Things we do for members and partners.
As soon as I, as an art consumer, begin to suspect arbitrariness in the artist or his creative process, I drop out. Incidentally, this observation now surprises me. After all, I am no fetishist of form, nor am I a canon junkie, and I am not qualified in any of the standard artistic disciplines. Not a composer, not a performing musician and not an actor. Neither filmmaker nor director, nor a lyricist graduate....
Of course, this is really actually better news than what was already in the coalition agreement. The extra 10 million fought over last year for performing arts institutions that were good enough but fell below the saw line because of running out of money will get structural money added. Good news for a few clubs that would really be out of business otherwise, such as Orkater. The good news...
A new generation of leaders in culture rose at the Utrecht Academy Building on Thursday 9 November. The 39 leaders come from the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam to Schunck in Heerlen and from the VPRO in Hilversum to the Utrecht festival Le Guess Who. In a year and a half, they discovered new working methods and formulated new vistas for the arts. That could ...
Afterwards, it actually dawned on me what had gone wrong at No Man's Land. The event, a sort of combination of networking drinks, symposium and mega workshop was set up from the best of intentions. Initiated by The Cooperative, the club not to be confused with The Cooperative. The latter De Coöperatie is based in Amsterdam and is an alliance of freelance...
What would Italy be like a year after the earthquakes, we had wondered. What would be left of the centuries-old cultural heritage in this beautiful region on the border of Umbria, Marche and Lazio? Why do you never really hear about it in the news anymore? We ourselves, Vivian de Gier and Marc Brester, residents of just...
Well in advance of the March 2018 municipal elections, the Amsterdam Arts Council has come out with an Advisory Cultural Investment Account. The advice actually comes just too late to serve as input for the various election programmes of Amsterdam's main political parties. It is, however, well in time to possibly play a role in the coalition negotiations that will follow the...
In a lost hour, I read the Cultural Vision Amersfoort 2030. Not reading material to sit on the edge of your seat, but perfectly suitable for a train journey. I am not used to reading policy documents. It struck me that the tone of the Amersfoort Cultural Vision was confident, focused and determined. Firm language. No room for doubt. I asked myself...
In the final part of 'books of little souls', the once disgraced Constance sits in the dark and draughty country house where her reluctant parents-in-law used to live. Constance married their only child, Baron Henri van der Welcke, against their wishes. Constance's and Henri's son Addy is the only thing that connects these two people. Love for each other is never...
These days, we are bombarded to death with opinions on the pros and cons of multiculti. Depending on their political preferences, people are either very enthusiastic or very negative about the increasing 'colourisation' of our society. The gamelan ensemble Gending, the Doelen Kwartet and Het Geluid Maastricht decided to take the bull by the horns. They based Kill the West in Me on feminist letters from...
I treated myself to one of those noise-cancelling headphones. The thing produces anti-noise to filter out highway, refrigerator and air conditioning from my daily life. So that I can listen to podcasts better. Podcasts like The Dead Society's. In which I am reminded again how important background noise from highways, air conditioners and rustling trees is. Radio journalist Carine van Santen...
The Rutte III Cabinet is finally in place after long negotiations. It is a cabinet that will govern in financial prosperity, but that prosperity applies to a very limited extent to the Arts & Culture sector. Step by step, the cabinet will work towards an extra 80 million euros for the Culture sector from 2020, it says. But if this were to be enough...
Jan Fabre is a bit like the Jan Cremer of Flanders but younger, five times more talented, multidisciplinary and eight times more social. 'It is quite an honour to succeed Jan Hoet,' says Jan Fabre. Together with art historian Joanna De Vos, he is the curator of HET VLOT. Art is (not) lonely. The exhibition is intended to highlight the Mu.ZEE and the Belgian...
On Saturday evening 21 October, Belgian artist Jan Fabre opened 'his' expo 'Het Vlot. Art is (not) lonely'. This was done in a playful way at the KV Oostende stadium with 'A beautiful match between artists and curators'. The artists, including characters such as Goya, Da Vinci and a bloodied Van Gogh, turned back the curators 3-2. Angry tongues in the audience claimed...
The commotion about Beatrix Ruf's ancillary position, or rather just second job, touches on some important core values for the proper functioning of society in general and the cultural sector in particular. Firstly, that cooperation is based on trust. The Supervisory Board was justified in assuming that Ruf would not run a consultancy company alongside her...
Utrecht's Wolvenplein prison is sort of empty. Anyone who doesn't happen to have a conviction behind them themselves should go there for fun. I did so myself two years ago on an art project about the surveillance society. When I returned on Tuesday, 17 October 2017, for The Prison Monologues, the impression was still there. The...
High up in a posh flat, Lavalu (stage name of Marielle Woltring, Cleveland, Ohio, 1979) recently gave a try-out of her new programme at Eindhoven's FlatFest festival. For the first time now, she will tour without a band, solo with piano, in small venues where there is a good grand piano. On that Sunday afternoon in Brabant, it soon became clear that somewhere, something was...
World-renowned Dutch drummer Han Bennink celebrates his 75th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his ICP Orchestra at Utrecht's Le Guess Who? Festival (LGW). Time for a conversation with a diligent worker. All over the world, Han Bennink is famous. And for him, that whole world is his playground, literally. Bennink started drumming at an early age. Pots...
For centuries, scientists have seen connections between music and the ordering of the universe. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra took this as the starting point for its concert on 19 October in the Horizon series. A 'polyphonic cosmos' is being realised in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam. Peter Eötvös composed the organ concerto Multiversum for this, Rozalie Hirs wrote 'parallel world [breathing]'. Eötvös' piece is experiencing...
Dat je een schoen aan kunt trekken. Maar ook niet. Dat het eigenlijk niet zoveel zin heeft om een schoen aan te trekken, als je hem later op de dag toch ook weer uit zult doen. Why bother? Waarom leven? Herkenbaar? Voor wie ooit in een dip zat wel. Theatergroep Kassys, onlangs nog wereldwijd een hit met ‘Total Eclipse of…
It succeeded. And that's even though we really didn't have a cent's worth of confidence left here. But still. It is there, in the financial section of the 'Confidence in the Future' coalition agreement: 'Intensification of 0.1 bln euros for the benefit of the cultural sector and historical democratic awareness. (RA_631)' That's 100 million euros, which is exactly what one of...
Director Ivo van Hove chose the 'books of little souls' cycle as the conclusion of the Couperus triptych at Toneelgroep Amsterdam. He previously directed 'Silent Power' (2015) and 'The things that pass' (2016). Dramaturg Koen Tachelet adapted Couperus' Magnum Opus for the theatre. The books 'The Little Souls', 'The Late Life', 'Twilight of Souls' and 'The Sacred Knowing' together form the cycle 'The Books of...
His work has been featured in renowned fashion magazines worldwide. Majid Karrouch is currently one of our international calling cards in the creative Industry. I sought him out in his studio, which is as extraordinary as the images he creates. SCENE 1: #Ont encounter A while ago, I was first introduced to the exceptional work of a hidden Moroccan-Dutch fashion talent via Instagram....
NDT 1 concludes its triptych Side B: Adrift with Franck Chartier's new The Hidden Floor. After the performance, I literally lose my way. Different worlds "Franck?", I call out. In the rain, an unremarkable man approaches me. Yes, reads the reply from under a cap. It's Franck Chartier, on his way to the studio in...
Bis an der Welt ihr Ende is the poetic title of a CD by Per-Sonat featuring German songs from the time of the Reformation. This ensemble of mezzo-soprano Sabine Lutzenberger focuses on music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. This CD follows the development of German song from church reformer Martin Luther to the composer Johann Hermann Schein....
Museums in the Netherlands are doing well. Today, the Museum Association released a kind of annual report in which this was made abundantly clear in tables and graphs. Visits are increasing. Between 2015 and 2016, the sector counted 2.5 million more visits. Mainly by foreign tourists. At the same time, more and more museums are running at a loss. According to the Museum Association, that negative balance now hits for...
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