All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.
Still competing at the top and successfully entering Europe with sixty per cent less budget. Impossible, cries many. Only with a new stadium, argues another. And with extra investments in the winter break. But it can be done, according to one and all.
Het Tropenmuseum is gered, dat wisten we al, maar de Tweede Kamer wilde nog weten waar dat uit betaald werd. Immers: meer geld gaat de overheid niet uitgeven, dat moeten wij doen. Enfin. Uit de beantwoording van de kamervragen door cultuurminister Jet Bussemaker blijkt dat de musea in ieder geval in 2016 5,5 miljoen minder uit kunnen geven aan kunstaankopen.…
Young choreographers Cecilia Moisio, Giulio d'Anna and Melissa Ellberger have been nominated for the Prize of the Nederlandse Dansdagen Maastricht 2013.
A man and a woman dance passionately in the hall of Paradiso. Such an experimental dance performance is unusual for the Amsterdam pop palace. Yet the festival I Like To Watch Too right here. Many people feel a barrier towards this kind of performance, but here there is just the right 'in and out' atmosphere to make avant-garde art something you can just look at and that always triggers something in you.
Al meer dan tien jaar tobt het Alkmaarse filmtheater en podium Provadja – een van de oudste Nederlandse filmhuizen – met een veel te krappe behuizing. Al meer dan tien jaar zijn er plannen gemaakt en gisteravond stemde de gemeenteraad over de herhuisvesting. En koos daarmee voor een optie die bestuur, medewerkers en vrijwilligers van Provadja al categorisch hadden afgewezen. Namelijk
Isn't avant garde dance too lofty? Is it still viable in these harsh cultural times? I Like To Watch Too aims to clear up this misunderstanding. The festival brings experimental dance closer to the public than ever.
"Let's move on people! I would like to introduce you to Frans van Montfoort. One of the very first buskers in old Hoog Catharijne and almost a living statue." Guide Ton van den Berg, today in the guise of his alter ego Koos Marsman, slaps Van Montfoort on the shoulder. "Good to see you again boy."
We already wrote about the name change of the Orchestra of the East into the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra (NedSym). The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (NedPho) was not amused and felt that the Enschede-based orchestra was infringing its trademark and trademark rights and demanded that the orchestra choose a different name. Summary proceedings followed and in April 2012 the court ruled that the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra could only not use the abbreviation NedSO, but did not have to change its name.
69,500 visitors, at least 5,000 fewer than previous editions, but the halls were fuller. With 82% audience occupancy, the Holland Festival organisers are satisfied with the 2013 festival. Whether that higher occupancy rate, apart from the smaller number of performances (14 fewer than last year) is also due to smaller halls, is impossible to find out from here, but the fact that the large Theater Carré, with its many unsellable low-visibility seats, was also hardly used this year will certainly have helped.
Je staat er eigenlijk weinig bij stil, hoe raar stilstaan in een winkelcentrum als Hoog Catharijne is. Tenminste: als je niet stilstaat met je hoofd naar een etalage of je vingers in een bak fastfood. De code om met glazige blik door een shopping mall te zweven is zo algemeen dat het ook voor jezelf wennen is wanneer iets je dwingt om opeens
Holland Festival
'The Pyre', the latest show from internationally rising star Gisèle Vienne, initially seems less disturbing than her previous work. Pieces like 'Jerk' (2008), based on the true story of a young serial killer, and 'This is how you will disappear' (2010), starring a dark forest, were only seen in a few places in the Netherlands. Hopefully, this performance at the Holland Festival will change that. Gisèle Vienne once studied harp, then philosophy and eventually trained as a puppeteer. But Vienne sees herself primarily as a visual artist working with time, on a stage, where different rhythms, motifs and figures come together.
Jet Bussemaker, minister of culture since last autumn, is slowly but surely starting to repair the damage done by the previous cabinet supported by the Dutch culture-hating party PVV.
5 million back for culture card, 2 million for museums, something more soon
Holland Festival
Is the kingdom of the dead in the opera Sunken Garden by Michel van der Aa a 3D garden full of brilliant colour, director Peter Sellars chooses in Desdemona by Toni Morrison and Rokia Traoré for sober black and white. On the stage of a sold-out Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ are glass bottles and jars, sometimes lit from below, sometimes from above, with hanging light bulbs like flickering candles. On the left are a number of ngonis (Malian lute) and two koras (Malian harp lute), played by black musicians.
Is it because of the ice age? Is it a question of money or guts? Last night, the Amsterdam cinema Het Ketelhuis hosted the so-called Spring Consultation for the tenth time.
Ah, what the heck. We can, of course, study the piece for ourselves first and then come up with a peppery response and interpretation to it, and it will certainly come. But why
We saw it in March already been coming, but now it is official: culture minister Jet Bussemaker is ignoring the Museum Advisory Board's advice. So the advisory panel led by Joop Daalmeijer has not done its homework properly: its idea
Holland Festival
From the mild, everyday cacophony around the Muziekgebouw in the afternoon, on the terrace by the IJ, you'll get into the silence of the concert hall in a few steps. For three and a half hours (with over two hours of breaks in between), Asko|Schönberg, Slagwerk Den Haag and Capella Amsterdam will play and sing your ears off. Steven Schick (a.o. once Bang on a Can), not only conducts, but also takes charge of the middle part of the concert, at the Bimhuis, as a percussionist. Under his inspired direction, 'Nine Rivers' navigates between spectacle and purism: a battle between complex form and the simplicity of raw sound matter.
Holland Festival
This month is all about the Holland Festival. Culture Press reports almost daily. What are we most looking forward to?
With a real gala, the Reisopera 2.0 presents itself. And immediately strips the gala of its stuffy image. With thanks to the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble.
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