All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.
1. During 9/11, I was in Salamanca with two friends. The day Geert Wilders managed to amass 37 seats (thank you VVD and normalising media), I was in Rabat, attending the Visa for Music music conference, with which the European Jazz Network (one of the best-functioning networks within European cultural funding, I say as a new kid...
The research is there, and the figures are not uplifting. In the arts sector, underpaying especially freelancers and not honouring overtime is standing policy. If this is to be made up from now on, with the existing budget, small institutions and festivals in particular will fall over immediately. The study on this was presented yesterday to outgoing Culture Secretary Uslu. Principal Arts...
"Sales of children's books during Children's Book Week edition 2023 are higher than in 2019, 2020 and 2021. This applies to both sales through physical shops and e-commerce." KVB-Boekwerk, the research institute of Dutch Booksellers, has been publishing trend reports on the book market for a few years now. This year, for the first time, these include figures on sales of children's books,...
"But in the next week, can't you still come up with a law that enshrines art education in primary education?" A striking moment in the 'Collective Creative Culture Debate' held in a packed Herz of TivoliVredenburg on Wednesday 15 November. The Creative Coalition and Kunsten '92 made one last attempt to put arts and culture on the agenda of the...
The Coproducers is an initiative of 12 theatres whereby they act as co-producers of productions by theatre makers who are no longer starting, but also not yet established. By corona there is a gap in the career development of younger creators, last year the Council for Culture and State Secretary for Culture and Media Gunay Uslu sounded the alarm. This season push...
It had been hanging in the air for a while, but now there seems to be fairly incontrovertible evidence that Marcel Duchamp did not invent his urinal artwork himself. A book to be published next month claims that the inventor of 'conceptual' art nicked his thing from German artist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. That in itself was a longer-running ...
The other day I had an unpleasant conversation with a public relations officer of a medium-sized festival. He thought it would be a good idea if I came to write about that fantastic festival because of that unique opening event. I asked, "Are you members?" He said, "No." I said, "Then I don't know if I will be able to, because during that time there are also activities....
ROTTERDAM - On Wednesday 18 October at 16:30, the kids of the Maaspodium can be followed via livestream as they give a look before and behind the scenes at various theatres throughout the Netherlands, kicking off the first ever National Children's Theatre Week. Together with presenter Tirsa With, they will show how much fun theatre is! As a new initiative of the National Theatre Fund,...
Labour disputes in the Netherlands are on the rise. In 2021, the number of labour disputes increased by 17% overall. This increase will continue in 2022 and 2023, writes nu.nl, among others, based partly on the increased demand for legal aid in labour disputes. The arts and culture sector is certainly no exception. The media regularly show conflicts and abuses within the cultural sector. Add to this...
The associate artist for the 77th Holland Festival in 2024 is Brazilian theatre director, filmmaker and writer Christiane Jatahy (Rio de Janeiro, 1968). Among other things, Christiane Jatahy will present Hamlet, a co-production with Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe from Paris. Shakespeare's play will have a female title role and is the starting point to reflect on the world we live in, and how...
113 decibels. That's what the elated audience managed to pull off with Nicole Kaandorp (no relation to Brigitte, but at least as talented) at the Pandora. It happened in the first round of the semi-finals in the NK Poetry Slam 2023, the unofficial opening of the International Literature Festival Utrecht, which we call ILFU in English....
"A good example of how the government wants to encourage that power from the bottom up is through culture. Culture confronts, inspires and bridges contradictions. From festival grounds to concert halls, and from museums to music schools. That is why the cabinet continues to promote the enjoyment of culture, for instance with the Culture Card for young people. The cabinet also wants the public library in as many...
15 minutes of television. Theatre Maas, who used to be called Cornald, has managed to get Dutch theatre's biggest party back on kind of prime time television. On Monday 18 September, we saw his recap of this gala of Dutch theatre, which included awards, snippets of speeches and elated actors. I wondered if we could...
Amsterdam, 12 September 2023 - The collective labour agreement for theatre and dance has been declared approved by both NAPK and Kunstenbond supporters. The collective agreement agreed on a general salary increase of 5% plus a flat-rate increase of €150. This salary increase means an average pay rise of 9.44%. On 6 July last, the Arts Union...
On Sunday 10 September, Podium Klassiek opened the season in a very stripped-down version. Floris Kortie was all alone. In the world of public broadcasting and classical music, where things are usually fixed three years in advance, something was up. I felt an end approaching. Podium Witteman had become a fixture here at home....
The hardest part of going back to work after the summer holidays are the holiday stories from colleagues. Or from yourself. That fantastic view, that unique campsite, that beautiful beach, that restaurant where you got the best food in the world for no money, that indigenous people you visited first with your tour bus. That moment of climate embarrassment that you had a few more...
The Netherlands is a country of culture. Not an art country. Because the word 'art' appears in almost none of the election manifestos we have to choose from on 22 November. Only the VVD talks about 'art in depots'. It does talk about culture all the time. About whether we shouldn't once again start making a rock-hard distinction between art and culture,...
Salman Rushdie will give his first interview in the Netherlands on 30 September during the ILFU (International Literature Festival Utrecht) after the attempt on his life last year. Journalist Chris Keulemans and writer Abdelkader Benali will speak to Rushdie at TivoliVredenburg via a livestream connection about his new novel Victoria City and his extensive body of work. Rushdie last appeared live on stage in 2018
The VPT (Vereniging voor Podiumtechnologie), VSCD (Vereniging van Schouwburg- en Concertgebouwirecties) and NAPK (Nederlandse Associatie voor Podiumkunsten) are joining forces to publish a Dutch version of the Theatre Green Book. The reference work is being used in more and more countries within Europe to structurally shape the achievement of sustainability goals. In our sector, too, the...
The Netherlands' largest contemporary circus festival with more than 100 performances to Tilburg Open mouths, squeezed bottoms and squinted eyes. From 13 to 22 October 2023, Festival Circolo descends on Tilburg for emotion, daredevilry and groundbreaking performances. The largest contemporary circus festival in the Netherlands will feature more than 100 performances for ten days at the cutting edge of...
The counter stood at 8 minutes and 45 seconds when it went wrong. Pretty fast for a three-hour interview programme like Zomergasten, but Theo Maassen grabbed the record with verve. His guest Alida Dors, the woman who, as a self-taught dancer, grew into a forewoman of Dutch hip-hop culture, and who is now tasked with managing the mismanaged...
I had - in a previous house - a neighbour who gave a young tree in front of our apartment complex a bucket of water every day. He had a thing for trees, as he had brought back some Sequoia seeds from a trip to the US, back in the day. He had put these in the ground in various places. One near the house, and that one, because of possible...
A lone madman? An unsuspecting visitor would think so, and when I arrived at the Theaterplatz in Weimar yesterday afternoon, I was that unsuspecting visitor. During the opening speeches of Kunstfest Weimar, a man shouted insulting texts at Bodo Ramelow, the prime minister of 'Free State of Thuringia'. The man dressed in a yellow vest was taken away by the police. Later, during a very oppressive...
The 39th edition of Theaterfestval has concluded successfully. The 11-day festival in 's-Hertogenbosch attracted around 90,000 visitors. This Boulevard was a celebration of what binds us as human beings: our desires, our bodies, our emotions. This Boulevard was about radical empathy. About learning to live together, understanding wordlessly, caring for each other and enjoying ourselves together. Strikingly frequent in this was the relationship between generations...
Biggest festival for contemporary circus descends on Tilburg from 13 to 22 October From 13 to 22 October 2023, Tilburg will be home to Festival Circolo, the biggest festival for contemporary circus in the Netherlands. Here you will see boundary-breakers, go-getters and top artistic athletes highlighting and celebrating our differences in performances that everyone can relate...
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