No festival without a debate, and on Sunday 22 April it was. In English and led by Dodo reporter Daniel Bertina, it was about festival themes and marketing, and audiences. We have listed some highlights for you.
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...
Art subsidies are better abolished if artists have to reach large audiences. Because then, after all, you distort the market. Logical. You could also decide to subsidise everyone. And that sounds stranger than
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...
He barely showed his face in recent months, rarely engaging in debate with artists or the public. Now that the mega cut in culture is law, and nothing can be changed about it until 2016, we can follow Halbe Zijlstra's victory lap again. Also on twitter.
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. No idealistic preaching, then, as in the countless columns and reactions to Halbes' cultural cut, but hard pecunia and proven effects. In England,...
In het debat Burger King & Burgerschap geven Patrick van der Hijden, David van Reybrouck, Chris Keulemans and Samuel Vriezen hun visie op de staat van de burger. Publiek mag, maar hoeft niet, meedoen. Hieronder de column Staat van Verwenning, voorgedragen door Patrick van der Hijden – als aftrap voor het debat.
“Ons leven is in de achttiende eeuw uitgevonden.
De leden van de hogere klassen – de elite – hadden een eigen huis, vaak met tuin. Ze stuurden hun kinderen naar school en die begonnen daarna een vervolgopleiding. Ze hadden vrije tijd en kwamen over het algemeen op tijd op hun afspraken, door de horloges die ze droegen en de trekschuiten die op tijd vertrokken (ze klaagden bij vertraging). Burgers die buiten de stad woonden, forensden – met de koets, dat wel. Ze dronken koffie om wakker te blijven. Ze bezochten restaurants met menukaarten. Ze werden ingeënt tegen de pokken en hadden huisdieren. Een geweldige bron over dat leven vormt het dagboek van Otto van Eck, die daar op tienjarige leeftijd onder druk van zijn door de Verlichting bezielde ouders aan begon, in 1791. Daar ontleen ik bovenstaande voorbeelden aan.
Dit leven wordt aan het begin van de eenentwintigste eeuw niet door een kleine minderheid geleefd, maar door een groot deel van de Nederlanders. Die moeten het wel zonder personeel doen. Dat is namelijk vervangen door technologie.
In the late 1980s, John N. Gray (South Shields, 1948) adviser to Margaret Thatcher - Gray: "I was just a small mote of dust in her administration" - now he is a fierce critic of all things neoconservative. On Writers Unlimited, publicist Bas Heijne felt him out.
His voice is low, and when he talks, he does so calmly and thoughtfully. He regards his humour - very British - as a side effect that is more accidental than intended. This makes Helon Habila a perfect guest for the opening night of Writers Unlimited, The Hague's literature festival better known as 'Winternachten'. The Nigerian can tell stories, but...
He is now a publisher, and the man who was director of the Dutch Foundation for Literature until last year will be quite happy with that. As director of the Bezige Bij, one of the country's largest publishing houses, he will surely never again have to submissively toast the sarcastic State Secretary for Culture Halbe Zijlstra. At least the relief was audible in Pröpper's...
Ze woont inmiddels in Noorwegen, nadat ze haar vaderland Iran moest verlaten wegens eigen mening. Ze zat vijf dagen vast, en in de beruchte Evin-gevangenis in Teheran is dat een eeuwigheid. Nu is Asieh Amini vrij in een vreemd land, en krijgt ze van Oxfam-Novib de PEN-Award uitgereikt. Een mooie opening voor het Writers Unlimited Winternachtenfestival, dat met deze uitreiking…
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',...
House amends gift deduction in cultural sector (...) A majority of the House wants to limit 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...
Letters from Culture Secretary Zijlstra are dangerous, especially when they are about figures and schemes. And we haven't seen the latest one for now. So right now, it is about 'friction costs' for the cultural sector. These are the costs that subsidised institutions have to incur when their existence ends due to the subsidy freeze. Think redundancy payments, damages, flower arrangements for funerals of suicides and selling real estate at a loss.
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?
"We are blind to the big changes in the world and meanwhile we are arguing with one-liners on Radio One." These words, chronicled by reporter Robbert van Heuven from the mouth of writer Abdelkader Benali during the Choice Debate on Tuesday 20 September perhaps best sums up what The International Choice was all about. Artistic director Annemie Vanackere...
Far more people waved at the Queen on Princes Day than stood on Malieveld a day earlier to protest against austerity. Why are we unable to revolt? And what can we learn from the Tahrir Square uprising. These were some of the questions that came up during 'Lessons in revolt', the debate...
'And why do all these art institutions have to open on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and even Thursdays? I don't understand that. I'm far too busy working on those days.' Just a question during the Paradiso debate,
That's going to be fodder for chambers exegetes, although the question is whether it will make any difference. But Halbe Zijlstra says he did not say that the VAT measure "was not the most accomplished measure in the coalition agreement. Although that is what that interview with him in NRC Handelsblad of 8 July 2011. At the time, everyone thought that was a funny
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...
Natuurlijk zijn er ’trollen’. Tegenstanders van ‘linkse hobby’s’ en aanhangers van de stelling dat goede kunst vanzelf wel overleeft. Onze liveblog over de Mars der Beschaving, die we mede lieten vullen door twitter-hashtags te volgen, werd er een beetje zuur van. We hebben dat een beetje opgeschoond, de hardste schreeuwers eruit gehaald (ook pro, overigens) en een paar markante politieke…
Actually, there was only one compliment for the cabinet, which is in the process of cutting an average 30% from a sector that employs tens of thousands of Dutch people. At the hearing convened by the second chamber on Monday 20 June, only cultural sociologist Arjo Klamer was positive about the decisiveness shown by State Secretary Zijlstra. That he did subsequently think that...
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...
Interesting things are happening these days. The digital revolution is beginning to have traces of a real revolution. No one has yet set themselves on fire, as in Tunisia, but more and more people are taking to the virtual streets to overthrow the old powers: after the record companies, which let themselves be overwhelmed by people downloading, and the newspapers, which let themselves be overwhelmed by people searching freely for information, it now seems to be the turn of book publishers.
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