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Podcast in times of Culture Press (12) with Yolande Melsert, Cultural Attachée in Indonesia: 'It's nice that now in Dutch museums the signs are being hung.'

Just a breather from the stress. Today I am talking to Yolande Melsert. She is cultural attachée of the Dutch embassy in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. Because of the corona-lockdown, she is temporarily back in the Netherlands. Reason enough to look back on an eventful year in relations between the Netherlands and its former colony. Indonesia is still a young country. You notice... 

Read More "Podcast in times of Culture Press (12) with Yolande Melsert, Cultural Attachée in Indonesia: 'It's nice that now in Dutch museums the signs are being hung.'

Culture ministry's support package is a joke. Why a culture strike is needed. And easier than ever.

Slowly but surely, the absurdity of the rescue measures for the cultural sector is sinking in. The national museums will not have to pay rent for three months for a while, but will have to pay it back retroactively once the crisis is over. Entrepreneurs can get extra support worth 4,000 euros, provided they have business premises outside their homes. Actors, directors (also freelance journalists, by the way) and artists... 

Read More "Culture ministry's support package is a joke. Why a culture strike is needed. And easier than ever.

Culture sector support package: subsidies continue, rent arrears are allowed, and please don't ask for your money back just yet.

It's not 50 billion, like in Germany, but it's more than nothing: the support measures Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven announced today for the hard-hit cultural sector. And, who knows, this may offer openings to do a few things completely differently after this crisis. For instance, it is great that the national museums do not have to pay rent for a while,... 

Read More "Culture sector support package: subsidies continue, rent arrears are allowed, and please don't ask for your money back just yet.
Albania-the-civic-duty-of-protecting-the-National-Theatre

Artists show Albania the way to EU accession

An artists' protest in Albania deserves extra attention. Especially as EU accession negotiations resume. Indeed, the protest action is impressive and offers a view of EU accession from an interesting perspective. That of a people who are committed to democratic values, who value their own history and culture, who do not want to give way to... 

Read More "Artists show Albania the way to EU accession

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... 

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

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. 

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... 

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

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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Anfield's best pasties work against degradation. (Lessons from Manchester, episode 4, the Liverpool edition)

There is something incredibly cosy about it. While outside the storm is howling through deserted, boarded-up shopping streets full of demolished mini houses, baking pasties against the malady. But so it does work. On the side of The Kop, the most famous stand at the Anfield stadium on Liverpool's Oakfield Road, Dutch artist Jeanne van Heeswijk established a neighbourhood cooperative in 2012, when megalomaniacal urban renewal plans... 

Read More "Anfield's best pasties work against degradation. (Lessons from Manchester, episode 4, the Liverpool edition)

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 ... 

Read More "Why the 4 March parliamentary debate was totally unnecessary.

Divided loyalties, racism and a split house in HBO's The Plot Against America

I had the chance to attend the 500th anniversary - it took place at the beautiful Teatro La Fenice - of the first Jewish ghetto during my visit to Venice in 2016. One of the speakers was historian Simon Schama. During his lecture, I was given a brief history of Jewish suffering in Italy. According to... 

Read More "Divided loyalties, racism and a split house in HBO's The Plot Against America

Investing in culture is pointless if you can't think ten years ahead. (Lessons from Manchester, episode 3)

When a Dutchman thinks about art, he thinks of buildings that cannot support themselves, played by, or hung with work by, people who cannot sustain themselves. So money must be added, and we call this subsidy. In this way, art subsidies become a suspicious form of welfare, more suspicious than the billions in income support that wealthy... 

Read More "Investing in culture is pointless if you can't think ten years ahead. (Lessons from Manchester, episode 3)

Song festival-gate update: fee for spectacle orchestra even lower

Those who want to be musicians have to bleed. Earlier, we reported that the highlight of the Dutch edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was going to be performed by professional musicians and conservatoire students who would receive 100 euros a day for it. Outrageously little, when you know that full days of work were going to be involved anyway, for eight days. Well: it's even worse than... 

Read More "Song festival-gate update: fee for spectacle orchestra even lower

Opinion deputies Culture: 'For Culture, set the navigation a bit more often on Eastern Netherlands!'

The new year often starts with new insights and resolutions. A critical reflection can then help. We were therefore delighted to read the Volkskrant of 2 January, in which columnist and theatre critic Merlijn Kerkhof concludes that in 2020, he wants to enjoy all that the Netherlands has to offer in terms of culture a bit more often outside 020. And that is only right,... 

Read More "Opinion deputies Culture: 'For Culture, set the navigation a bit more often on Eastern Netherlands!'

Ekaterina Levental: 'I come from the very bottom of society, didn't even have the right to be here, was even less than a junkie.'

Singer, harpist and theatre-maker Ekaterina Levental (Tashkent, 1977) came to the Netherlands as a refugee in 1993, where she built a successful career. Together with her partner Chris Koolmees, she made the triptych De Weg, De Grens and Schoppenvrouw, in which she sings of her own difficult road to happiness. With her pocket performances, she holds up a mirror to us: 'We are quick to judge a... 

Read More "Ekaterina Levental: 'I come from the very bottom of society, didn't even have the right to be here, was even less than a junkie.'

The new defence: don't talk but bring! (How a dinner argument leads to genius insights)

I am sitting at the dinner table at my parents' house. We are celebrating my mother's birthday with the whole family. I am there, but I am not quite there. In fact, I am so incredibly tired at the moment. As I jokingly tell my friends, "I can't say boo or boo anymore and am running on my gums". Suddenly, the conversation turns to... 

Read More "The new defence: don't talk but bring! (How a dinner argument leads to genius insights)

What is the remplaçanten-cao and why is it so bad that the NPO applies it to the Eurovision Song Contest?

[update: they get even less, see post below] We received confusing news last weekend. The occasion was the festive announcement by the organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest that a special symphonic happening would take place at the final in Rotterdam. Invited were third-year and master students from Rotterdam Conservatoire, part of Codarts, as well as young professional musicians. For the performances... 

Read More "What is the remplaçanten-cao and why is it so bad that the NPO applies it to the Eurovision Song Contest?

(update: Song Contest response and nuanced message) Playing with the Eurovision Song Contest Orchestra? From 100 euros per day

In the first version of this post, we assumed 100 euros for 8 days. We turned out to be misinformed. The application of the remplaçants' collective agreement, mentioned in the explanation by the Song Festival, gives a bit more leeway, although its hourly and daily rates are still controversial. But 1,000 euros for eight days is now apparently the going rate.... 

Read More "(update: Song Contest response and nuanced message) Playing with the Eurovision Song Contest Orchestra? From 100 euros per day

Threatened theatre directors speaking: 'It literally hurts me when I hear that something like this is going to be abolished.'

'I didn't know you could also be digitised away in this sector, but so you can.' Susanne Visser and Annemiek Lely sounded the alarm on Saturday 7 December. Their jobs as ushers at theatre performances are in jeopardy. Companies would rather keep people engaged through podcasts, and such an usher only costs money. On Monday, December 9, we obtained... 

Read More "Threatened theatre directors speaking: 'It literally hurts me when I hear that something like this is going to be abolished.'

New parents are born every year! (Why theatre programmers need to take much more risk)

With red cheeks, I hang up the phone a little bewildered. Just now I had a telephone appointment that took a completely different turn. I had a brief conversation with a theatre programmer who is still unknown to me. She unfortunately told me not to programme anything with our impresario, because there was really no need for artistic performances in her city. This lady stated that her... 

Read More "New parents are born every year! (Why theatre programmers need to take much more risk)

Why I am suddenly hugely in favour of live music in any theatre performance.

I went to Rotterdam Zuid to see Shakespeare. The play was called Cleopatra and someone had tried to turn it into a feminist manifesto. That is something like making a rhinoceros jump through a hoop: the British bard relates to feminism as Thierry Baudet relates to Greta Thunberg. So it had not succeeded, and the reviewer of... 

Read More "Why I am suddenly hugely in favour of live music in any theatre performance.

'The decision to underpay freelancers is incomprehensible and a blot on the record' - 'Leaders in Culture' call for fair payment of freelancers

'How many more talented creators do we have to lose to other sectors because they cannot reconcile the undervaluation with the quality of their product? People choose eggs for their money in the long run, when children need to be fed or mortgages paid. The sector is hollowing itself out if we don't take better care of our talent.' Thirty leaders in the cultural sector speak out 

Read More "'The decision to underpay freelancers is incomprehensible and a blot on the record' - 'Leaders in Culture' call for fair payment of freelancers

Performing arts happy with Chamber's clamour

Modest cheers in the performing arts world. A motion tabled on 18 November by Corinne Ellemeet (GroenLinks), together with PvdA, CDA and D66, forces minister Van Engelshoven to investigate the consequences of the cuts to the Performing Arts Fund before the subsidy is distributed. The House approved this on 26 November. Wonderful, you might say, because if clear... 

Read More "Performing arts happy with Chamber's clamour

After the budget debate, the performing arts sector will have to be even more patient. Until spring.

The culture sector will have to be patient for a while yet. Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven had no intention of changing any of her policies on Monday 18 November, during the discussion of the culture budget in the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Culture. Despite a fairly widely supported desire, especially from the opposition, to do something about the 8.6 million cut in the... 

Read More "After the budget debate, the performing arts sector will have to be even more patient. Until spring.

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