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Podcast in Times of Corona Silence (8): 'In the end, more than 1,000 people watched that video' - Deborah Jacobs on the silenced world of cover bands and village festivals

An online party with a few close friends, and that you then invite a musician to perform live there. It can be done, and Deborah Jacobs would think it a fantastic idea. The musician, music teacher and lyricist from Breda had just about got her act together when Corona struck. All at once, all performances were cancelled and the... 

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Because there are also just little creatives with a story: 'Zuheir, born glassblower'.

The absurdity of the pandemic is slowly sinking in, but still remains unfathomable. We will keep you updated on developments. But the bow cannot always be tight. Sometimes a moment of attention is needed, for the beauty people are capable of. Therefore, a short film about glassblower Zuheir Alkazzaz who fled Syria because... 

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Tears and pancake flour - Noël Fischer a week after Trojan Wars cancellation

Director Noël Fischer, artistic director of HNTJong, Het Nationale Theater's youth club, learned a week ago just before the first try-out that she and Trojan Wars would not be allowed on stage for the try-out, nor for Saturday's premiere. No ordinary performance but a marathon performance with three parts, with fodder for the mind (music) and the... 

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Podcast in times of Corona (6): Madeleine Matzer on returning to factory settings.

Yesterday, I read this update from Madeleine Matzer on facebook: 'Two years ago, I chose this view. So beautiful. So quiet. So serene. And so well suited to the hectic and dynamic life I normally lead. Insanely meaningful work with wonderful and inspiring colleagues, a large and delightful social network, and then also all those opportunities for... 

Read More "Podcast in times of Corona (6): Madeleine Matzer on returning to factory settings.

What do we do with conferences? Two day speakers on their work in a contact-poor world. 

'Like asking after a play or a concert which seats they had in the auditorium.' According to Gerrit Heijkoop, it is not interesting to know what software you can use to share knowledge online, or organise video chats. 'You can go to Facebook, to YouTube, and then there are all kinds of programmes. If you want to communicate, it goes... 

Read More "What do we do with conferences? Two day speakers on their work in a contact-poor world. 

MAAS TV AND MAAS @ HOME THEATRE-HOME PROGRAMME FOR YOUNG AND OLD

Under the guise of 'what can still be done', Maas theatre and dance has developed a programme for children, young people, parents sitting at home who do feel like or need theatre in these unreal times. We came up with Maas TV, an online channel on our website where children, young people and adults can watch a daily registration of... 

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Podcast in times of Corona (2): Oscar Kocken on the bible of an anonymous war victim. And what his grandfather has to do with it me.

When he started for himself in 2006, the CoC's question was not, how Oscar Kocken would later deal with a global pandemic of apocalyptic proportions, income-wise. This is just to show what a toughass our minister of economic affairs is, and how we still get some understanding of the wall of misunderstanding where the... 

Read More "Podcast in times of Corona (2): Oscar Kocken on the bible of an anonymous war victim. And what his grandfather has to do with it me.

A morale boost for when you're feeling down. Top 5 indie film streams from a true fan

Last week, my in-box and my social media feed were full of cancellations. Screenings, film festivals and museums: everything I was looking forward to or contributing to was cancelled or shelved. Understandable and sensible. But also maddening, and a loss of income for me and many others in the cultural sector. Still, there are things that... 

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Comfort in times of Corona - Why adult animated films are so effective. (With Podcast)

Last year it was suddenly buzzing around: Dutch animation film is going to break through, a real animation industry has emerged. The occasion was the premiere of Heinz, Piet Kroon's whimsical and out-of-step film version of Windig and De Jong's comics. Not a children's film. And certainly not a Disney clone. We are talking about feature-length animation films, and there are many of those in the Netherlands.... 

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UPDATE: House passes motion. Minister works on 'support package'. Culture Council sounds alarm. (And look what the eastern neighbours are doing!)

UPDATE Friday, March 13, 9:30 a.m.: After the Culture Council sounded the alarm on Thursday night, the House of Representatives passed a motion urging a support package for the affected cultural sector. The text of the motion, tabled by D66, Groen Links, PvdA, Partij van de Dieren, Denk and 50Plus, reads as follows: 'The Chamber, having heard the debate, whereas meetings with... 

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Fred Goessens leaves ITA: 'In every group there is such a reliable lobster as me'

Fred Goessens has been dead, but is still alive. As uncompromising as ever. The Netherlands' most reliable actor makes an interim will after twenty-two years with Toneelgroep Amsterdam. 'I had shit on everything' This interview was published 10 years ago in TheaterMaker, the trade magazine for the theatre sector. As Fred Goessens is now leaving ITA, the company where he once... 

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PLATFORM COMMENCEMENT! LET'S BEGIN

On 2 March, Platform Aanvang! launched the petition Nederland maakt kunst / art makes the Netherlands at the Solidarity evening in ITA. An evening that opened the conversation for a solidarity sector, but most of all sounded the alarm for the planned downsizing of the arts sector. The petition was signed by more than 11,000 people in a week. When we saw the... 

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When it suddenly feels complicated to clap. Play based on Rodaan al Galidi's novel delivers necessary discomfort

Talent is often developed thanks to considerable opposition. Rodaan Al Galidi got talent for life thanks to more opposition than a white, former blonde Dutchman like me will ever meet. He escaped from Iraq and then spent years in the purgatory of the IND and COA, the abbreviations that define the border of the Netherlands. He wrote down what he... 

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That's how you give your city a real vision. (How Manchester became a leader in international arts in just a few years)

I have often resisted thinking of the Netherlands as a business. After all, a country cannot lay off people, or divest unprofitable sectors to make more profit. So anyone who speaks of the BV Nederland has not understood it. There are no competitors that you can fight out of the market while being entrepreneurial on those few square kilometres of polder land,... 

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Why the 4 March parliamentary debate was totally unnecessary.

After all, we did spend just under three hours on something completely nonsensical. Stupid, of course, as we had already written ourselves on 27 November 2019 that today's little debate in the Troelstra Room of the House of Representatives would be totally pointless. Everyone already knew that too, not least the movers of the motion, including Lodewijk Asscher ... 

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Paolo Cognetti: 'The mountains give me a lesson in humility every time.'

With his novel The Eight Mountains, Italian writer Paolo Cognetti (42) broke through internationally in 2017. Without Reaching the Top again takes place at great heights. 'The mountains give me a lesson in humility every time.' Without Reaching the Top is the travelogue of Cognetti's mountain trek in late 2017 through a high plateau in Nepal near the... 

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Hide the books, if you want people in the library. (Lessons from Manchester, episode 2)

A real estate agent once confided in me that a bookcase in the living room saves thousands of euros in the resale value of a house. In a negative sense. This fact always does well at parties, and book lovers (my network is full of them) grudge it. On a tour of Manchester Central Library, the head librarian proudly told us that the café... 

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Testament of Herman Finkers: don't brood on this wonderful life

Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was a composer, scientist, writer, doctor, mystic and founder of a convent. So a Catholic nun, but one who did explore female orgasm. The latter paradox resonates, Herman Finkers obviously realised when he wrote the screenplay for 'The Legs of St Hildegard'. Hildegard's description of orgasm read: 'When a woman makes love... 

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Better late than never. Employers in the creative sector are asking for an extra 100 million. And counting.

While I was walking around Manchester with some cultural sector leaders, minister Ingrid van Engelshoven sent a letter to the House, telling it how much it would cost to enable state-subsidised arts organisations to get fair pay at the current offer. So that letter contained quite a few omissions: the minister was silent on the role played by regional and... 

Read More "Better late than never. Employers in the creative sector are asking for an extra 100 million. And counting.

Eva's Klage at TivoliVredenburg: Lera Auerbach takes on the smothered female voice

Russian Lera Auerbach (1973) does not shy away from big challenges. And that is an understatement. Most recently, she made a big impression with her cycle Goetia 72: in umbra lucis. She composed this setting of the names of 72 demons for the Netherlands Chamber Choir and the string quartet Quatuor Danel. A CD of 72 Angels: in splendore lucis, in which... 

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70th Berlinale, under new management, opens with My Salinger Year and commemorates Hanau victims

"We are hopeful," is the reply when I speak to a colleague just before the start of the Berlin film festival. For curious as to how the choice of Carlo Chatrian as the new artistic director has fallen among German critics. Chatrian, previously director of the leading arthouse festival in Locarno, lies well, I understand. Whether this 70th Berlinale will see all that new momentum... 

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Netherlands Wind Ensemble launches second tour of The Unknown Chaplin an ode to Chaplin's artistry, with newly composed music

After its successful tour last November, the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble will tour again with The Unknown Chaplin. The second tour - from 3 March to 22 March - will take in venues in Ede, Helmond, Tilburg, Den Haag, Amersfoort, Enschede, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. www.nbe.nl/programma/the-unknown-chaplin/ Six hilarious, humorous and melancholic silent films by the great universal genius Charlie... 

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Games - culture or not?

That gaming plays an important role in contemporary, Dutch youth culture is obvious. Yet during exhibitions and in museums, attention to this extremely popular phenomenon is usually lacking. Why does gaming remain so underexposed here? Art is such a broad concept that we can include just about anything between rock drawings and graffiti. That breadth then also matches the... 

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Reinbert is dead, long live Reinbert!

'I get up with you and I go to bed with you,' I said jokingly. We stood in his kitchenette, where he made coffee for himself and tea for me. Reinbert's big startled eyes told me that my ironic remark had landed in the barren soil of his deadly seriousness. - It was not the first and not the last 

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There is chaos in the Cultural Basic Infrastructure grant application process. Therefore, we leave you to read the email. 

That government distrust of citizens in the Netherlands has reached bizarre proportions is proven by the hassle with benefits at the tax office and the state of affairs at the UWV. Or your average housing landlord where you want to report a leaky tap. Thanks to a politics influenced by false entrepreneurialism and rabid populism that treats citizens as fraudsters... 

Read More "There is chaos in the Cultural Basic Infrastructure grant application process. Therefore, we leave you to read the email. 

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