In Amersfoort, one art hall is empty and one art hall is full. KAdE, only recently completed and already successful, was dismantled five years after opening and moved to another, even newer building, across the railway line. However, the city council does not appear to have been properly informed about the financial consequences of this move and is now stuck with and noose of at least 10...
Municipal cultural politics are often about 'bricks and mortar'. People put up a cultural building and then pray/hope that fantastic things will happen there, which the city council, in turn, has no money for/power over. Take Enschede. In a council meeting in which it was decided to reinvest in cultural bricks by means of a €475,000 loan, there was actually some unrest. No, not about those bricks, but about...
Writers Unlimited's Friday night kicked off with an Islam debate. In no uncertain terms, religious historian Karen Armstrong argued that Islam and jihad are not the same thing. There are only 41 jihads in the entire Quran, most of which are the peaceful struggle to help the poor when one is destitute oneself. But after the Paris attacks...
Dat doet Morgan Knibbe helemaal niet slecht. Twee jaar geleden afgestudeerd aan de Filmacademie, nu op IDFA al op gelijke voet met ’s werelds beste documentairemakers. Those Who Feel the Fire Burning is zijn onconventionele verbeelding van de wereld van vluchtelingen die de oversteek naar Europa waagden. Nu genomineerd voor de hoofdprijs van IDFA, de prijs voor beste lange documentaire. Het…
We are moving too fast. Politics moves too fast, the news moves too fast, and nobody takes the time anymore to spend a quiet time listening to a piece of music, reading a thick book, or listening and watching slow art for 36 hours at the Concertgebouw in Bruges. So the concert hall in Bruges is organising a festival with...
The National Theatre will premiere Blueprint for an Even Better Life on 8 November 2014, which addresses, among other things, the position of artists in society. A theme that also featured in their recent Tasso, and in Toneelgroep Amsterdam's successful The Fountainhead. Is the subject of art back on the theatre agenda due to the changed cultural politics of the past...
With a new government in Belgium, the debate on art subsidies has also erupted there. The issue there is only 0.7 per cent of the national budget. The cut of a mere 10% is less substantial than in the Netherlands under the PVV's noose, but the arguments are the same. Though they are often better articulated. Josse de Pauw, international...
Wijbrand Schaap: 'The amateur arts. I have personally experienced the cutbacks at the Utrecht Centre for the Arts in Utrecht. First, they were heavily cut back there back in 2001 under Leefbaar. They survived that, and now they were just recovering a bit...' Joop Daalmeijer: ' ...and now everything is going to the schools.' Wijbrand Schaap: 'There are...
Wijbrand Schaap: 'There has been much talk about the change in Council attitudes under your leadership. After the confrontation course under your predecessor Els Swaab, you seemed appointed by Halbe Zijlstra to act as a kind of applause machine.' Joop Daalmeijer: 'I was not hired by Halbe Zijlstra, I was appointed by the queen. Isn't that nice?...
Wijbrand Schaap: 'When it comes to talent development and embedding in society, it also has a lot to do with the absolute basics. It also touches on the minister's two functions: education and culture. Arts education in primary schools does not really help embedding. No attention has been paid to art in the pedagogical academies for years....
"Art is about personal development. It's not that Friday afternoon fiddling". Barbara Visser, artist and board member of the new Academy of Arts had an argument that was factual, and can be summarised briefly. We can attribute all sorts of things to art, but let's especially not. Learning about and experimenting with taste and creativity...
I published two articles in NRC Handelsblad last year. The first (6 July 2013) was critical of government policy. There was little reaction to this. The second article (7 December 2013) was critical of the arts sector: it needs to make its own sharp choices. That did cause a stir, although I am convinced that many colleagues largely agree with the content...
So the building is a bit redundant, well considered. After years of drawing, tug-of-war and plans for a new venue complex in the city centre of The Hague, local politicians blew off the Spui Forum earlier this year. Now, I'm sure there will have been all kinds of criticisms of that building plan, but the consequences of the lokalos blowing it off are not...
De grote theatermaker Johan Simons heeft laten weten dat hij naar Rotterdam wil komen, om een groot Europees theater op te zetten. Hij ziet zijn kans schoon nu er over twee jaar een plek vrijkomt in de artistieke leiding van het stadsgezelschap van de Maasstad, het ro theater. Wanneer ze Simons aanstellen, kan er groots gedacht worden, zegt Simons. En…
For the umpteenth time in its more than 30 years of existence, the colourful Concertzender going down. That is why there will be a benefit concert at the Amstelkerk in Amsterdam. Greats like Liza Ferschtman, Yuri Honing, Erik Bosgraaf and the Ragazze Quartet will perform for free, to support the station that broadcasts so many live recordings of their concerts. I myself started my career as a radio producer there in 1995, so I would say: come all, and donate generous! For less than two tonnes a year, the station will stay on air.
De Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Prijs gaat dit jaar naar Johan Simons. Bij de mededeling, in een weiland onder Utrecht, was de regisseur verbaasd: hij vermoedde dat de prijs bedoeld was voor zijn vrouw, Elsie de Brauw, alom beschouwd als een van de beste actrices van Nederland en België.
Five-star Symphony Orchestra. This is how the Dutch Symphony Orchestra will be called next season. The former Orkest van het Oosten tried to become 'Dutch', but faced a lawsuit from the Philharmonic Orchestra, which was already 'Dutch'. 'Politics should get involved in the legal process. Because it can't go on like this. This is costing tons of money.' Says Harm Mannak.
The cuts to arts have prompted many people to stress that art should be socially and politically relevant. For Samuel Wuersten, artistic director of the Holland Dance Festival, social and political relevance is a broad concept.
Christmas saved the 2013 cinema year. While it seemed to be nothing at the beginning of December in terms of cinema attendance, the last three weeks of the year made up for a lot - thanks to Hobbit 2.
2013 closed with 30.8 million visitors, Wilco Wolfers, president of the Dutch Cinematography Federation announced at the cinema industry's New Year's meeting. Best-attended film
How can a usually very ordinary, amiable theatre director suddenly come out with the notice That a few orchestras can go away and the National Ballet should be outsourced? We wondered so and headed to the car park at the Concertgebouw yesterday.
We hebben een culture index. Vandaag werd hij gepresenteerd door de Boekmanstichting, een cultureel onderzoeksbureau. De cultuurindex, eigenlijk een AEX voor cultuur, is bedoeld om inzicht te geven in de stand van de cultuur. Probleem is wel dat de cijfers een beetje oud zijn. Dankzij de index weten we nu dus dat het er in 2011 best aardig voorstond met de cultuur in Nederland. Maar ja. Dat is twee jaar geleden.
We kept a liveblog. Nice and old-fashioned, from the days when every month there was uproar somewhere about the government's handling of art. Now there is peace in the tent, as the PVV sardonically points out, because 'The Left' is now the bearer of policies devised by the PVV. The PVV predicts a black future for 'The Left' once the PVV comes to power.
Protests abound again tonight at a concert conducted by Valery Gergiev, this time at London's Barbican. Many of the protesters are demanding that the orchestra explicitly distance itself from the Russian star conductor and speak out openly against gay legislation in Russia.
The Dutch film world has a new club. Dutch filmmakers can join the Dutch Academy For Film (DAFF). With the aim, in short, of raising the profile of Dutch cinema. The DAFF was founded on 24 June this year following the example of similar academies in, for example, England, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. A press conference at the Netherlands Film Festival
With all the critical coverage of Russia that Putin and his supporters provoke, we would almost forget that we are in the middle of the Netherlands-Russia year sitting. A screening of Paul Verhoeven's war film will take place tonight at the Pioner Gorky Park in Moscow Black Book, as a kick-off to
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