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How two orchestras sold an international revenue model as regional

Recap: There are too many orchestras in the Netherlands, the government thinks, and so a few have to go. Or merge. Now that forced merging doesn't seem to go very heartily. But you can make money out of it. In Gelderland and Overijssel, this leads to bizarre scenes. It would have been comical if it hadn't cost so much money.

To bring in an extra five tonnes, the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and the Gelderland Orchestra are pulling together. And with success: the provincial governments of Overijssel and Gelderland are absorbing the state's subsidy cut. However, it now turns out that the plans used to rake in that bailout are dubious. Politicians have hardly looked into it. Questions about the business plan came mainly from the PVV in Overijssel, but in Gelderland that same party enthusiastically agreed to the injection of millions after a - remarkably damning - counter-expertise.

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Orchestras in eastern Netherlands go slating

Nearly thirteen million The Gelderland Orchestra (HGO) asked for the province of Gelderland. It got three-and-a-half. Just enough to absorb the reduction in the state subsidy for the next two years and to work towards a new organisational structure and a new revenue model, as described in a very ambitious business plan, which...... wait for it. We have already written about this, haven't we?

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Zijlstra investigates 'taking root' foreign art students

Many students studying at Dutch art schools are not from the Netherlands. At the request of PVV, supported by the government parties VVD and CDA, State Secretary for Culture Zijlstra is now investigating whether enough of these students also go to work in the Netherlands after their studies. Halbe Zijlstra made this commitment during a general consultation on the sector plan for professional arts education,... 

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Culture Council given little leeway

He barely showed his face in recent months, rarely engaging in debate with artists or the public. Now that the mega budget cut on culture is law, and nothing can be changed about it until 2016, we can follow Halbe Zijlstra's victory lap again. Also on twitter.

Fact-free journalism plunges into arts sector.

    According to the Volkskrant, Rick van der Ploeg was state secretary of culture in the early 1990s (in reality, he was at the end of those years), and in Het Parool columnist Gerard Mulder claims that the fact that he "thankfully knows nothing about art subsidies" need not deter him from some wild speculations... 

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The Broadway visitor: lily-white, female, loyal and well above the Balkenende norm

These are data that somehow do not make the press here, because they are about America, which is not in the Netherlands. Still, it is interesting to take a closer look at the composition of the audience on Broadway. After all, that is where, in the wet dreams of VVD/PVV celebrities like Bart @deliefde and @halbezijlstra, the future of... 

Read More "The Broadway visitor: lily-white, female, loyal and well above the Balkenende norm

Austerity year review 2011. Or how the PVV cry 'Arts subsidies we abolish' was widely heard

While 2010 was still the year of PVV positions on culture that were suddenly shared by other parties ("we are abolishing art subsidies"), the year 2011 fell under their implementation. What was striking was the ease with which regional and local administrators also wielded this same machete, as PVV spokesperson Bosma did not fail to testify. For instance, in the municipality of Almelo, 30 % went àff from... 

Read More "Austerity year review 2011. Or how the PVV cry 'Arts subsidies we abolish' was widely heard

Small selection of great suffering for Christmas week

There will definitely be no investigation into a corporatisation of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. According to the proposal, a council majority wants to have the opportunities to earn more money and save on expenses investigated. A political party earlier suggested that many more visitors and revenue could be brought in with a less elitist programme. At the Money Museum in Utrecht 

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One hundred and thirty thousand visitors for the Cultural Press Office in 2011. The bar for 2012 is high.

That frightens us quite a bit ourselves. We knew that the Cultural Press Agency was doing pretty well, but we didn't really think a reach of more than 100,000 people was possible. After all, we had done nothing in the way of marketing. Just posting content and not giving away free tickets. And only once something with a bare female breast in it. Enfin.... 

Read More "One hundred and thirty thousand visitors for the Cultural Press Office in 2011. The bar for 2012 is high.

Investing in culture is economically valuable, but not with us ...

A Belgian professor was good enough to compare the own revenues by venues from the US, the UK and Belgium; in all three countries, the companies raise about 42% of their budgets themselves. The innovation professor also reiterated that research shows that investing in culture contributes to economic prosperity ... a wisdom that ... 

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Museums, Boxmeer theatre, IKON, ANP, regional broadcasters, impoverished library

MuseumgoudA not expelled MuseumgoudA may still remain a member of the Dutch Museum Association (NMV). A majority of the members were still of the opinion in September that the museum should be expelled because it had auctioned Marlene Dumas' The Schoolboys at the end of June without consulting other museums. That is against the NMV's rules. It did, however, decide to change the rules for the... 

Read More "Museums, Boxmeer theatre, IKON, ANP, regional broadcasters, impoverished library

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

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

Fransche School in jeopardy, blind library closed, nibbling on VAT measure via CJP and Volkenkunde/Tropen Institute merger possible

Arnhem - Scepticism over success of cultural heart Rijnboog Arnhem city council has many doubts about the financial feasibility of the Rijnboog arts cluster. (...) [Alderman] assumes 16 million subsidy from the province and another 4 million in contributions from sponsors for the new arts centre containing the Museum of Modern Art Arnhem, the Schouwburg and Focus Filmtheater.... 

Read More "Fransche School in jeopardy, blind library closed, nibbling on VAT measure via CJP and Volkenkunde/Tropen Institute merger possible

Halbe Zijltra loves his job more than the ministry dares to show

That Martin Bosma, culture spokesman for the PVV, wants to withdraw the subsidy to Toneelgroep Amsterdam because that company plays works by 'enemy of the people' Tom Lanoye, was not even the most bizarre incident of the culture budget debate on 21 November 2011. More bizarre, too, than the PVV's demand for the establishment of a Colonial Museum celebrating the glory of 'Our Indies',... 

Read More "Halbe Zijltra loves his job more than the ministry dares to show

Tropenmuseum perhaps saved, fate of bakery museum uncertain Local politicians already cut 100m from art

Culture sector already gets hit in 2012: 100 million (...) Already in 2012 at least 100 million will be cut on culture and heritage. Not by Halbe Zijlstra, state secretary for culture, but by municipalities and provinces. (...) The city of [Eindhoven] will cut half a million euros from next year on the culture sector. That's a pittance compared to The Hague, where the arts are in... 

Read More "Tropenmuseum perhaps saved, fate of bakery museum uncertain Local politicians already cut 100m from art

Bare-bones news: Give Act turned from monstrosity into monster, Brabant short 30% on performing arts, North Beveland no longer buys art.

House amends gift deduction in cultural sector (...) A majority of the House wants to limit the Cabinet plans for tax deductions in the cultural sector. At the same time, it should become more fiscally attractive to make donations to sports and music associations. VVD, CDA and PVV submitted amendment proposals to this effect to the Giving Act of state secretary Frans Weekers (Finance) on Tuesday. (...) The PVV felt that far too... 

Read More "Bare-bones news: Give Act turned from monstrosity into monster, Brabant short 30% on performing arts, North Beveland no longer buys art.

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

'Elitist' Wijlre Castle collection preserved for Limburg under fierce protest from PVV

After 'saving' the Limburg Symphony Orchestra and securing a budget for the opera, the PVV had to once again explore the limits of its own opportunism. Indeed, the already disintegrated group was vehemently opposed to securing the unique private art collection of Wijlre Castle on the grounds that this collection of world-renowned artworks would not be understood by ordinary... 

Read More "'Elitist' Wijlre Castle collection preserved for Limburg under fierce protest from PVV

Letter Zijlstra is just a request for information. But it does include a tickable invitation to suicide

Has state secretary Halbe Zijlstra the Lower House lied or misled in June when he stated that rushing through the culture cuts was necessary to absorb friction costs? Or does it just turn out to be improper governance?

Read More "Letter Zijlstra is just a request for information. But it does include a tickable invitation to suicide

"1 billion loss? There are other figures." Halbe Zijlstra refers Berenschot report to trash.

At the end of August came the figures. And what figures they were. Due to the stacking of extreme cuts by government, provinces and municipalities, the abolition of the successful Work and Income for Artists Act and the equally successful culture card, plus the VAT increase on the arts, the Netherlands' cultural sector would end up missing out on €1 billion in revenue. Berenschot had estimated that in... 

Read More ""1 billion loss? There are other figures." Halbe Zijlstra refers Berenschot report to trash.

Budget note: We put together the cultural haircut percentages

Let's start again with yet another sloppiness of the Rutte government: that damned VAT measure on the arts, which are the only ones to be bounced to the 'normal' rate of 19%. VVD doesn't like it, CDA isn't happy about it, but, because tolerance specialist Martin Bosma once had to play a red toadstool in the school play, he has forever... 

Read More "Budget note: We put together the cultural haircut percentages

Kick off subsidy addiction requires greater government effort than Zijlstra wants

Arts organisations are subsidy-addicted and so we are withdrawing subsidies. The VVD's approach is clear. On the exact how, they appear to need to think longer about that, now that there is so much opposition from the country. Cold Turkey, the treatment proposed by tolerance partner (nice word in this context) PVV, could well result in deaths. To... 

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It's final: the format for arts subsidies until 2016 is with the chamber

We have another letter from the secretary of state for culture. Halbe Zijlstra has sent it to parliament, to make it official that from 2013 a very bleak wind is going to blow in arts land. That makes cuts of 200 million final, still excluding the probably 150 million in so-called friction costs that the ministry also has to get from somewhere (u... 

Read More "It's final: the format for arts subsidies until 2016 is with the chamber

That was him then. The March of Civilisation. And so was the chamber's Culture Committee debate on Halbe Zijlstra's letter.

With a small break for much-needed sleep, we were active for over 27 hours with a liveblog on the March of Civilisation. Hard work, and at first we suffered from some start-up problems. After all: setting up such a liveblog requires some structure in the approach. We had introduced a few so-called #hashtags, such as #marsderbeschaving, which on twitter allow people to share their... 

Read More "That was him then. The March of Civilisation. And so was the chamber's Culture Committee debate on Halbe Zijlstra's letter.

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