All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.
"Over the past two-and-a-half years, I have started making choices. Where ten years ago I thought of going into life as a dance teacher, now the question is: do I really want to? What makes me happy, what do I want to share with the people around me?" For Lotte Willemsma, the first two years of the Corona pandemic were...
Almelo has been on the map for a few years now thanks to theatre. I went to see Van Katoen en Water on Thursday, an open-air spectacle with well-timed downpour and a full-moon rise like you can only experience in the almost gentrified old-industrial heart of Twente's poorest city. Mashed potatoes were served beforehand, with a johmas salad. Wine flowed profusely. In...
The Amsterdam Museum, together with VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands Institute for Conservation+Art+Science+ (NICAS) and Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, has conducted research into the origin of the gold of the Golden Coach. For a long time, it was unknown where the gold leaf used to gild the carriage came from. An extensive study compared the composition of the gold with samples from Suriname and South Africa....
Alex Mallems, the artistic director who put Zeeland on the map in this century (since 2001), has left both the Zeeland Nazomer festival and its associated production house Zeelandia. This is the outcome of a protracted conflict with the business director appointed since last year, Sylvie Dees. According to a report in Theaterkrant, according to Dees, he would 'without permission make commitments...
Some things that used to be fun cannot be done now. Things like smoking in class, posters of David Hamilton in the dorm room, underpaying women, driving a car with a bottle of gin behind it, you name it. This week, an interesting riot was added. The Amsterdam Fringe Festival, the naughty sister of the Dutch Theatre Festival, chose a campaign image that, to...
Ik zeg toch sorry a theatre production by Theatre Group Aluin and Raymi Sambo Makes about Keti Koti, the day celebrating the (official) abolition of slavery, will be shown in Dutch theatres from the end of September. At a time when more and more municipalities and organisations are openly apologising for the slavery past or letting their own role in this period be...
Of the 122 stage texts read by the jury of the Dutch Toneelschrijfprijs, just under 30 were written by female authors. In a field where the number of female workers is huge, this is striking. Because, the jury rightly stated, in written Dutch theatre, the male gaze is still dominant. While the theatre audience percentage-wise more women...
"The government is demanding that we only show artists from our own region. That would be a huge loss for us, as we are an international art space. But we have found a way around it. We now invite top international artists who live here, or we offer them a residency, so they live in the city temporarily. That way, ...
"We firmly believe that a well-developed and widely implemented Culture, Climate & Environment Code helps the worlds of art, culture and creation to take up their role within the most pressing issue of our time. That role is one of social innovation and creativity in the service of the arts, but also in the service of society and a liveable...
Social media censors on woman's nipple and Plein Theatre loses facebook page over nipple in poster image of Cat Smits Company's performance Nouveau Fuck. This digital prudishness and sexist inequality goes way too far, Berith Danse and Cat Smits think. Facebook is known for a strict 'no nudity' policy, at least not for men, as naked male torsos are no problem at all. Photos that...
"That we find today's culture of memory uncomfortable finds its cause already in the concept of 'remembering'. After all, in the strict sense of the word, we can only remember something we have experienced ourselves. But what should 16-year-old schoolchildren remember when they visit the Buchenwald memorial site? Upon them comes the call to remember something that even...
Paul McCartney - according to Philip Norman's biography (2016) - had discovered a nice extra source of income as an enterprising musician: the music rights of colleagues. He bought up the rights of others and the money flowed in. Friendly and naive, he tipped Michael Jackson to do the same and yes, to his shock, a few years later, music rights of The Beatles were...
It could be because of the weather, or my mood, but 2022 was one of the best editions of Theatre Festival Boulevard I have experienced in decades. From the interesting, and also a little disruptive opening to the final night, which I experienced yesterday, I saw guts, passion and pushed boundaries. Not everywhere all at once, but...
We take stock halfway through this edition of Theatre Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch. Host Wijbrand Schaap does so together with Dana Kibbelaar, since this year a member of the two-headed management (with Tessa Smeulers), writer and journalist Jowi Schmitz, dance critic Helen Westerik, and makers Oscar Kocken and Jellie Schippers. We talk about what is so special about...
For a while it looked like we had walked into a live version of The Square, but it was just the official opening performance of Theatre Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch. Now, that festival is miles away from the self-absorbed elitist art world that is rocked by a human gorilla act completely out of control in that Danish film, but uncomfortable was...
In the series In Perspective, Erik Akkermans looks back and ahead at developments in cultural policy and practice. Today: artists' interests. Above the children's circus The ground floor of the building on Passeerdersgracht in Amsterdam housed children's circus Elleboog. On the second floor were the chess federations: the national federation and Max Euwe's international federation FIDE, which you could sometimes see in person....
This summer, the ILFU Storytelling Competition will be organised for the third time. The Netherlands' only interdisciplinary storytelling competition is open to stories in all forms. Prose, films, poetry, photography, non-fiction, columns, comics, spoken word, music or TikToks: all stories are welcome. Because at ILFU, we believe good stories can be told in all kinds of ways. There are five categories to enter in...
Happy faces, a reunion with old friends, water, cake and a magical moment that closed the day with a golden edge. On Wednesday, the Stadslab on the Indiëterrein in Almelo was the stage for the press presentation of the theatre performance Van Katoen en Water. The headline is off. Wednesday saw the kick-off of a unique city musical that will bring Almelo and the surrounding area...
For her first solo exhibition in the Netherlands, Peruvian artist Andrea Canepa (Lima, 1980) has de Appel's Aula space at her disposal as the venue for her ongoing investigation into the organisation of the physical and social structures, or organisational systems, that shape our daily lives. Canepa shows that although the spatial and architectural parameters of these organisational systems may seem clearly marked,...
'We are used to thinking in extremes. It is still the only way to be heard. Loud action is the only thing that matters anymore, it seems. Therefore, we have to be careful to remain curious about where that action comes from, what desire there is. That personal attention is needed, to crawl under that actionism
Let's start yesterday with a fundamental dialogue with the entire arts sector, using the vitality and creativity of the arts as inspiration, both for the sector itself and for society as a whole. Our sector talking, thinking, participating, deciding! in good times and in bad times. Never be silent again ...
A dance concert with a standing audience promises to be something new. Because how often does it happen that in the audience, whipped up by music and dance, you have to sit on your hands. This sounds like the outcome! We get to watch and move ourselves to Krautrock, mixed with trance-like repetitive parts. Lisbeth Gruwez and Maarten van Cauwenberghe invite us...
Amare hosted for the first time the final performances of one of the new residents of The Hague's cultural colossus: the dance department of the Royal Conservatoire. What stands out. The pandemic over Last year, in the old conservatory, a maximum of 50 visitors could attend the final performance, with mouth caps on and with two chairs away from each other. The new dance theatre in Amare...
On 10 July 2022, the four nominees for this prize were announced for the BNG Bank Circus Prize 2022. From 32 graduation acts from the two Dutch higher vocational circus schools, the jury selected four that have a chance of winning the €5,000 prize. The nominees are; - Fenja Barteldres (Codarts) with her cyr wheel act 'Cyrrealism' - Harvey Cobb (Codarts) with his object manipulation act 'Something about Pink'...
Shabnam and Theatre Group Aluin meet as part of her directorial internship on the performance I say sorry. Aluin considers it important to give young people with an interest in text theatre the opportunity to develop as autonomous creators. Being able to create alongside your writing can be a great added value. This residency gives Shabnam...
English (UK) 
Nederlands 
Français