All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.
Culture debate 2013: Rutte and PVV shake hands. It was about Caro Emerald. About Zwarte Piet. And the classic: subsidy on opera tickets. And briefly about carnival. And it made all the news. Geenstijl. Radio 1,2,3 and 4. What else was the debate about? Um... no idea.
We kept a liveblog. Nice and old-fashioned, from the days when every month there was uproar somewhere about the government's handling of art. Now there is peace in the tent, as the PVV sardonically points out, because 'The Left' is now the bearer of policies devised by the PVV. The PVV predicts a black future for 'The Left' once the PVV comes to power.
Protests abound again tonight at a concert conducted by Valery Gergiev, this time at London's Barbican. Many of the protesters are demanding that the orchestra emphatically distance itself from the Russian star conductor and speak out openly against gay legislation in Russia.
Even before she graduated from mime school, Boukje Schweigman swore off language. She worked out a wordless philosophy in her performances. She seeks the mystery of life. However vast and elusive her starting points may be, her performances give the audience the most direct, immediate, skin-tight sensation imaginable in a theatre.
Jet Bussemaker is satisfied. For the next few years, there will be little whining about the subsidies under her regime. She states this in her letter this weekend. After all, the basis of the system is fixed: there are great museums, symphony orchestras, opera and theatre clubs whose subsidies are cast in concrete. Or rather carved from classical marble, because money gets you
A reduction in the ww premium spend on a scheme to keep more people in work is not going ahead because more and more people are becoming unemployed, forcing the premium up. See here the positive effect of austerity by the government. The less you spend, the deeper the problems, the less you can spend, the worse it gets, the less you can spend. And the arts may again be the first to make that clear.
"Children are the best judges of what makes a good children's film," a member of the Cinekid children's jury spoke confidently. There may be room for improvement on that, but the fact is that at the awards ceremony on the festive closing night of the Cinekid festival, there was remarkable agreement with the adult jury.
Not only did both juries nominate the same film twice
We had still so decided not to say anything about the Black Peters Discussion. But still. Whoever is right, and whatever has been said, written and fantasised about it historically, we now have images. In those images, from 1935, we see Sinterklaas (a starring role by the famous actor and director Eduard Verkade) (thanks Peter van Bokhorst for the info), surrounded by men in some kind of noble costume, on horseback. We thought for a moment
It would have been so nice: The National Ballet together with The National Opera at The National Theatre, like you have in the capital of any self-respecting country. But so that didn't happen. The home of our National Opera and Ballet clubs is now called 'Nationale Opera en Ballet'. The National Theatre made sure of that, which, like the Nederlands Dans Theater, is not in our capital Amsterdam, but in its residence in The Hague.
Those who think the library's collection is so important then, should see how they fund its preservation. So says culture minister Jet Bussemaker in response to questions by MP Bergkamp (D66). Bergkamp had asked these questions in response to the message That the post-1950 collection is not considered heritage by the ministry, and therefore shreddable is.
A joint press conference by two companies. In the post-Zijlstra era, that often does not bode well. A merger then seems obvious, especially when it involves the two largest opera companies in our country: De Nederlandse Opera and the Nationale Reisopera. Only now we have to turn that around: the Netherlands Opera will become the National Opera. And the building will be called National Opera and Ballet.
The photo documentary made by photographer Rob Hornstra on the preparations for the Sotchi Olympics will be shown in Moscow after all. At least we hope so, now that after an earlier sudden cancellation a venue has been found at the Sakharov House in Moscow. Next Friday, Dutch fans can watch the opening from Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg (bring your own beer) attend. Unless
The Amsterdam City Theatre is looking for a manager for its restaurant. Happens more often, but this time it is news. You see, the Amsterdam City Theatre has a place to reclaim. On the restaurant. When that restaurant opened a few years ago after a major renovation of the 19th-century building on Leidseplein, the Stadsschouwburg had suddenly become sort of untraceable.
A lot of money is made on the internet from the distribution of text and music, news, photos and films. That money comes in to internet providers, services like Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Spotify, and to the big record companies and film producers, who are almost always also shareholders in the aforementioned organisations. Virtually none of that money reaches the people who make all those films, compositions and books or articles.
The Money Museum will close in a month, but its collection (as far as important) will go to De Nederlandsche Bank. The Tropenmuseum has been disbanded, but the collection will be housed elsewhere. However, only half of the library will be saved: everything from after 1950 is not interesting enough to preserve, according to minister Bussemaker. This is evident from the answers given by Culture Minister Bussemaker to questions by the SP.
Good news from the VSCD: this year, more theatre and concert tickets have been sold on pre-sale than last year. The press release reporting this, however, advises industrious journalists not to check with the local theatre to see if this is true. After all, according to the propaganda of the theatre boards, this is a national average, and "things they hear from their members".
An enthusiastic press release in times of severe headwinds. It calls for further reflection. Last Friday, a survey on the state of cooperation in the Dutch museum world was presented. After all, cooperation should be from Minister Bussemaker and kind of the Council for Culture. So it's nice that things are already going ok. Can we get back to fun things.
During the 16th edition of the Dutch Dance Days, several dance awards were presented: the 2013 Dutch Dance Days Prize, the Swans and the Dioraphte Dance Award. Respective winners are choreographer Giulio D'Anna, dancer Medhi Walerski, Club Guy & Roni for Midnight Rising, dancer Bonnie Doets of Scapino Ballet Rotterdam and Keren Levi with The Dry Piece.
The Dutch National Ballet is not sitting still. Building on its 50th anniversary, next spring AVRO will publish a reality series about the country's largest dance company. This as a sequel to Blood, sweat, and strings about the Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Are these the figures that will make it clear to Minister Kamp that incentives for the film industry really need to happen? That hope could be heard during the discussion of a report by Oxford Economics implemented research to the economic position of the Dutch film and av industry.
The Dutch film world has a new club. Dutch filmmakers can join the Dutch Academy For Film (DAFF). With the aim, in short, of raising the profile of Dutch cinema. The DAFF was founded on 24 June this year following the example of similar academies in, for example, England, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. A press conference at the Netherlands Film Festival
Not a cent more goes to the annual theatre awards and all other collective marketing activities, such as the performing arts congress, also go to 0 euros or very little. Says one chairman to another director, who is also chairman, and is actually the same. Because that's how it goes at the Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Directors:
What idiot could come up with that, one of the attendees wondered: that you can make electrical circuits by combining the DNA of an algae with that of a hamster? Just a question that comes to mind when walking around the exhibition Biodesign, on show in Rotterdam from 27 September to 5 January (2014). And then there's...
The Dutch Film Festival not only kicked off tonight with the slavery drama How expensive was the sugar, but also with the presentation of the first awards. Janina Pigaht received the Filmprijs van de Stad Utrecht, the award for best debut, for her documentary Diaries of an elephant. In it, Pigaht goes in search of SS past
Did we report here earlier how the patriotic booksellers are doing their best to bring you to haunt the gates of hell if you 'purchase' an ebook, the reading itself also turns out to be a minefield. One of our followers recently purchased an ebook from the largest online bookseller in the Netherlands (at least until That club from America entered). Her brand new Kobo reader however, proved to be no match for this book. Whereas with all other digital books the device effortlessly refreshed the epaper, turning a page in the book took ''Forgive us' by A.M. Homes well over half an hour, and that was a bit too much slow reading for this lady.
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