It appears that your browser has JavaScript disabled. The SecSign ID login requires your browser to be JavaScript enabled.SecSign Support

Please donate!

We invest in our journalism. We are independent. Thanks to donations from readers like you!

Donate

Choose a payment method

Would you like to share your details with us?

No Yes

Name

First name

Surname

E-mail (not compulsory)

Confirm E-mail (not mandatory)

If you are human, leave this field blank.

Amersfoort

Culture Council sounds alarm: 29.5 million needed to preserve arts sector

by Wijbrand Schaap
8 April 201529 March 2022
7 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

What is already going on on a small scale in Groningen, Enschede, Zaltbommel, Amersfoort, Gorinchem and Vlaardingen, is threatening to happen nationwide as well: cultural institutions falling over while politicians look on helplessly. According to the Council for Culture, the situation is alarming: 'Institutions are draining their own funds, cultural funds are maintaining schemes by drawing on reserves. We therefore make the urgent...

Read More "

Butt pinching for Amersfoort cultural organisations

by one of our members
6 April 201530 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Amersfoort's cultural scene is in turmoil over a series of possible austerity proposals. In recent weeks, the public was allowed to give its opinion. The city council will make final decisions in May. Meanwhile, beloved theatre De Lieve Vrouw is already in dire financial straits. Amersfoort has been under financial supervision by the province of Utrecht since the end of 2014. The municipality mainly suffers...

Read More "

Amersfoort masterpieces for Flehite museum

by one of our members
21 March 201530 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

The Amersfoort museum Flehite has been able to acquire two masterpieces with the support of an antiquities association. The oil painting Still life with rose and anemone (1933) by Albert Fiks (1908-1945) and the 'canvas' Dahlias in ginger jar (1917) by Jakob Nieweg were added to the collection. Both paintings are among highlights of the Amersfoort artists' oeuvres. Jakob Nieweg (Hogebeintum 1877) was trained as a pastor....

Read More "

Signs of Life: photographic ode to roadside monuments

by one of our members
9 March 201529 March 2022
5 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Tree monuments make visible the unexpected and violent strike of death. Usually along public roads but sometimes in more remote places. Amersfoort-based photographer Jeroen Hansen photographed hundreds of them in recent years, resulting in the recently published photo book Signs of Life. A bunch of flowers tied to a dented crash barrier. Candles, photos or a teddy bear at a sharp...

Read More "

Amersfoort absurdist Ron Jagers seeks the limits of the everyday

by Jeroen de Valk
1 March 201530 March 2022
5 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Ron Jagers has been providing playful commentary on culture in Amersfoort and elsewhere for 45 years. His latest find is the 'Prince Bernhard Fanclub'. But the 63-year-old absurdist and multi-artist also made a gripping book about East Berlin before the fall of the wall. 'hop, two-three-four!' He walks along in the Silent Fanfare, an orchestra that marches forward with much fuss

Read More "

Amersfoort cultural policy filleted: 'Once started, there's no turning back'

by Wijbrand Schaap
11 February 201511 February 2015
8 min read
ACTUAL, VISUAL

In Amersfoort, one art hall is empty and one art hall is full. KAdE, only recently completed and already successful, was dismantled five years after opening and moved to another, even newer building, across the railway line. However, the city council does not appear to have been properly informed about the financial consequences of this move and is now stuck with and noose of at least 10...

Read More "

A dress made from a mop. Chris Nauta breaks through with recycling fashion

by Jeroen de Valk
2 December 201429 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, VISUAL

Chris Nauta breaks through. The Amersfoort-based artist makes new clothes from old blankets, tents and other unlikely materials. She was prominent at Oerol and can count stars including Gregory Porter among her fans. 'My customers get a unique piece of art and reduce waste.' Chris Nauta is Central Netherlands' recycling artist. She makes winter coats from used blankets, brightly coloured bags from...

Read More "

Maas Theatre and Dance's Greeks: compelling and bewildering for young and old alike

by Maarten Baanders
3 November 201414 September 2018
5 min read
ACTUAL, DANS, PODIUM ART, THEATER

First story. A naked king crawls at the feet of a woman. She is much taller than him, a goddess. High above him, she holds a bunch of grapes in her hand. Hungry he is! He wants those grapes, all of them. His body is vulnerable. It seems to shiver in the open air. But when it comes to the coveted food, he fetches...

Read More "

4 reasons why De Stijl is handicapped without Hendrik Valk

by Maarten Baanders
13 May 201429 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Straight lines, single-coloured surfaces. Red, yellow, blue and white. Representing the essence of reality. That was the aim of the painters of De Stijl in the first half of the last century. At the same time, Hendrik Valk also had this ideal.

Read More "

Boukje Schweigman's wordless philosophy

by Maarten Baanders
5 November 201329 March 2022
7 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Even before she graduated from mime school, Boukje Schweigman swore off language. She worked out a wordless philosophy in her performances. She seeks the mystery of life. However vast and elusive her starting points may be, her performances give the audience the most direct, immediate, skin-tight sensation imaginable in a theatre.

Read More "

Culture day: not a penny for Oriëntalis, no brake on Amsterdam cutbacks and Vlissinger library unsaleable

by one of our members
24 November 201130 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

State secretary does not give museum park Orientalis a cent (...) Interim director Peter Berns had asked Zijlstra, state secretary for Education, Culture and Science, for a one-off subsidy of six million euros. The province of Gelderland is willing to make a one-off contribution, if necessary, but only if the government also comes over the bridge. So that is not the case now, confirms a disappointed Berns. Source:...

Read More "

Discount news: cut in government websites and action for Metropole orchestra

by one of our members
15 November 201130 March 2022
4 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Donner Puts Knife In Websites Central Government The ministries collectively run nearly 400 websites, most of which do not meet official accessibility requirements. Minister Donner wants a clean-up first. (...) The municipalities, of which only 2 per cent fully comply with the web guidelines, have until the end of 2012 to comply with the lowest level and another two years after that to fully...

Read More "

Rush to festival featuring Dutch youth theatre on Broadway

by one of our members
7 November 20118 July 2016
2 min read
ACTUAL

In the country where Jan Klaasen is only allowed to beat up Katrijn with a hot-air balloon, because a puppet show clubbing is not good for delicate children's souls, Dutch professional youth theatre turns out to be unexpectedly in demand. In short, a genuine Dutch youth theatre festival in New York has already sold 2,500 tickets, and it is still going strong. Of at least two of the four productions...

Read More "

Maxima opens new home for youth opera house Holland Opera on 3 October

by one of our members
27 August 201030 March 2022
1 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Indeed, the name Xynix was somewhat outdated. And since, thanks to the efforts of its own company and Yo! Opera, which started as a youth opera festival, opera nowadays turns out to be suitable for young people too, a more adult name is appropriate: Holland Opera. The company settled in Amersfoort in a former company building near the railway station: De Verensmederij. The building, after a renovation, is...

Read More "