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ACTUAL

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

Springdance 2011 presents programme. The Dodo is there.

by one of our members
21 January 20118 July 2016
2 min read
ACTUAL

On Thursday 14 April, the Springdance festival 2011 opens with the opening performance Sideways Rain by choreographer Guilherme Botelho and his company Alias in the Stadsschouwburg Utrecht. Springdance 2011 presents innovative and high-profile contemporary dance from around the world. Besides many premieres, the festival has an extensive fringe programme including street performances, lectures, an introduction to contemporary dance for those starting...

What exactly does Mark Rutte say about the arts? It fits in 1 minute and it's not quite right.

by one of our members
19 January 201110 May 2020
1 min read
ACTUAL, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

We are politically neutral and even in the subsidy debate we try to maintain that. After all, every coin has a flip side and it is not the media's job to always and forever take sides. But now this. Mark Rutte was interviewed by Clairy Polak in Buitenhof on Sunday, 16 January 2011, and they talked for a minute about...

Tamer who! Haifa what! Some mega concerts are totally ignored by the media, like that of Tamer Hosny and Haifa Wehbe

by one of our members
17 January 201129 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Of course, we sometimes miss one. And of course Caro Emerald is cool and Graffity 6 is new. But there is more culture in the Netherlands than many users of mainstream media realise. Deep into the 1980s, sports halls were already full for Rai musicians, and that was years before Cheb Khaled penetrated the charts with Aïsha. The Cape Verdean community in Rotterdam...

Moma shows video artwork previously barred from Smithsonian by American Christians

by one of our members
15 January 201130 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

As recently as November, the Smithonian patronage-funded National Portait Gallery removed the work, following protests by US Catholics and Republicans. They found the video, titled 'A fire in my belly' by New York artist David Wojnarowicz, who died in 1992, offensive. Yesterday, the Metroplitan Museum of Modern Art (Moma) in New York announced the work they had given the...

Peter Van Straaten wins Inktspot Prize 2010 with strikingly placed crucifix.

by one of our members
11 January 20118 July 2016
2 min read
ACTUAL

'The drawing is literally and figuratively striking, painfully comic and wry: it brings tears and laughter at the same time. The combination of the boy's peaceful pose with the cruel assault on his body lingers in your mind. The print needs no text; it could appear in any European, even global newspaper, so powerful and universal is it

Anything to get amateurs into the stands: money for 'Dance Gardens', local residents and the Concert Hall

by one of our members
11 January 201130 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

About 8 million Dutch people do something with art. They have music lessons, macramé plant pendants, paint plates or put together Christmas cards. But they also play theatre, sing in a choir, are part of a hip-hop crew or death metal band. That these practitioners of amateur art are not automatically also regular visitors to professional art is a mystery to many people. The Fund ...

Dutch cinemas notice nothing of the crisis - 2010 was a top year

by Leo Bankersen
4 January 20118 July 2016
2 min read
ACTUAL, FILM

Avatar was the best-attended film in 2010, with over 1.2 million visitors. In fifth place is New Kids: Turbo, the Dutch surprise hit. A total of 28.1 million cinema tickets were sold last year, the highest number ever in the past 30 years. The breakthrough of 3D plays an important role in this. 1 in...

Craft 'blob' by Atelier van Lieshout awaits buyer among 'country houses'

by Wijbrand Schaap
4 January 20118 July 2016
3 min read
ACTUAL

Country houses will surround it, but in the middle there will be something completely different: a real "sculptural dwelling" by Atelier van Lieshout. With a price tag of a million euros, the house is not a cheap work of art either, but then you have something that the whole world comes to see. Less original than his recently erected one in Rotterdam...

National Travel Opera possibly first victim of culture cuts

by one of our members
29 December 201030 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

The rapid austerity operation of at least 200 million on the cultural sector has yet to be fleshed out, but one thing is already clear. If it were up to state secretary Halbe Zijlstra, the National Reisopera, which operates from Enschede, would stand a good chance of being killed in that operation. His request for advice to the Culture Council, sent the week before Christmas, states the following:...

Un Prophète, Toy Story 3 and Twilight best films of 2010

by Leo Bankersen
28 December 20108 July 2016
2 min read
ACTUAL, FILM

According to the Dutch film press, the French prison drama Un Prophète and the Pixar animated film Toy Story 3 were the best films shown in Dutch cinemas this year. Dutch winner is Hanro Smitsman's grim teen drama Schemer, the Kring van Nederlandse Filmjournalisten announced. This result is the result of a survey of 54 film journalists who each...

Hermitage draws visitors away from Amsterdam museums, while nationwide visits grew in 2010

by one of our members
20 December 20108 July 2016
2 min read
ACTUAL

The margins are not huge, but the Van Gogh Museum's attendance figures have been falling for a few years now. In peak year 2006, 1,677,268 visitors still walked through the vistas; in 2010, there are likely to be only 1,432,000. The Rijksmuseum, which remains open despite its renovation, is also still far below the figures of peak year, with an expected 900,000 visitors....

Column: "As soon as they start embracing art in the PVV, right-thinking people should start watching out."

by Wijbrand Schaap
20 December 20108 July 2016
5 min read
ACTUAL

The Hague is quite complicated for those who do not visit it on a daily basis. I was there last Monday, as a spectator at the discussion of the culture and media budget, and it has taken me until now to fully understand what is going on. For that understanding, being there live was essential. After all, to understand a social system like the Lower House, you not only have to listen to what is being said, and see who is speaking, much more important are the 'listening shots': the body language and actions of those who are not speaking.

Concert hall finds wealthy partner for education and development in Deutsche Bank

by one of our members
16 December 201029 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

The Concertgebouw Amsterdam has found its first 'partner' in the large capital-rich business community. With this, the Dutch world-famous crown jewel fulfils the Rutte Cabinet's desire to get more money 'from the market'. By the way, the capital-rich party found does not come from the Netherlands, but from Germany: "With effect from 1 January 2011, Deutsche Bank and Het Concertgebouw NV will enter into a...

Arts budget debated in second chamber: hardly any discussion on 200 million cut to performing arts

by one of our members
14 December 201030 March 2022
14 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

We were at a debate day in The Hague that was as inconspicuous as it was historic on 13 December 2010: it was about the budget of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the (first?) Rutte government, and that was the budget in which, at the request of the supporting party PVV, the amount to be cut in the arts budget was set at 200 million, with heritage and museums having to...

Culture Council threatens to pronounce 'unacceptable' on cabinet plans with arts and media

by Wijbrand Schaap
7 December 20108 July 2016
4 min read
ACTUAL

"It cannot be ruled out that previous choices made by the cabinet, such as on the VAT increase and the sharp cut in the Music Centre of the Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation, together with the announced cuts will cause irreparable damage to the cultural sector." Of course, even though Halbe Zijlstra has thankfully banned the term "Leftist Hobby" when it comes to culture, the distinguished gentlemen...

The arts subsidy system is like a house that changes hands a little too often: new cultural policy Rutte cabinet is capital destruction

by Wijbrand Schaap
6 December 201029 March 2022
4 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

The art subsidy system is like a house that changes hands a little too often. In 2008, after long deliberations, the previous owner fitted a new kitchen, replaced the bathroom, installed a new central heating boiler + underfloor heating and freshly painted the exterior. However, he had to move out prematurely, and now the new owner plans to replace the old kitchen...

VAT increase performing arts possibly postponed, if it is up to VVD's Upper House faction

by one of our members
3 December 20108 July 2016
2 min read
ACTUAL

The VVD group in the Senate is threatening to shelve the increase in VAT on performing arts tickets proposed by the CDA-VVD-PVV cabinet. The Nederlands Dagblad reports this today. According to Associated Press Service editor Laurens Kok, this is evident from the words of the VVD's group leader in that chamber, Fred de Graaf. We quote: Acting...

Venues can switch to LED light and save money without artistic consequences

by one of our members
1 December 201029 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

They researched it. And so it turns out to be true. You can also use sustainable light bulbs on stage. And that saves energy. Whether this will immediately get rid of the government's idiotic revenge cuts remains to be seen, because 200,000,000 euros is quite a lot of energy-saving light bulbs. But the start is there. From the press release of the Association of Stage Technology: With...

IDFA 2010 - State of the Stars double winner

by Leo Bankersen
26 November 201029 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, FILM

Leonard Retel Helmrich's Stand of the Stars is a two-time winner of the Amsterdam documentary festival IDFA. At the awards ceremony at the Tuschinski theatre, it was announced that this dynamic and poetic portrait of a poor Indonesian family not only won the VPRO IDFA Award for best feature-length documentary, but was also chosen (by another jury) as the best of the...

IDFA 2010 - The documentary Utopia in Four Movements as a live experience

by Leo Bankersen
22 November 201030 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, FILM

The latest in documentary screening has nothing to do with websites or other new media. On the contrary, the presentation of the 'live documentary' Utopia in Four Movements, which IDFA had the European premiere of, in fact harks back to the primal form of cinema, when films were shown with live music and a so-called explicateur. Those...

IDFA 2010 - George Sluizer wants to give Palestinians dignity with Homeland

by Leo Bankersen
20 November 201030 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, FILM

After the opening film Stand of the Stars, the second major premiere of a Dutch documentary at IDFA was that of Homeland. The screening at the Tuschinski Theatre, incidentally, was not just about the Palestinian cause, as it was also, of course, a celebration in honour of 78-year-old director George Sluizer (Spoorloos), arguably our most internationally oriented filmmaker....

23rd IDFA opens with yellow ribbons and documentary State of the Stars

by Leo Bankersen
18 November 20108 July 2016
2 min read
ACTUAL, FILM

If you see someone wearing a yellow ribbon one of these days, it is in protest against the cuts to arts and culture. As might be expected, Ally Derks, director of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, in her speech at the opening of the 23rd edition of the film event, took a hard line against the impending attack on the arts....

Conductor Ono does not stand with his boots in the blubber and therefore does not go home with a passing grade

by one of our members
14 November 20108 July 2016
5 min read
ACTUAL

Rotterdam - That every disadvantage 'hep' its advantage is often apparent with symphony orchestras. A principal conductor, for instance, is usually in charge of his own orchestra for no more than about 12 weeks a year. He divides the rest of his time among the other orchestras he is also already chief of. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, for instance, is now not only principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic...

How old news suddenly becomes current. "The Spy who loved Abstract Expressionism: free art as a weapon against totalitarian enemy" dates from 1995.

by one of our members
12 November 201030 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Today we posted this message, and quickly realised that the news had been released before. Only a few minutes later it dawned on us that the original post, of which this is a free translation, had already appeared on The Independent's site on 22 October 1995. Thanks to a database update and a perceptive site visitor, who...

Order of Tax Advisers severely criticises VAT increase for performing arts: 'theatres will be in exceptional position'

by Wijbrand Schaap
10 November 20108 July 2016
4 min read
ACTUAL

The Rutte government is defending the VAT increase on admission tickets to theatres and concerts, claiming that it will straighten out an exception for the arts. However, this does not appear to be true, according to a response from the Order of Tax Advisers to the proposal. "The Bar Association additionally points out that the explanatory memorandum notes that for the performing arts on...

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