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ACTUAL

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

Region review: chain letters in Rotterdam, only 1 year right to renewal in Zierikzee, and Eindhoven not happy with Chamber Choir

Groningen municipality cuts back on Gezinsbode The municipality is going to cut back 150,000 euros on publishing city notices in the Groninger Gezinsbode. The City Council wants to publish decisions and permits electronically from now on, for example on the municipality's website. (...) The number of pages in the Gezinsbode will be halved. (...) source: OogTV 10 Nov 11 Most councillors expect subsidies to be cut... 

Concertgebouw juicht over falende aandelenemissie

Het Concertgebouw liet gisteren juichend weten dat de aandelenemissie van september jl een doorslaand succes was. Immers, van de 1000 aandelen van 12.500 € waren er 400 besteld. Bijna 5 miljoen euro van particulieren binnengeharkt. Voorwaar geen geringe prestatie in dit zuinige landje, waarin iedereen klaagt dat mecenaat niets uitricht. De media, waaronder het Amsterdamse Parool, namen het juichbericht even… 

Distress call for theatre school Roosendaal at last minute, arts venue Veenendaal scrapped Discount news from all regions

(...) The Youth Theatre School Roosendaal received a project subsidy of 36,779 euros from the municipality in 2010 and 2011. The school also fulfils a regional function. Forty per cent of its 330 pupils come from the surrounding villages. The proposal is to end the subsidy from 1 January. It was only this week that this apparently dawned on Hofplein's management. Which immediately started a... 

Vanaf 2013 ziet het kunstleven in Amsterdam er heel erg anders uit.

Nu dan. 6,5 miljoen gaat er van de gesubsidieerde instellingen af. In Amsterdam. Qua gemeente. Het Rijk deed al iets meer dan 40 miljoen weg, wat 36 instellingen in hoge nood bracht. Nu heeft Amsterdam besloten om in ieder geval 13 instellingen op naam te behouden. Moeten we denken aan Toneelgroep Amsterdam, het IDFA, Holland Festival, Concertgebouw en het Muziekgebouw… 

Stormloop op festival met Nederlands jeugdtheater op Broadway

In het land waar Jan Klaasen Katrijn alleen met een luchtballonnetje in elkaar mag slaan, omdat een poppenkastknuppelpartij niet goed is voor de tere kinderziel, blijkt onverwacht veel vraag naar Nederlands professioneel jeugdtheater. Kortom, een heus Nederlands jeugdtheaterfestival in New York heeft inmiddels al 2500 kaarten verkocht, en het loopt nog steeds storm. Van zeker twee van de vier producties… 

Trouw: Ernst Veen fears big deficits New Church, Holland Symfonia in kicking seat

Trouw's commentary addresses the problems that are now beginning to be felt even at the top of the arts sector: Cultural entrepreneurship can produce great things. Ernst Veen, who brought De Nieuwe Kerk and Hermitage Amsterdam to great fruition as new exhibition spaces in the capital, is a successful example. Yesterday, he complained in Trouw that... 

Orchestra members fired without waiting pay? A new collective agreement could cause that

On Thursday 27 October, FNV KIEM, the Nederlandse Toonkunstenaarsbond (Ntb) and NAPK sector orchestras discussed the terms of employment of musicians employed by the Randstedelijke and Regionale Orkesten that fall under the collective labour agreement Dutch Orchestras. Out of a total of 11 Dutch orchestras, nine are covered by this collective agreement. The orchestras of the Muziekcentrum van de Omroep and the... 

Even if they quit, Halbe Zijlstra is cracking down on culture clubs

Letters from Culture Secretary Zijlstra are dangerous, especially when they are about figures and schemes. And we haven't seen the latest one for now. So right now, it is about 'friction costs' for the cultural sector. These are the costs that subsidised institutions have to incur when their existence ends due to the subsidy freeze. Think redundancy payments, damages, flower arrangements for funerals of suicides and selling real estate at a loss.

Performing Arts Fund announces plans; institutions must perform with performances

Since the decision in June to reduce the BIS, many eyes have focused on the Performing Arts Fund, which has an annual budget of €60 million to give away. However, the Fund is also facing a cut: the budget for the multiannual scheme will be reduced by 40% from 40 to 24.5 million euros. The multiannual scheme is meant for... 

"22 fascinating, deeply engaging pages on human failure, for which we can only be very grateful.

''Look mum! You have that book too!'' Harry Mulisch's granddaughter points to a book on the reading table named after her grandfather at the Café Américain in Amsterdam. Mulisch's entire oeuvre is displayed on the table at which he loved to sit. In the café that was dear to him. Anna Mulisch smiles. She and her sister Frieda, the... 

Libraries hope for more digitisation as well as more readers of collection, after TNO study

The joint public libraries in the Netherlands have asked TNO to study the size and costs of digital collections between 2012 and 2016. State Secretary for Culture Halbe Zijlstra is consulting with provinces and municipalities on amending library legislation. That law will also determine how much purchasing digital collection (e-books and music) costs. To... 

Arts colleges to cooperate more and get "partly or wholly" the same budget

On 5 July, the HBO Council came out with a sector plan for art education. Following the report of the Dijkgraaf committee and the Brinkman committee, it was concluded that the autonomous fine arts courses will reduce the intake of first-year students by 25%, the conservatoires with direction of classical and jazz by 10%, and the rest by 20%. This is to be achieved in a period... 

Sports sponsor pays top price, culture sponsor sits front row for a pittance and expects no less

The smallest opera company in the Netherlands beats the biggest. Not in visitor numbers, not in subsidy received, but in bringing in sponsorship money. On closer inspection, however, it becomes painfully clear once again that there is no giving culture in the Netherlands and sponsorship is limited to a pittance. A rattling giving law will not change that.

Elektra: only five singers worldwide who can handle this part. Linda Watson sings scathingly Nietzschean.

The Netherlands Opera's fourth revival of Elektra is over halfway through. In the final performances, two fresh dramatic sopranos take over. Why does an opera get revived, even as many as four times? With the sleep-inducing Don Giovanni in the previous season of De Nederlandse Opera - also a revival - this might have been a logical question. The decision turned out to be... 

"Battle of the Orchestras" kicks off with name change Orchestra of the East Netherlands Symphony Orchestra

The Netherlands has a new orchestra: the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra. At least, new in name. The Orchestra of the East does not seem to be waiting for possible forced mergers, and is already claiming its position as the national orchestra outside the Randstad by means of this striking name change that was made public today before the start of a concert with the Jussen brothers.

Reply Zijlstra (culture) to question on friction costs confirms chamber did not pay attention in June

It came as a shock that still hasn't quite worked out. Haf September, dozens of arts organisations received a letter from the State Secretary for Culture, informing them that they could start using the subsidy they thought they were getting for projects until 31 December 2012 for redundancy procedures, selling property at a loss and staff lawsuits against... 

Weekers (finance): 'No reason yet to reverse VAT increase' despite dramatic start to season

The story continues. On 1 July the VAT increase came into effect, on 8 July NRC quoted Halbe Zijlstra as saying that 'it was not the most mature scheme' of this cabinet, words he later nuanced during parliamentary questions. In late August, the Berenschot report came out with startling figures: the VAT increase would mainly cost the Netherlands money rather than generate it. Meanwhile, the Music... 

Sculpted Ovation for 'ingenious' conductor Iván Fischer

"Programmatic ingenuity goes hand in hand with Fischer's ebullient and finely crafted performances". So when someone says that about you, you have earned a prize. So that is what the jury of formerly the Classical Music Prize thought of Iván Fischer, the Hungarian-born conductor who was therefore awarded the 'Ovation' on Monday 17 October 2011. And so then the 'Ovation'... 

Saskia Kriekhaus has her director's job back. Now all that remains is a workplace.

She was accused of fraud and therefore suspended in September. However, a judgment has now been handed down in the summary proceedings that Saskia Kriekhaus, director of the Lucent Danstheater and the Anton Philipszaal, both in The Hague, had filed against her dismissal. And so Saskia Kriekhaus won that. So that suddenly everyone in The Hague's arts sector is heartbroken,... 

The 1 per cent and the concert hall; classical music as a henchman of the rich against 'the 99 per cent'

While anti-capitalists were plotting to occupy Amsterdam's Beursplein this week - if you can at least put the protesters under that heading - in the US, anger over THE 99 PERCENT shifted to the concert hall. The discussion flared up in response to two events. Wall Street was occupied; and the Metropolitan Opera received $182 million in donations in one year, a record amount.... 

According to US film magazine, our Oscar entry does not stand a chance

It is not very often that Dutch films attract the attention of the film trade magazine Screen International. Now that the web edition ScreenDaily happens to publish two reviews in a row, it is nice to quote something from them. Screen editor-in-chief Mike Goodridge saw Dutch Oscar contender Sonny Boy and Marco van Geffen's debut film Onder ons (international title Among Us) and came to the... 

Does the body still matter?

Europe in Motion (EIM) is an international exchange project, which supports the development of emerging choreographers, travelling through three Springdance partner organisations in 2011 and 2012. Last February it visited Nottdance in Nottingham and in April EIM touched down in Utrecht. During SPRINGDANCE 2011, nine choreography talents from the UK, Austria, Turkey and the Netherlands competed in private... 

Director of Dance Days Maastricht: "I really feel supported by Mayor Onno Hoes."

The Dutch Dance Days are not yet a mad hive of dance, but for Maastricht they are increasingly a fun tourist attraction. Day trippers and weekend tourists come from all over the country to combine the delights of the South with those of the art of dance. For that matter, all of Maastricht seems to float on VVV leaflets. In this sphere of promotion, is there still room for... 

Had the cabinet been a restaurant and the country's connoisseurs Johannes van Dam, Rutte could have closed the joint.

A nice side effect of the Giving Act is that it gives the tax authorities a vital role when it comes to determining what is art, and what is not. That was the outcome of the hearing on Tuesday 11 October in the House of Representatives. The MPs there listened to people from the philanthropic sector and tax experts in turn. Outcome of the two... 

Record amount of donations for New York Metropolitan Opera, but ticket sales down for years

The New York Times reports that the Metropolitan Opera in New York has brought in record donations this fiscal year. The tally stands at $182 million. This is 50 per cent more than the previous year. However, revenue from ticket sales has been declining for a few years. In addition, since general manager Peter Gelb took office, spending patterns have been soaring.... 

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