Above all, we must continue with the favourable arts policy initiated by the fourth Rutte cabinet. That is what the arts umbrella organisation Kunsten ´92 says in a letter in response to the fall of the last cabinet under that name. This is a remarkable turn of events after 13 years in which most of the art world wanted nothing more than to get rid of the...
The Netherlands is returning 478 cultural objects at the request of Indonesia and Sri Lanka. During the colonial period, these objects ended up in the Netherlands unjustly, through looting or coercion, for example. State Secretary Uslu (Culture and Media) has decided on the return. In doing so, she follows the very first recommendations of the Colonial Collections Committee chaired by Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang You. The works...
Searching for information on persons who lived in slavery on Aruba and Sint Eustatius has become easier with the online posting of two indexes and corresponding scans of colonial archives. The indexes can be searched from 30 June on the website of the Archivo Nacional Aruba (ANA) and on the website of the National Archives. In the index Aruba: slavery...
If you want to do research out of curiosity, you should especially not apply to the government for money. Whether you are a scientist or an artist: in The Hague, they want you to know in advance what you are going to find and what it will yield. Anoek Nuyens, who caused a furore with her performance 'De Zaak Shell' (The Shell Case), could therefore produce her next...
"The corona crisis exposes some weaknesses of the cultural and creative sector. In this most flexibilised sector of the economy, the flexible shell proved to be an easy austerity option during the corona crisis. As a result, self-employed workers have partly had to seek refuge outside the cultural and creative sector and may not return." What we already heard, saw and knew...
"The easiest gain is then to produce less. Because high production implies a lot of energy and material use, travel movements and other forms of impact." Last week, the Council for Culture's long-awaited opinion on sustainability was released, and sooner than I could click 'open', all was set. Came all because of the above sentence, which, mentioned in...
Eerlijke beloning, vertrouwen in de culturele sector en minder administratieve lasten horen tot de belangrijkste uitgangspunten voor de culturele subsidieperiode 2025 – 2028. Staatssecretaris Uslu (Cultuur en Media) wil hiermee de komende jaren zoveel mogelijk rust brengen in de sector. Ook pakt ze een aantal knelpunten aan, bijvoorbeeld bij de jeugdpodiumkunsten. Zij volgt grotendeels het advies op van de Raad…
Sustainability and culture can reinforce each other, but a strong impetus is needed to accelerate the sustainability of the cultural sector. So says the Culture Council's advisory report 'Culture Naturally'. The advice is addressed to the culture sector as well as to municipalities, provinces, the state culture funds and the most concerned departments. The council advocates more cooperation on...
De tarieven van freelance journalisten, schrijvers en fotografen zijn de afgelopen acht jaar nauwelijks veranderd. De betaling per woord is in 2023 nog altijd rond de 35 cent, het uurtarief komt neer op gemiddeld 61 euro en de betaling per foto op 60 euro. Gecorrigeerd voor inflatie zijn de tarieven zelfs gedaald. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van de Nederlandse Vereniging…
On 14 June 2023, the Authors' Union's Screenwriters Network and the Dutch Directors Guild are joining the global day of action Screenwriters Everywhere. In doing so, we support the 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East, who have been on strike since 2 May. Actions are planned in more than 20 countries. Screenwriters in the...
Major streaming services operating in the Netherlands will start investing 5% of their Dutch annual turnover in Dutch productions. The House of Representatives has agreed to a bill by state secretary Gunay Uslu (Culture and Media). Thanks to this investment, more money will be available for making Dutch offerings. With this measure, state secretary Uslu wants to ensure that enough...
Dansen, van superamateur tot wereldklasse professioneel, gaat gepaard met grensoverschrijding, machtsmisbruik, fysieke aanslagen en seksueel wangedrag dat in stand wordt gehouden door een hardnekkige zwijgcultuur. Het langverwachte onderzoek door Marjan Olfers, ‘Schaduwdansen’, naar grensoverschrijding in de danswereld, had nog schokkender resultaten dan iedereen vooraf vreesde. De cijfers zijn inmiddels genoegzaam bekend: een meerderheid van de dansers heeft grensoverschrijdend gedrag aan…
Nieuws van de Raad voor Cultuur: ‘De vier teams ontwikkelden diverse bouwstenen, die ze verder geconcretiseerd hebben. Daarnaast hebben de teams elkaars ideeën getest en verrijkt. Aan het eind van de dag presenteerden ze aan de hand van visualisaties hun bouwstenen aan leden van de raad.’ Dit citaat is, met de titel ‘Laatste bijeenkomst designteams nieuw cultuurbestel‘ afkomstig van de…
'People who consider themselves traditionally on the left don't want to criticise woke because they are afraid they are aiding and abetting the right, and they certainly don't want that. And yet they feel that there is something wrong, something not really left-wing about woke discourse. That's what I'm trying to untangle....
In the series In Perspective, Erik Akkermans looks back and ahead at developments in cultural policy and practice. Today: walk of the orchestras. In the Hall of Mirrors January 1980, the Hall of Mirrors in the Concertgebouw. Culture minister Til Gardeniers accepts the report "Possession in service" 1 presented by the Federation of Artists' Associations. I found it exciting because the report, commissioned by...
De leden van het JongeMakersPlatform van de Raad voor Cultuur voelen een verantwoordelijkheid om zelf bij te dragen aan verduurzaming, maar wijzen er ook op dat verduurzaming iets is wat structureel moet worden opgepakt. Dat bleek tijdens een gesprek met de raad over dit onderwerp. De makers vertelden over hoe zij er in hun maakpraktijk en leven rekening mee proberen…
De heer Wilbert Mutsaers wordt benoemd als lid van de Raad voor Cultuur. De ministerraad heeft daarmee ingestemd op voorstel van staatssecretaris Uslu van Cultuur en Media. De benoeming gaat in op 1 mei 2023 voor een periode van vier jaar. Mutsaers studeerde Communicatiewetenschap aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen en was tot voor kort Head of Music bij Spotify Benelux.…
This weekend, Mariëtte Hamer came out with a strong recommendation for the hotline mores.online. The club where cross-border behaviour within the arts and media world can be reported had itself become discredited. For example, the chairman, as partner of the discredited Tom Egbers at NOS Sport, had not reacted skilfully to the fuss. It did not contribute to the trust...
The application process for cultural subsidies from the state could be simpler and clearer. The sector would also benefit from a less non-committal assessment of applicable codes of conduct around fair practice, good governance and diversity and inclusion. This demands something from institutions, but it also ensures a more future-proof and resilient sector. This is stated in an opinion by the Council for Culture
When the difference between the performer during the performance and afterwards is at least a thick metre, you know you are dealing with a great artist. Australian dancer Olympia Kotopoulos is a great artist, because on stage she fills the space, while in real life she barely counts one and a half metres. Art is, literally, larger than life....
'We have had the Top Income Standardisation Act since 2013. That means that in the semi-public sector, the highest in an organisation are not allowed to earn above a certain standard. There are conductors who earn as much in the evening as the entire orchestra costs. That, of course, is bizarre. Then I always wonder how it is that they can escape the dance.' This...
Every year, the most important collectors, the museums with the greatest buying power, the best art dealers and the people with lots of disposable income head to Maastricht to look at and (dis)buy art at art fair TEFAF. The champagne flows, designer bags dangle from every shoulder, and over a tart imported from Paris, or an oyster, a decision is made whether to buy a...
The Culture Council will be given room to elaborate on the renewal of the cultural system from 2029. State Secretary Uslu of Culture and Media has asked the council to issue its advice on this before the end of this year. "As a council, we cannot wait to take up this question together with the sector. To that end, we have now launched an innovative...
Diversity is a fact, inclusion an act. Simple statement, if you come upon it, and Jenny Mijnhijmer, actress and writer, came upon it. She was asked during the pandemic to chair a committee for the Authors' Association to figure out how that advocacy group for writers could become more inclusive and diverse. She didn't really feel like doing that at all. After all, we already talk...
Renée Steenbergen has made a name for herself through her expertise of private cultural finance and art collections1 . She recently received a lot of space in the NRC and attention from Culture Press for her latest publication The Art of Different. It made me curious. In her booklet, she makes some good proposals and offers useful suggestions for a healthier art business. For example: that both...
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