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Good news for Urban artists in need of money. Three cultural funds are proposing eight 'Matchmakers'. (But at least 12 are needed)

Opinions differ on the size of the pot of money waiting for them, but 'urban' makers in particular do not yet know how to find their way to our art subsidy system. That is why the three cultural funds that deal mainly with performing arts have appointed ambassadors in a number of Dutch cities. These 'Matchmakers' should narrow the gap between The Hague and 'the region'.... 

Read More "Good news for Urban artists in need of money. Three cultural funds are proposing eight 'Matchmakers'. (But at least 12 are needed)

2018 in the arts: the year we finally choose our bubble and let the masses be the masses.

We are going to live smaller. It is not only in the popularity of the TinyHouse movement that young people and seniors can shake hands. We want to de-clutter, but we also want to have less to do with the big bad outside world. This applies to older people, but certainly to those in their twenties. This movement has been going on in the arts for a while. Small ... 

Read More "2018 in the arts: the year we finally choose our bubble and let the masses be the masses.

More diversity in the cultural workplace? 'They are not there' does not exist. The ball is now in employers' court: look outside your own box and show guts. #LinC

When I write job postings in the cultural sector, I receive wonderful letters. Candidates are usually graduates in an arts-related subject from a college or university and have internships or work experience at cultural institutions of repute. They are usually female, white and have completed their studies with fine grades. Yet I struggle with a problem: I live and... 

Read More "More diversity in the cultural workplace? 'They are not there' does not exist. The ball is now in employers' court: look outside your own box and show guts. #LinC

The Culture Council has been on a Storytelling course. So the Council's latest advice is all about stories. And about ruins.

One of the great things about France is that it is not raked. On any bike ride, or walk along that overgrown path that started out so beautifully, you might just bump into a ruin. Such a ruin that we here in the Netherlands would soon turn into an attraction, if we hadn't long since demolished the piece of unattended real estate to make way for... 

Read More "The Culture Council has been on a Storytelling course. So the Council's latest advice is all about stories. And about ruins.
Pieter Bruegel de Oude, Nederlandse spreekwoorden, olieverf op paneel, 1559, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

'Playwriting is flourishing,' says the Language Union. Time for an exploration among playwrights.

On 6 December 2017, the Taalunie Toneelschrijfprijs was awarded to poet, writer and playwright Ilja Leonard Pfeiffer. With his play about Bram Moszkowitcz, titled 'The lawyer', he was the preferred original work among 47 submissions. According to the Taalunie, Pfeiffer's play 'balances magisterially on the fine line between tragedy and comedy, realistic drama and meta-thought, slapstick and emotion.... 

Read More "'Playwriting is flourishing,' says the Language Union. Time for an exploration among playwrights.

Performing Arts Fund subsidy leads to more performances for fewer audiences

Currently, the amount a performing arts company receives in subsidy depends on the number of times it plays. The Performing Arts Fund, which is responsible for that subsidy, has now investigated the effect of this. That research shows that companies are increasingly struggling to sell performances of a single production. This causes companies to... 

Read More "Performing Arts Fund subsidy leads to more performances for fewer audiences

Mirjam Koen, Adorno, why on earth theatre about Adorno!

Beethoven and Bach brought the true music. Karl-Heinz Stockhausen the future. The rest, from Beatles to hoempa, was 'jazz', commercially capitalist and therefore pernicious. Very briefly, this is what we should know Theodor Adorno from. Paul R. Kooij now plays this art-philosophical sharper in a performance by Mirjam Koen. Just when the division based partly on Adorno's thinking between... 

Read More "Mirjam Koen, Adorno, why on earth theatre about Adorno!
De huidige verdeling van de subsidies over genres en instellingen

Culture Council: 'No more distinction between high and low art' (and much more)

Musicians are no longer allowed to perform for a pittance. At least, not if the club they work for, or perform in, receives a subsidy. In a sector opinion released today, the Culture Council argues that the structural underpayment of workers in the creative sector is no longer sustainable. 'If that means fewer programmes can be made (or that there... 

Read More "Culture Council: 'No more distinction between high and low art' (and much more)

At last: a piece with real vision from the Culture Council

'Successive interventions have stripped, juridified and amended the BIS and the state funds. But more importantly than that, trends and developments in and around cultural life are making new demands on the cultural system. It is out of date in several respects.' So says the Council for Culture in its 'reconnaissance' published today. In it, the contours of the future... 

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Culture Council doesn't have plans ready yet

This summer, all was well. In Theatererkrant, house organ of the performing arts, an article appeared, apparently also on behalf of the Council for Culture. It showed how a hitherto unknown company called The Transition Office had pretty much completed the new sector plan, employed by the Council for Culture. Many people had been spoken to and now there were still... 

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Tourbus Beatles (replica) Foto: Chris Samson CC.BY 2.0

You had one chance to sustainably improve arts subsidies

The decision will be official in mid-September, but behind the scenes it has already been made. The Netherlands will have a very small basic cultural infrastructure for the performing arts, and a very large fund that anyone who wants to make theatre, dance, mime or music must apply to. I asked around a bit recently, and so that's what it's going to be. That way, politicians can't... 

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The new theatre system is just about finished. Only seven 'dilemmas' remain.

[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... 

Read More "The new theatre system is just about finished. Only seven 'dilemmas' remain.

Don't leave respect to the free market

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.... 

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Culture Council seeks: MEMBERS (media, journalism and science)

The Council for Culture is the statutory advisory body to the government and parliament in the field of culture and media. The council is independent and advises, solicited and unsolicited, on current policy issues and subsidy applications. The council aims to make opinions with vision and boldness; opinions that make a difference and contribute to a rich cultural life. In accordance with Article 11, third... 

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Garry Feingold en Ger Jager, Dansmakers, 2012. Foto: Jean-Pierre Jans.

Extremely rare landslide possible in contemporary dance in the Netherlands.

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... 

Read More "Extremely rare landslide possible in contemporary dance in the Netherlands.

A good start: visual artists' fees directive starts 2017

Press release: From 1 January 2017, a guideline for artists' fees will be introduced in the Netherlands. Interest group Platform BK is one of the initiators of this guideline. The guideline applies to exhibitions without a sales purpose. The guideline aims to professionalise the contract practice between art institutions and artists and contributes to improving the income position of visual artists. The directive will be released on 8... 

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The Cultural Diversity Code is a great start, but remains a hollow phrase

Tomorrow, Culture in View, the annual OCW conference for the cultural sector, is dedicated to diversity. Although the topic was already raised by Rick van der Ploeg in the late 1990s, diversity within the cultural sector anno 2016 still lags far behind the changing demographic composition of the population. Diversity should no longer remain just an agenda item. Under the motto: No... 

Read More "The Cultural Diversity Code is a great start, but remains a hollow phrase

National Opera & Ballet seeks (almost) free help for general director

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... 

Read More "National Opera & Ballet seeks (almost) free help for general director
Boulevard. Scenefoto Piknik Horrific Laika. Foto : Kathleen Michiels

Stop theatre-goer loneliness. 5 lessons from Boulevard

10 days of Festival Boulevard. I threw myself into it. I saw 14 performances, saw a lot of corners of Den Bosch (and Tilburg) up close and experienced more different theatre than usual in six months. I also ate more chips than is good for me, drank more beer than usual and enjoyed eavesdropping on conversations of... 

Read More "Stop theatre-goer loneliness. 5 lessons from Boulevard

Performing arts employers (NAPK) angry: subsidy system must change

They totally agree with us, the employers in the performing arts sector. These company and theatre directors and other managers of dwindling coffers, gathered in the Dutch Association of Performing Arts (NAPK), are circulating a letter today, calling on the Lower House to review the system of subsidies. After all, now the middle class is falling between the cracks. Has happened before, and... 

Read More "Performing arts employers (NAPK) angry: subsidy system must change
Fonds Podiumkunsten Budget

Performing Arts Fund announces battleground. It's as bad as we feared.

The effects of the previous cabinet's arts cuts are finally becoming clear. The Performing Arts Fund today announced the winners and losers of the battle for four-year subsidies. From 2017, the Dutch art world will be a lot smaller, more meagre and poorer than it was until 2013. Big names are gone, traditions dismantled, while what is new faces an extremely uncertain existence.

Read More "Performing Arts Fund announces battleground. It's as bad as we feared.

Ed Spanjaard is the ideal new leader of the Orchestra of the East

After it was announced in January this year that Jan Willem de Vriend was leaving at the end of the 2016/2017 season, the Orchestra of the East announced that it was in no hurry to find a successor. One would start working with "renowned guest conductors". Just over six months later, a few months before the departure of interim director Bart van Meijl, a successor was still presented. That this successor, Ed Spanjaard, is given the title of 'permanent conductor' seems mainly a semantic issue.

Read More "Ed Spanjaard is the ideal new leader of the Orchestra of the East

Joop Daalmeijer Erdoğan, Miranda van Kralingen Davutoğlu?

"For someone to interfere with an artistic interpretation, I find that quite hefty. Let me put it this way: you have this prime minister in Turkey... To interfere with something artistic, I find that rather hefty." This was stated by Emil Szarkowicz, musician and cultural editor from Limburg, in a broadcast by regional broadcaster L1 yesterday, Reason being the negative opinion of... 

Read More "Joop Daalmeijer Erdoğan, Miranda van Kralingen Davutoğlu?

Culture Council fill-in exercise offers hardly any surprises

Champagne at BAK in Utrecht, deep disappointment at The New Institute in Rotterdam: the Council for Culture has spoken. Today, Thursday 19 May 2016, the first advice after the draconian art cuts by the first Rutte cabinet came out, and heads are rolling. Amsterdam loses prestigious presentation institution De Appel, in The Hague fellow institution Stroom has to redo its homework. The Orkest van het Oosten and the Gelders Orkest have to come up with merger plans within two years. In Utrecht, the city company Theater Utrecht will no longer receive funding despite artistic appreciation. Het Zuidelijk Toneel in Eindhoven Tilburg must make new plans and Opera Zuid must quickly raise its artistic quality. These are the main conclusions of the Culture Council's opinion.

As dramatic as some of this may sound, the advice is actually not, when you look over the whole battlefield. Thanks in part to

Read More "Culture Council fill-in exercise offers hardly any surprises

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