The Hermitage Amsterdam has something 'new': a new museum space in the museum on the river Amstel will be home to the 'first' Outsider Art Museum in the Netherlands from 17 March. With artworks by national and international Outsider artists. Excuse me, new? Does the museum not know at all that Zwolle once had a similar museum, with an extensive collection of outsider art? Outsider art returns with this...
By March 1, every artist who wants government support must have submitted their application. Funds, municipalities and the state will then deliberate in committees. The quadrennial tombola will be even more dramatic this year than it was four years ago, when the massive cuts were made by CDA, PVV and VVD. Because virtually no money is being added now, and in fact, often more...
The Orchestra of the East is cutting its coat of arms, focusing primarily on Overijssel and has applied for collective redundancy. This - and a whole lot more - can be read in the new business plan. It is enough for the province to release a one-off €1.1 million and make 3.5 tonnes of annual subsidy available again from now on. The...
It will be the big task for companies and interest clubs in culture for 2016: how do we improve the image of 'the sector'? Next year - I predict - no expense will be spared to improve the culture sector's image. There will probably also be a study on how to improve that image. This...
Those working in the cultural sector should not expect much from the VVD. Lately, however, the party has been trying to show a different face. Indeed, only recently, the new culture spokesperson of the right-wing liberals tabled a motion in which the VVD actually gave back 10 million of the more than 250 million the national government took from the arts....
Today it was announced that the Gijsbrecht tradition, revived since five years, will end again due to lack of subsidy. A shame, of course, although we don't have to mourn the end of this Amsterdam custom, which has existed since 1638. After all, the play is totally unplayable, historically completely off the mark and all in all a rather pretentious representation of the history of...
Update 4-12-15: During the plenary discussion of the culture budget on 3 December, Messrs Monasch (PvdA) and Van Veen (VVD) withdrew the controversial amendment. Instead, an amendment was adopted in which a one-off 10 million was released from the additional proceeds of the tax on polluting companies. From this contribution, festivals will be supported, talent development facilitated and...
Debby Petter's performance 'Bed & Breakfast' at Theatre Achterom in Hilversum had just ended. Director Gerlofke Hekelaar addressed the audience, as it had been the very last performance. After 45 years, the Achterom Theatre Foundation will cease to exist. Another theatre going under due to cuts in the cultural sector. But is lack of money the only...
A damning report by organisational consultancy Berenschot, the voluntary or involuntary departure of director Harm Mannak, repeated bickering in the State Assembly and panting reports of high salaries for directors and artistic directors, all the way to the national newspapers. It marks the chaos at HET Symfonieorkest and the lack of any form of direction, not only at the orchestra itself,...
Mrs Cornelys' Entertainments. Under that remarkable title, baroque company New Dutch Academy presented a concert in a theatrical setting. The Hague's Korzo Theatre turned into a society evening. Visiting a much-discussed lady from 18th-century London. It was a feast for the eyes and ears. New Dutch Academy has a changing line-up in addition to some permanent members. The Academy keeps itself - the name...
When the car park of the Zuiderstrandtheater is full at a pre-premiere, you know something exciting is happening inside. And that's right: Isabelle Beernaert and her ensemble present the new production Under My Skin. Dance like an Instagram account: popular, photogenic and ephemeral. Woman Actually, dance is like a Pinterest account. Because that seems to be mostly for women. And there is a lot of...
Failing directors stay put, the Supervisory Board disqualifies itself. No other conclusion is possible after reading the counter-expertise commissioned by the province of Overijssel and carried out by Berenschot. The provincial millions intended to make the orchestra subsidy-independent have not only evaporated, but show a negative balance in every area. Every estimate was too optimistic,...
Apetrots they are, the MPs Jacques Monasch, Jasper van Dijk, Mona Keijzer and Alexander Pechtold. After all, they saved a youth theatre company and managed to add a few festivals to the basic cultural infrastructure of the Netherlands. In addition, they have also already earmarked an amount for some other festivals. Yesterday, the motions from the June debate were put to a vote. Almost...
As I wrote in my earlier article about the Nederlandse Dansdagen, choreographer Loïc Perela won this year's Nederlandse Dansdagen Maastricht Prize. It earned him 12,000 euros to put into his new project HASHTAG. The award has helped some previous winners on their way (Monique Duurvoort, Joost Vrouenraets, Erik Kaiel, Muhanad Rasheed, Joeri Dubbe,...
The first weekend of October saw the Netherlands Dance Days (NDD) take place in Maastricht. As Ruben Brugman reported, important prizes for the dance world are awarded there. But the Dance Days seem mainly intended to promote Dutch dance, more than being a critical evaluation or artistic boost. At the Dance Days, no pithy speech on the State of Dance as...
How is Dutch film doing beyond its borders? Just before the Dutch Film Festival breaks loose, its big international brother in Toronto (TIFF) kicked off. Red carpets, big stars and ditto premieres. It may be slightly less well-known here than Cannes, but the TIFF is at least as important. For example, in the run-up to the Oscars. Not a bad thing, then...
Last weekend 250 years ago, nine-year-old Mozart arrived in The Hague with his parents and sister Nannerl. He arrived on 11 September 1765 to perform at the stadholder court. Due to illness, the Mozarts ended up staying for nine months and the young composer wrote several works here. Harpsichordist and conductor Jörn Boysen organised the festival Mozart in The...
'We are already working on the restoration of museum The Ship. But it still takes a lot to get the funding. That's something that could give you nightmares, though.' Museum director Ton Heijdra of Museum Het Schip exudes no stress at these words. He and his staff are driven by idealism. The Amsterdam municipality...
It is most visible in the performing arts. Recently, a striking number of vacancies for 'business leader' have been appearing in the cultural sector. We put on some ears during the theatre festival, and then you hear something. Nobody wants to respond openly, the interests are too big and the reputations too vulnerable. We therefore sum it up here only roughly...
The annual Summer Expo at Gemeentemuseum Den Haag is open to submissions from amateurs. But in the end, as many as 70% of the entrants turn out to have attended an art school, and even 80% of the selected entries were made by professional artists. With two guests, I visit the Summer Expo. Museum visitor Rob van Berlo picks his favourites. Gallery owner Nena Milinkovic I ask the same,...
If all goes well, the 56th Thessaloniki International Film Festival will kick off on 6 November. Less well-known than Rotterdam, Berlin or Locarno, but the most important festival in southern Europe. And they have quirky and broad programming, where you can discover all kinds of new filmmakers. But is it going well? The first festival dated back to 1960 and was...
Those who apply for grants but do not receive them must be given insight into the applications of others who have been honoured. That is the most remarkable ruling by the Council of State in the case Holland Opera won against the Performing Arts Fund. Much more important for the company itself, of course: according to our highest court, in 2012 the Performing Arts Fund decided Holland...
It could just be a solution to Greece's problems: investing in culture. For Britain, at least, the softest of all sectors has proved a fertile cash cow. The cultural sector added 15 billion in value to the economy there last year, almost 3 billion more than two years ago. In other words: for every pound the government put in...
The Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra is getting a new main hall. Questions about exploitation were carelessly brushed aside in the Arnhem city council last night. And so construction-minded Holland is happy. Moreover, Arnhem will save half a million a year on its culture budget by immediately making the yet-to-be-built new hall independent. Another headache file closed. Until huge budget deficits arise at the independent halls....
The second chamber was also keen to know what exactly Culture Minister Bussemaker meant by that 'cash shift'. After all, it was that cash shift with which she could festively announce that she would put an extra 18 million into culture, after 2017. In a letter to the chamber, the minister has now shown how creatively she can bookkeep. A few costs...
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