In about a year's time, the Strut choir and the Irish folk band The Henry Girls on one stage. Artistic director Donna Risa: "I expect a wonderful interplay.''
Young people from Guatemala, nightingales from Northern Ireland and theatre-makers from the interior of Peru. Just some of the guests at the Community Arts Festival to be held in Utrecht in June 2013. Music, film and theatre with ordinary people behind and in front of the scenes, accompanied by professional artists. What else do they have in common?
After the presentation of the Rotterdam and The Hague arts recommendations, and a few days to weeks before the harsh judgements of the Council for Culture, and a few months before the devastating reports of the Performing Arts Fund, it is starting to become clear how drastically the Dutch cultural sector is being hit
Europe in Motion is a travelling talent development programme and acts as a battleground and meeting place for young choreographers. What is urgent in dance is discussed for a week to encourage dance makers in their artistic development. This second edition, with partners Dance4 (Nottingham), iDans (Istanbul) and Imagetanz (Vienna), ends in Utrecht. Springdance previously featured dance from high-tech laboratories in Israel (Batsheva Dance...
Experts in particular were upset with the official opening performance of Springdance 2012. "The Rodin Project" by Russel Maliphant was special for that reason alone. Rarely has there been so much talk about an opening performance, especially since it is also Springdance's last opening performance. The 30-year-old festival of innovative dance and performance is ceasing to exist. Partly due to pressure from subsidy cuts from...
The festival opens disappointingly with 'The Rodin Project'. The sculptor Rodin may be a challenging choice, but unfortunately choreographer Russell Maliphant is limited to imitating atmosphere and external pictures. Rodin worked from a distinct idea about matter. He was looking for how forms and movements detach themselves from matter. With his human figures and their gestures, he showed...
"What the fuck should I do with this?" was choreographer and performance artist Ivo Dimchev's (1976) first thought when confronted with the artworks of Austrian artist Franz West. After Dimchev's solo performance Some Faves (2010) in Vienna, West, a multi-awarded creator of bizarre sculptures and objects, sought contact with the choreographer. He asked him to make an improvised video based on his...
She has been busy. Highly pregnant, Yasmeen Godder (Jerusalem, 1973) worked on her first choreography for Batsheva Dance Company. In a month, she stomped out her new show The Toxic Exotic Disappearance Act under the wings of Batsheva, and in between gave birth to a healthy daughter. For the third time, Israeli choreographer Yasmeen Godder presents her work...
Hein Janssen (Volkskrant) wrote a column in response to a couple of performances with BN stars in the subsidised circuit in which he argued that subsidy was not meant for that. The association for actors thought this was reason enough for a debate. We made a short film to go with it. We formatted it in storify, a feature that allows you to put tweets and other social media messages together and...
Peter de Graef is not only a wonderful actor, he can also tell compelling stories. He also brings that talent with him as a writer. So in Boiling Frog, the show now on tour in the Netherlands, there are six Peter de Graefs on stage, and that is no punishment. Especially not because those six Peter de Graefs also...
In Amsterdam, Holland Festival, Theaterfestival, Toneelgroep Amsterdam and a few more clubs will 'work closely together'. In The Hague, this applies to Het Nationale Toneel and youth theatre house Stella Den Haag, while in Rotterdam
It saves Liverpool's GGD millions on dispensing antidepressants. And it only costs them a tonne and a half. They spend that much hiring Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra musicians for workshops in addiction clinics. So, no idealistic preaching, as in the countless columns and reactions to Halbes culture cut, but hard pecunia and proven effects. In England,...
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...
That was a bit of a shock for culture lovers in Utrecht and beyond. the dear youth theatre house Het Lab turned out to have an artistic director with an annual salary of 214,975 euros. A salary that made him equal to the dozens of air traffic controllers, medical specialists and broadcasting staff who all earn much more than the Balkenende norm (193,000 euros a year, including pension). But no. The ever amiable...
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...
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
The cut-away Metropole Orchestra is getting some air from the minister. She is willing to use the necessary friction costs to support the transition over the next four years from the Media Budget, provided it stays there. That is, the orchestra may use its own severance payments to be independently 'on the market' from 2017. As much as it shows...
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...
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...
Lower House approves Tax Plan 2012 (...) Furthermore, the adjusted Giving Act was also passed. The 7 million euro tax support shifts from cultural institutions to sports and music associations. Source: Belasting.nl 18 Nov 11 Utrecht - Culture may cost something - by Wouter de Heus (...) this week, when I finally saw the renewed operating plan for the Music Palace in...
Donner Puts Knife In Websites Central Government The ministries collectively run nearly 400 websites, most of which do not meet official accessibility requirements. Minister Donner wants a clean-up first. (...) The municipalities, of which only 2 per cent fully comply with the web guidelines, have until the end of 2012 to comply with the lowest level and another two years after that to fully...
(...) 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...
In the country where Jan Klaasen is only allowed to beat up Katrijn with a hot-air balloon, because a puppet show clubbing is not good for delicate children's souls, Dutch professional youth theatre turns out to be unexpectedly in demand. In short, a genuine Dutch youth theatre festival in New York has already sold 2,500 tickets, and it is still going strong. Of at least two of the four productions...
Europe in Motion (EIM) is an international exchange project, which supports the development of emerging choreographers, travelling through three Springdance partner organisations in 2011 and 2012. Last February it visited Nottdance in Nottingham and in April EIM touched down in Utrecht. During SPRINGDANCE 2011, nine choreography talents from the UK, Austria, Turkey and the Netherlands interacted privately with...
"If 1 person can prove that by collaborating with Red Bull, a sixteenth-century painting thins out or falls off the wall, I will stop working on it immediately." Edwin Jacobs, director of Centraal Museum Utrecht, opened his doors to the soft drink manufacturer. Under the title 'Art of Can', the museum is exhibiting artworks made from Red Bull cans. "Red Bull gives you wings,...
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