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Performing arts fund

Raoul Steffani by Dana van Leeuwen

Baritone Raoul Steffani wins Dutch Music Prize

Raoul Steffani is the brand new winner of the Dutch Music Prize. The prestigious prize is the highest award bestowed by the Performing Arts Fund, on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, on a musician working in classical music. The prize will be presented by State Secretary Gunay Uslu (Culture and Media) on Friday 13 October in Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ.... 

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[PRESS RELEASE] Dutch youth arts in the spotlight for a year in Italy

On Tuesday 21 February, Italy launches FuturoPresente, a year-long international programme that puts the spotlight on contemporary Dutch youth arts. This programme is an initiative of the Dutch Foundation for Literature, the Performing Arts Fund, See NL, the Cultural Participation Fund together with the Dutch embassy and consulate general in Italy. A selection of Dutch theatre makers, writers, illustrators, choreographers and... 

Rumours are true: theatre can tap new audiences through local roots. Head to Enschede to see it.

Before, when I used to write about theatre for a national morning paper, my travel schedule was partly determined by the reach the paper had in a particular region. So, if I necessarily wanted to write about a theatre performance in Enschede, about Enschedean states, my chief's question was: how many subscribers do we have in Twente? So usually it didn't get there 

Performing Arts Fund works to clean up grant jungle

It all goes into effect only in 2023, at the earliest, but the first gusts of fresh wind blowing through the Performing Arts Fund are stirring the treetops. Under new director Viktorien van Hulst, the Fund wants to put an end to the many subsidy schemes that in recent years, under the guise of 'customisation', have become a bureaucratic jungle... 

Fear and trembling in the cultural sector: the dark side of the 'trickle down'

Pure panic and existential angst: that's the picture you get when you approach makers in the arts personally about the effects of trickle down (the trickle down of corona funding from the government to those makers). The Creative Coalition may be making a fist for them, talking to the minister about it, the institutes debating it, but the creators are silent.... 

Boulevard experiences second Corona edition: 'It's organising a festival in the middle of a natural disaster. Nothing is business as usual'

Theatre festival Boulevard is going ahead this summer, just like last year. Everything is adapted to 'corona': safe at one-and-a-half metres, placarded, with registration for catering, but still just about a hundred performances. In this podcast, I speak to Nina Aalders and Tessa Smeulers, responsible for Boulevard's programming. They remained at the helm after the much-loved and... 

Theatre festival Boulevard changed the DNA of Den Bosch, even the Netherlands

Whether we want to speak only of 's-Hertogenbosch from now on. Apparently, a last vestige of decency has bravely survived in the provincial capital of Brabant. Nazmiye Oral, master of ceremonies at a party at Den Bosch's citadel on 9 June, forgot right the first time. City marketers and old nobility fight hand in hand for a respected name to trump the vernacular.... 

The Council for Culture has a sense of purpose. And it's about time.

'To strengthen the position of self-employed workers, a regulation could be revisited that would make it easier to enter into several short-term contracts throughout the year with interim retention of benefits.' There is a lot of useful stuff in the Culture Council's advice published today, but this sentence made me the happiest. Not so happy yet... 

Free producers have been saved, but some more than others; self-employed people seem especially solidary.

Is the government generous and generous for once, it's no good again. You could say that after I received questions from various quarters about the corona grant for free productions announced by the Performing Arts Fund last week. The amount in question is €27 million, for a total of 251 producers, so an average of a tonne per application. With that... 

Viktorien van Hulst is leaving Theatre Festival Boulevard.

After more than six years as director, Viktorien van Hulst is leaving Stichting Theaterfestival Boulevard 's-Hertogenbosch and Stichting Bosse Nova. She will start on 1 July as director-director at the Fonds Podiumkunsten, where she will succeed Henriëtte Post. The Performing Arts Fund supports all forms of professional performing arts on behalf of the central government and has an annual budget of 62 million euros available for this purpose. Peggy Olislaegers... 

Refresh Symposium - Art climate of Amsterdam

On Friday 12 February 2021 from 12:00-17:00, the Amsterdam Museum, together with its various partners, is organising the Refresh Symposium on the Amsterdam art climate. A symposium in which makers such as Bas Kosters, Massih Hutak and Raquel van Haver together with representatives of cultural institutions such as NDSM-werf, AFK and Amerpodia will critically examine the art climate in the city. The symposium... 

Everyone saved? Only a few festivals suffered heavy damage.

The total of eight festivals that were given a place in the Basic Cultural Infrastructure thanks to vigorous political lobbying are in the clear. They do not benefit from the extra millions released by the Cabinet on Budget Day to rescue the Performing Arts Fund, because they are not (or no longer) covered by it.

There are also problems with the region in Limburg (and people suspect the advisers of being arbitrary and pre-emptive)

The cultural centre of gravity in Limburg has been in the south for years. However, to encourage southern institutions to programme outside the region, only 1 extra point is available. Examples of the problem of geographical spread also exist at the Council of Culture and the Performing Arts Fund.

Burn letter from festivals: 'It's going wrong with the performing arts in the Netherlands'

A fire letter from the United Performing Arts Festivals. One of more than a hundred lobbying organisations in the arts, but a very important one. After all, the festivals are the place where audiences were introduced to arts and entertainment in its full breadth. That doesn't happen anywhere else. And beautiful: they stand up for all performing arts, because, as loyal readers of this site know: they are quite the hare, and become even more the hare with every half-hearted rescue.

Where did things go wrong between culture decision-makers and the region?

It could have been so beautiful. In a not so grey past, the Council for Culture, then under a different management, initiated a movement that would give more authority to the region outside the Randstad. That was three years ago. Now there is an (entirely justified) angry letter in the newspaper from the culture deputies of 9... 

Subsidy crisis: if the House comes up with a fix for region and saw line soon, we will be even further home.

That 8.6 million the fund is now minimally short of will probably be found somewhere, so the saw line will be shifted again. Then the sector can - virtually - continue for another four years. Another one and a half million may be added to shape the spread. Pleasing the art world is not that expensive, The Hague will notice.

And what about those codes of conduct? 'The Fund sees the tick marks as a baseline measurement.'

According to the minister, when applying for your grant this year, the Fair Practice Code, the Diversity and Inclusion Code and the Governance Code of Culture would be decisive. In several reviews by the Culture Council in the BIS and also locally, artists have been rejected on the grounds of poor substantiation of their following the code of conduct. If not at... 

The BIS is dead, long live the Puppets

Let's just start with the good news: De Staat is a regular fixture in the Netherlands from now on. And so we are talking about the band De Staat. Who make fantastic music videos these days. They have been promoted from a four-year grant with the Performing Arts Fund to a four-year grant according to the Cultural Basic Infrastructure (BIS). With 55 other newcomers. All weighed... 

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