Aber nein. It turned out there was another list on the way, which turned the whole thing upside down. Instead of 235 thousand interested readers... 

NTR Podium

Not just Kunststof TV, NTR Podium is also ending. Long live Podium Witteman.

NTR Podium: the television programme about music and dance, is calling it quits. Tonight is the last broadcast with the Harmonium by John Adams by the Residentie Orkest. In 2015, NTR Podium gives way to the new Podium Witteman. This will be mainly about classical music and jazz.

10 viral stories from Culture Press for 235,000 real readers

Always start with the good news. The Information Department of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science did a very good job in 2014. They sent one jubilant press release after another into the world. While there was actually hardly any good news to report. About culture. But because there are a lot of lazy journalists, good news often goes in a... 

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