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Paul Ruven only rents himself a venue

Gloating is a beautiful and deeply human thing. Director, screenwriter and film producer Paul Ruven - known for one Dutch film blockbuster after another, as we call Het Bombardement - recently received an imposing bucket of critical shit poured over him in response to his new bake The Surrender. So much that the Amsterdam cinemas did not want to get burned by it.

Still, Ruven does not let himself be cowed.

He tweeted jubilantly today:

Were it not for the fact that he hu...

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Aufführung der Komposition " Delusion of the fury " von Harry Partch in der Musiktheater Inszenierung von Heiner Goebbels mit dem Ensemble musikFabrik in der Jahrhunderthalle Bochum im Rahmen der Ruhrtriennale 2012-14 am Mittwoch, 21.08.2013

Seeing music (and not hearing it?)

Because of my fascination with the complex relationship between listening and watching, I decided to visit three performances at the recent Holland Festival and experience what happened when I tried to pay equal attention to ears and eyes. The first was "Delusion of the Fury" (1966) by American composer Harry Partch, the second a concert performance of Philip Glass's opera "The CIVIL warS" (1983), the third a performance of Franz Schubert's "Die Winterreise" (1827) in which...

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Peter Eötvös writes DoReMi for violinist Midori

For years he was a conductor who also composed, but after operas such as Le balcon and Angels in America Hungarian Peter Eötvös (1944) is now a composer who also conducts. On Friday 21 February, he leads the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn in the Dutch premiere of his Violin Concerto No 2, DoReMi, which he composed in 2012 for Japanese violinist Midori. - I spoke to him last week.

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5 lessons from a Tilburg riot: superficial newspaper determines superficial cultural politics

Regional newspapers hardly do any real cultural journalism anymore. We know this because it was the reason we once founded Culture Press. Just how bad things are now, five years later, with art in the region and the way newspapers deal with it, was evident this month in Tilburg. A local journalist from the Brabants Dagblad had written a piece on questions raised by a PVV MP in the province. In the news story, this former sports journalist qualified...

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Ivo van Hove is God. According to New Yorkers.

Anyway: while Amsterdam's city newspaper Parool was embarking on a campaign against the Dutch capital's city company at the behest of the Flemish publishing board, the same Toneelgroep Amsterdam was winning the hearts of New York audiences with a production of the already years-old 'Roman Tragedies', which a few here did not even like overall: http://www.wijbrandschaap.nl/2007/06/romeinse-tragedies-hf2007ta/

No sour sounds in America so far. This sam...

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Eric de Vroedt: 'Eventually reached Obama too'

Winning two awards in one weekend, that doesn't often happen to a person, not even in the award-winning art world. Eric de Vroedt is a theatre-maker and writer to whom it has thus happened. Entering his final season of 'MightySociety', he was awarded the Amsterdam Prize (35,000 euros) and the Prize of Criticism (a statuette), determined by a jury of newspaper critics.

In this skype interview, he talks about his motivations, and about how, with a performance that sometimes...

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Nobody likes a critic

While YouTubesurfing, I stumbled upon these razor-sharp sketches by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. Originating from the heyday of their brilliant programme A Bit Of Fry & Laurie. Watching this beautifully persiflated windbaggery, a nasty feeling came over me that damn little has changed in the mindset of art critics since this sketch was broadcast. Complacency is always lurking.

Critics are oddballs, including us at Culture...

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Paradiso full of dance energy at I Like To Watch Too

I Like To Watch Too: abundance of performances shows that dance and performance are powerfully connected to modern society. The dance steps rain down on you even before you have entered Paradiso. Tim Boerlijst tap-dances on the pavement. This infectious welcome immediately draws visitors into the atmosphere of 'I Like To Watch Too'. This festival showcases dance and performance from... 

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Theodor Holman seeks new frontiers

 At the request of Amsterdam debate centre De Balie, Parool and Groene Amsterdammer columnist Theodor Holman wrote a play about a conversation between Anders Breivik and Geert Wilders. In an interview with Joost Niemöller of the opinion blog 'De Dagelijkse Standaard', the presenter and writer explained that he admires Breivik's analysis of the situation in Europe, which he also believes... 

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News from the national culture front

Positive news to start with: in The Hague, the municipality is doubling photographer/filmmaker Anton Corbijn's contribution to his youth culture fund Haagse Bluf by €75,000. Corbijn explicitly told the fund not to interfere in the subsidised cultural sector. So compensation for the cuts need not be expected. In Arnhem, the alderman is satisfied with the... 

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Science shows: the story accompanying a work of art is more important than the art itself

It has finally been scientifically proven: a work of art does not stand alone. A work of art is only truly appreciated when the viewer is told that it is real art. British professor Martin Kemp conducted research with brain scans at Oxford University and provided proof that the way we look at art is "completely irrational". The research... 

Read More "Science shows: the story accompanying a work of art is more important than the art itself

Benefit Giving Act, cultural budgets, Brabant, Amsterdam, Arnhem, Eindhoven, Goes, Utrecht et al.

Tax benefits to be gained this year (...) With effect from 2012, under the new Giving Act, there is an additional tax facility for donations (incidental or via periodic donations) to charitable institutions (non-profit organisations) designated as cultural institutions. Those cultural donations may be multiplied by a factor of 125 per cent for the gift deduction. This... 

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

PVV provincial councillor Faber earlier this year on the former Biblical Museum, now Orientalis: "I don't need 20 million euros to talk to a Muslim. Nor to talk to a Jew or Christian for that matter. The PVV already hates subsidies, but if it has anything to do with Islam we won't give anything." State secretary gives museum park... 

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

Crowdsourcing: Urgent help sought on complex legal document from ministry on Netherlands Music Institute

We have received an initial response from the ministry to an objection from an institution to be cut away. In this case, the Netherlands Music Institute. Ministry products and services officer, appropriately named Drs Spijker, dismisses the objection, but we have some questions about the precise legal hedging of the whole thing. And we ourselves, of course, are... 

Read More "Crowdsourcing: Urgent help sought on complex legal document from ministry on Netherlands Music Institute

Distress call for theatre school Roosendaal at last minute, arts venue Veenendaal scrapped Discount news from all regions

(...) The Youth Theatre School Roosendaal received a project subsidy of 36,779 euros from the municipality in 2010 and 2011. The school also fulfils a regional function. Forty per cent of its 330 pupils come from the surrounding villages. The proposal is to end the subsidy from 1 January. It was only this week that this apparently dawned on Hofplein's management. Which immediately started a... 

Read More "Distress call for theatre school Roosendaal at last minute, arts venue Veenendaal scrapped Discount news from all regions

New Culture Council president? 'Van Klink creates a crisis himself so he can then solve it'

Pim van Klink is his name. He has been popping up everywhere lately. Especially when the malicious subsidy orientation of the cultural sector needs to be pointed out, every medium calls Van Klink first. Last week, he once again threw his hobbyhorse into the henhouse in the NRC and was invited to join Buitenhof. And according to our trench-coat-clad... 

Read More "New Culture Council president? 'Van Klink creates a crisis himself so he can then solve it'

'There are provinces where you can vote VVD or CDA just fine'; new website gives voting tips to art lovers

It looked like a party. Coffee and flan, a Maastricht song, brass band music and a speech by Prince Carnival. Optimism surrounded the launch of the website nadeschreeuwnudestem.nl on 21 February. Surely the cry for culture in November was mainly a voice of dissent. Now there is a chance to take forward-looking action. 'Mobilise everyone you know to join the March 2... 

Read More "'There are provinces where you can vote VVD or CDA just fine'; new website gives voting tips to art lovers

US grantmaker wants an art world with more creativity and less money

Now in terms of tax money, they already spend hardly anything on the arts, in America. But many think even that is too much. Earlier, we reported on Facebook and Twitter about Republican America's call to abolish subsidies altogether. Meanwhile, the president of the National American Arts Fund NAE (National Endowment of the Arts) has taken a bat... 

Read More "US grantmaker wants an art world with more creativity and less money

Arts budget debated in second chamber: hardly any discussion on 200 million cut to performing arts

We were at a debate day in The Hague that was as inconspicuous as it was historic on 13 December 2010: it was about the budget of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the (first?) Rutte government, and that was the budget in which, at the request of the supporting party PVV, the amount to be cut in the arts budget was set at 200 million, with heritage and museums having to... 

Read More "Arts budget debated in second chamber: hardly any discussion on 200 million cut to performing arts

Culture Council threatens to pronounce 'unacceptable' on cabinet plans with arts and media

"It cannot be ruled out that previous choices made by the cabinet, such as on the VAT increase and the sharp cut in the Music Centre of the Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation, together with the announced cuts will cause irreparable damage to the cultural sector." Of course, even though Halbe Zijlstra has thankfully banned the term "Leftist Hobby" when it comes to culture, the distinguished gentlemen... 

Read More "Culture Council threatens to pronounce 'unacceptable' on cabinet plans with arts and media

Order of Tax Advisers severely criticises VAT increase for performing arts: 'theatres will be in exceptional position'

The Rutte government is defending the VAT increase on admission tickets to theatres and concerts, claiming that it will straighten out an exception for the arts. However, this does not appear to be true, according to a response from the Order of Tax Advisers to the proposal. "The Bar Association additionally points out that the explanatory memorandum notes that for the performing arts on... 

Read More "Order of Tax Advisers severely criticises VAT increase for performing arts: 'theatres will be in exceptional position'

Prize of (Theatre) Criticism 2010 to musical workshop M-Lab

M-Lab Just as it was announced that the musical production house M-Lab is in financial distress, a helping hand comes from Dutch theatre critics. Indeed, the annual Prize of Criticism goes to the laboratory that produces musicals that almost always matter. We quote the jury report:A laboratory is not just for somewhat unworldly scientists who work on the square millimetre a... You.... 

Read More "Prize of (Theatre) Criticism 2010 to musical workshop M-Lab

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