All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.
'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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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, operating 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:...
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...
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....
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.
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 is not from the Netherlands, but from Germany: "With effect from 1 January 2011, Deutsche Bank and Het Concertgebouw NV will enter into a...
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 cabinet, 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...
"It cannot be ruled out that previous choices made by the cabinet, such as on the VAT increase and the hefty cut to the Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation's Music Centre, together with the announced cuts will do 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 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...
De VVD fractie in de Eerste Kamer dreigt de door het CDA-VVD-PVV kabinet voorgestelde verhoging van de BTW op kaartjes voor podiumkunsten op de lange baan te schuiven. Dat meldt het Nederlands Dagblad vandaag. Volgens Geassocieerde Pers Dienst-redacteur Laurens Kok blijkt dat uit de woorden van de fractieleider van de VVD in die kamer, Fred de Graaf. We citeren: Waarnemend…
Ze hebben het onderzocht. En het blijkt dus waar. Ook op het podium kun je duurzame lampen gebruiken. En dat bespaart energie. Of we daardoor meteen ook van die idiote wraakbezuiniging van het kabinet afkomen, is nog de vraag. want 200.000.000 euro is best veel spaarlampen. Maar het begin is er. Uit het persbericht van de Vereniging van Podiumtechnologie: Met…
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...
Het nieuwste op het gebied van de vertoning van documentaires heeft niets te maken met websites of andere nieuwe media. Integendeel, de presentatie van de ‘live documentaire’ Utopia in Four Movements, waar IDFA de Europese première van had, grijpt in feite terug op de oervorm van de cinema, toen films werden vertoond met live muziek en een zogenaamde explicateur. Die…
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, by the way, 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), perhaps our most internationally oriented filmmaker....
Als u een dezer dagen iemand een geel lintje zit dragen is dat bedoeld als protest tegen de bezuinigingen op kunst en cultuur. Zoals te verwachten viel trok Ally Derks, directeur van het International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam, in haar toespraak bij de opening van de 23e editie van het filmevenement flink van leer tegen de dreigende aanslag op de kunsten.…
Rotterdam - That every disadvantage 'hep' its advantage is often apparent with symphony orchestras. A chief 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. For instance, Yannick Nézet-Séguin is now chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic as well as...
Vandaag plaatsten wij dit bericht, en we beseften snel dat het nieuws al eerder was uitgebracht. Alleen drong pas een paar minuten later tot ons door dat het oorspronkelijke bericht, waar dit een vrije vertaling van is, al op 22 oktober 1995 op de site van The Independent verscheen. Door een aanpassing van de database en een opmerkzame sitebezoeker, die…
The Rutte government is defending the VAT increase on admission tickets to theatres and concerts, claiming that it will straighten out an exemption 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...
Onder liefhebbers van de muziek van leeftijdgenoten Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) en George Frederic Handel (1685-1759) is het gekissebis goed vergelijkbaar met dat tussen de aanhangers van Beatles en Rolling Stones. Bach is klassiek, Handel populistisch, Bach schreef verheven muziek, Handel platvloerse , Bach was (zijn Matthäus Passion uitgezonderd) beknopt in zijn muzikale statements, Handel emmerde oeverloos door. En zo…
Beppe Costa. Who doesn't know him. And who wouldn't go to a show he plays in without thinking for a minute? After all, the little Italian musical jack-of-all-trades is capable of winning hearts with his music. And with his presence. Well. Director Alize Zandwijk must have thought: we're going to change that image completely this autumn,...
Johan Nijenhuis' Foeksia de miniheks has become the big audience favourite of Cinekid, the festival for film, television and new media for young people. Friday evening, it was announced at the awards ceremony that Foeksia had won both the general audience award (Z@pp Cinekid Lion) and the audience award for best Dutch children's film. Foeksia the Mini-Witch, based on the book of the same name by Paul van Z...
GDMW festival comes from the tube of the only literary magazine still doing a bit in the Netherlands: Passionate Magazine. A bit contrary, youthful but not juvenile and with an open eye to the many cultures in the city where it was founded: Rotterdam. The festival is a happy combo of literary content, happy poets, embarrassing displays and beer,...
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