Heroes are not always the smartest people. Indeed, most acts that have gone down in history as heroes have been thoughtless actions. That happened to succeed. Pure luck. Against every heroic act, therefore, there is an unknown but not negligible number of senseless deaths of would-be heroes. The main character of the theatre play The Heroes, which I attended in Den Bosch on 4 August,...
Most young artists only find out after their studies that they lack important entrepreneurial skills. That is why ELIA, the network organisation for colleges of arts in Europe, is organising the conference: Making a Living From the Arts. On 14 and 15 September, academics, cultural entrepreneurs and artists from different countries will gather in Amsterdam. Together, they will discuss creative solutions for...
That libraries are doing badly was already known. But in the news about this, made public on 27 July by RTL, there is still something hidden that the editors themselves leave underexposed. Because who is paying the real price in the austerity operation? Indeed, the writers. The libraries settle that with a simple trick. They cancel the rent from their own...
[This post was already online under the title 'Save us from the Transition Office', but has been updated in a few details] While you are preparing for a well-deserved holiday, people in the arts sector are working on a new model. That new model is needed because the old model is no longer adequate. That old model, and we are of course talking about our...
Perplexity all round. How could D66 possibly vote against a minimal repair of the draconian cultural cuts of both Rutte cabinets? After all, only ten million is involved. That while party leader Alexander Pechtold, as culture spokesman, has been hammering on for an extra 10 million in every meeting for the past year. But exactly that happened last night. During the campaign, D66 went much further: from...
'I would love to have a human resources manager on staff, but yes, quite a shame.' Dixit the director of a medium-sized arts institution. As in the rest of the Dutch SME sector, in the arts sector personnel policy, or HR policy, is something that is at most done on the side. Anyone who has ever got it wrong can tell great stories about...
Radio Kunststof is one of the most successful early-evening programmes on our national disaster channel Radio 1. That success is partly due to its great formula: a long conversation with a more or less well-known figure from the arts and media corner. However, much more important reason for that success is the broadcast time. Between seven and eight in the evening, very...
One of the highlights of the year is always the presentation of 'the figures' by the Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Directors (VSCD). As it happens, these are unabatedly positive. For years. And so for years it has been a challenge to find out why those positive figures are so difficult to reconcile with the picture of reality. That not at all...
Arjan Peters talks 12 May 19.30 during ILFU in Utrecht with Paulien Cornelisse, author of the office novel De verwarde guia, and Gerd Busse, who translated Voskuil's ultimate office novel Het Bureau into German. There, office workers are usually not portrayed too positively. High time to change that. Office worker and writer Suzanne Brink takes...
The SER report published on Friday 21 April rubs it in nicely: the cultural sector is on the verge of collapse. It is even worse than a year ago. This shows that the patience of a PvdA culture minister over the past four years has not helped. Indeed: Halbe Zijlstra's multiplier of misery is doing its job entirely as expected....
Interview with Martijn Maria Smits about his new film Waldstille, which he shot in his native village in Brabant. A drama full of subcutaneous menace from a Dutch filmmaker with a signature of his own.
By now, we are a little surrounded by voting guides and electoral compasses. There is one for every area of policy. What to vote for if you have a beating heart for art? The Correspondent gave a nice little overview the other day. It showed that art is indeed a hobby of mainly left-wing parties, at least when it comes to subsidised art. Art...
During the big January cleaning in my private museum, I rediscovered the book released in 2007, on the occasion of the Music Building on the IJ, which opened two years earlier. I had forgotten that it came with a CD with four pieces on it. The fourth piece is a recording of the opening speech given by Jan Wolff [hints]former director IJsbreker, more than twenty...
'Many people find contemporary dance difficult. Especially performances by young makers who experiment and seek new ways. At the Moving Futures festival, everyone can discover how dance can touch you. We do this not only by showing good performances by young makers. We also offer activities around it, context programmes. By doing so, we give the audience tools to make a connection with...
The positive effects of culture are demonstrated again and again. It is high time the sector used these facts in improving its image. Our western and southern neighbours have boosted the image of culture with a number of successful initiatives. The sports sector is another example of image building that the cultural sector can learn from. There...
Gerard de Kleijn is leaving on 1 February after six years as director at Museum Gouda. The flamboyant, eloquent and erudite director leaves behind a financially and artistically healthy Museum for his successor Marc de Beyer. De Kleijn made the museum more accessible to Gouda residents and art lovers from outside the historic city. In 2016, the museum attracted around 40,000...
A usually reliable source reports that the winner of the New Year's Eve lottery wants to dedicate a significant part of her prize to culture. In this way, she wants to undo the cuts made by Rutte I. Six million will go directly to the Dutch Travel Opera. Another four million is earmarked for a new integral performance of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen. Also scheduled is a revival of Tristan und Isolde...
In contemporary dance, artistic leaders are often in place for decades, at least in the Netherlands. This week, Leo Spreksel announced his departure from Korzo, as of September 2017. After 29 years, the director and programmer of dance at the theatre and production house in The Hague is calling it a day, because "in the Netherlands, commercialisation pushes away the voice of artists: procedures and formats are...
On 20 December, the general membership meeting of Coöperatief Cultureel Persbureau unanimously decided to accept a cooperation offer from The Co-operative/House of Journalism and Reporters Online. This is an important step in the development of independent cultural journalism. Culture Press, as the Cooperative Cultural Press Agency is known on the internet and social media, is growing significantly as a result. The...
Het Veem is a small but important theatre and unofficial production house overlooking the Houthavens in Amsterdam. The house has long been home to internationally operating contemporary performing arts. A place where the artist and his or her experimental work are still central. Since Anne Breure became director in 2014, it bears the addition House of Performance. With...
In art, you work because of your passion, not because of the money. That is so, that was always so. In art, it is even suspect if you care about money. And if you do worry about money once, it immediately comes out rotten. Are you going to shout about culture, march der your...
Yesterday, the chamber made €10 million available for the arts. This brings the tally of government cuts to at least €190,000,000 still. This hard-won extra is the last thing that could be asked for. Everyone agrees, the new system has been definitively embraced. The protest has made itself redundant now that the compromise has been made. And what have we got...
On the day that in the Lower House, Minister Bussemaker passes up a chance for extra money for culture, young artists further down the street are winning prizes. On Monday 21 November, the Education, Culture and Science Committee spoke to Minister Bussemaker about the Culture Budget. Something that has far-reaching implications for the culture sector. Later in the evening, the presentation of...
In 1975, jazz musician Misha Mengelberg and artist Wim T. Schippers organised Een behoorlijk kabaal (Quite a racket) at Amsterdam's Mickery Theatre. For a week, they explore the different meanings of a concert in 'inimitable musical theatre'. Jacqueline Oskamp chose it as the title of her recently published book describing Dutch music history of the past century. Sad conclusion: there is...
The National Opera & Ballet is among the showpieces of Dutch cultural policy. And rightly so. Like the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Rijksmuseum, the opera and dance company is among the absolute world's best. That comes with a price tag. A hefty price tag. In the case of The National Opera: €24,420,000, in the case of The National Ballet: €6,950,000. Soon there will be a...
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