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ACTUAL

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

Nude is main theme at 33rd edition Netherlands Film Festival, Hoe Duur was de Suiker opening film

Paul Verhoeven, Dick Maas, Katja Schuurman, Monique van de Ven and Kim van Kooten are all special guests at the upcoming edition of the Dutch Film Festival. Nothing special, you might think, but if you see them on the festival posters you probably won't recognise them. After all, they are namesakes of well-known film personalities who this year

Kevin Spacey: 'Television will be fundamentally changed by arrival of Netflix'

Three-quarters of pilot episodes for series in the US do not lead to a sequel. For House of Cards, the series with which the on-demand and streaming video channel Netflix final breakthrough in America, no pilot episode was made. Major broadcasters refused the series without pilot to make, but Netflix immediately saw that there would be a large enough audience for it. That was

Bureau Promotie Podiumkunsten kaputt (3): a one and a half million corpse in the closet

The Theatre Voucher has been more popular than its publisher suspected. Theatre-goers have certainly used this performing arts book voucher more than expected over the last decade. One and a half million euros more. As a result, the Foundation for the Promotion of Theatre and Concert Attendance SPTC has faced negative assets since 2011.

10 per cent less ticket sales, but Festival Boulevard is still satisfied.

Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch sold 55,000 tickets this year, 5,000 less than in 2012. The festival, which this year was held from 1 to 11 August, did attract more crowds for the free offerings on the festival square. This brought the total number of visitors to the festival this year to 145,000, 5,000 more than in 2012. As the venue occupancy is still nice at 85%, the drop in ticket sales will mainly be due to a smaller offer of performances.

Bureau Promotie Podiumkunsten kaputt (2): how 3 per cent turned into 3 x 33 per cent

The Performing Arts Promotion Office which will be disbanded from 1 October, has not fallen victim to cultural cuts or the economic crisis. The Stichting Promotie Theater- en Concertbezoek (SPTC), the BPP's backer, has turned off the money tap for other, unclear reasons.

Performing arts promotion office kaputt

We are far from having all the info, but we have enough by now: the Bureau Promotie Podiumkunsten (BPP), funded by the Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Managements, is quitting as of 1 October. Reason unknown, but surely the malaise in the cultural sector, and especially the performing arts, will have something to do with it.

Departure of business leader Nederlands Dans Theater Van Leer for personal reasons

On the day that a vote was to be held in The Hague on the new Spui Forum, it has been announced that Robert van Leer is leaving as business director of Nederlands Dans Theater. Van Leer is resigning for purely "personal reasons", according to the press officer of the renowned dance company.

Music school @uckutrecht spots trend: parents invest more in music education

Despite the crisis, parents invest eagerly and heavily in their offspring's musical development. This is the finding of the Utrecht Centre for the Arts (UCK). Their talent development programmes are running well. "Parents are now more consciously choosing to spend money on this than ever before. They also come along to lessons more often and let their children start at an increasingly younger age," says cello teacher Floris Dercksen.

Saving Tropenmuseum paid for from art acquisition budget

The Tropenmuseum has been saved, we already knew that, but the House of Representatives still wanted to know where that was paid from. After all: the government is not going to spend more money, we have to do that. Anyway. Culture minister Jet Bussemaker's answer to the parliamentary questions shows that museums will be able to spend 5.5 million less on art purchases in 2016 at least.... 

I Like To Watch Too is a must for keeping the performing arts in the Netherlands young and fresh

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.

Curtain falls on film theatre and stage Provadja in Alkmaar

For more than a decade, Alkmaar film theatre and stage Provadja - one of the oldest Dutch film houses - has been struggling with housing that is far too cramped. Plans have been made for over a decade and last night the city council voted on relocation. And thus chose an option that Provadja's board, staff and volunteers had already categorically rejected. Namely

Ech Uterech tour of the Cetraol Stetion and Hoog Ketrijne #callofthemall

"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."

Dutch Symphony Orchestra loses lawsuit and name

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.

Fewer audiences, but fuller halls for @hollandfestival 2013

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.

Nowhere does the sun set so functionally as on Terschelling

Oerol, the festival with Terschelling as its stage, has had two wet, cold and windy days. The streets are coloured yellow, red, blue and black by rain suits. Actors play in transparent rain suits, to make costumes still come into their own. Or have someone standing behind them with umbrella to protect them from the rain.

Art breaks the rut of Hoog Catharijne in Call of the Mall

You don't really give it much thought, how weird standing still in a shopping centre like Hoog Catharijne is. At least: if you don't stand still with your head towards a shop window or your fingers in a bowl of fast food. The code for glancing around a shopping mall is so common that it takes some getting used to even for yourself when something forces you to suddenly

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