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The self-employed are to blame for everything. Now also for the downfall of regional arts journalism.

In April 2020, the Persgroep, now DPG Media because it smells better internationally, will stop regional art supplements in its newspapers. No more art reports and interviews, hardly any reviews. Local bookshops will lose their stage in all Dutch regions, as the publisher of Volkskrant, Trouw and AD has a regional monopoly. The message, brought by a reporter from the Eindhovens Dagblad, struck... 

Read More "The self-employed are to blame for everything. Now also for the downfall of regional arts journalism.

49th edition Film Festival Rotterdam opens with Mosquito - history as a fever dream

In the trailer for the International Film Festival Rotterdam, which kicks off on 22 January, film images crumble into abstract shapes and colour patterns. It has to do, I understand, with the wonder of the irrepressible urge to make stories. Once, a cave dweller put a painted hand on the rock face. In the digital age, we conjure stories with coloured pixels. The... 

Read More "49th edition Film Festival Rotterdam opens with Mosquito - history as a fever dream

Boreal at the top: our best-read posts of 2019!

A week before the end of 2019, Culture Press' membership stands at nearly 150, up from 40 exactly a year ago. A growth of more than 300 per cent is quite extraordinary. So we have demonstrated that we matter to a rapidly growing group of decision-makers in the cultural sector. So good that they are happy to contribute to... 

Read More "Boreal at the top: our best-read posts of 2019!

Why the magnificent annual figures of the theatre and concert hall managements make it clear that the system must be turned around. 

Things are once again going insane for Dutch theatres and concert halls. Every year, the directors, gathered in the VSCD, manage to come out with truly fantastic figures in the autumn. This year too, the cheers are unrelenting. Everything is growing. The number of jobs, and the number of volunteers, for example. (both up by 3% in... 

Read More "Why the magnificent annual figures of the theatre and concert hall managements make it clear that the system must be turned around. 

'Art tax cuts and a cultural fund will be created as an incentive for homeowners to invest in works of art.' (How we think the throne speech should have read)

Members of the States General, This year about 72 years ago we had the first Holland Festival. After years of enslavement and tyranny, hope for a better future literally came from above, in the form of Maria Callas. Eyewitnesses who saw the lights in the Stadsschouwburg turn red that day would never forget that image. 72 years later, it seems... 

Read More "'Art tax cuts and a cultural fund will be created as an incentive for homeowners to invest in works of art.' (How we think the throne speech should have read)

Social Fund Performing Arts turns out to be moneypit: assets halved in five years. Why is this bad news?

'If we continue at the current rate, the fund will be exhausted in the foreseeable future.' This can be read in the 2018 annual report of the Performing Arts Social Fund. Plenty of reason to sound the alarm, indeed. Is this yet another victim of the cabinet's cuts? Not really, it turns out. When you look at the documents in detail, you see mainly that... 

Read More "Social Fund Performing Arts turns out to be moneypit: assets halved in five years. Why is this bad news?

Why Conny Janssen Danst will win this year. Dance award nominees Swans 2019 announced.

The nominations for the 2019 Swans have been announced. Here is my annual prediction of who will win one. Spoiler alert. This year, it will be a cautious prediction. Even though in past years I wasn't far wrong (sometimes completely right) in guessing the winners, now when it comes to the dancers, you have to choose from superlatives: 'let them be on a... 

Read More "Why Conny Janssen Danst will win this year. Dance award nominees Swans 2019 announced.

Why, as a total layman, I did three days AUS LIGHT. And came out as a different person.

Music critics were unabatedly enthusiastic. And even opera lovers came, saw and were pleased. Of course, there was the chorus of monuments, led by a Flemish antiquity, who liked Maria Calllas better seventy years ago, but its members are only the necessary minority needed for something as unprecedented as AUS LICHT, the Magnum opus of the 72nd Holland Festival. Beforehand, it seemed... 

Read More "Why, as a total layman, I did three days AUS LIGHT. And came out as a different person.

Black, French, or African: The Welcome Table holds discussion on 'négritude' well away from Holland Festival

The ground beneath your feet is sacred. It is, in these times of left-wing identity politics and emerging right-wing blut und boden thinking, quite a risky remark, but Faustin Linyekula used it anyway, in an answer to a question from the audience. That question was about the need, to defend your own place in an increasingly globalised world. Because. 

Read More "Black, French, or African: The Welcome Table holds discussion on 'négritude' well away from Holland Festival

Laundry is still hanging on the line and food is still on the tables in restaurants. The doomsday scenario of Chernobyl, now as an HBO TV series.

On 26 April 1986, an explosion occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. To this day, it is one of the most catastrophic disasters caused by man. The effects of the nuclear disaster are felt even today. For many, Chernobyl represents a long-forgotten memory. Places with a macabre history have always drawn people and... 

Read More "Laundry is still hanging on the line and food is still on the tables in restaurants. The doomsday scenario of Chernobyl, now as an HBO TV series.

'We have become spectators rather than actors'; Philipp Blom tells performing artists on SPOT-Live what is at stake.

'We are on the brink of a new cultural revolution. We need to move away from our paradigm and art can play a role in this. Art can show us images of a different future, a different thought. Artists can help bring that realisation in.' Speaking is writer and journalist Philipp Blom. In 2017, his... 

Read More "'We have become spectators rather than actors'; Philipp Blom tells performing artists on SPOT-Live what is at stake.

How a small riot in Eindhoven could have major consequences for all subsidies (But for now, it's just a blunder)

Thanks to a tip-off from a reader, we saw that there is fuss about subsidies in Eindhoven. Now that happens quite often, but here something special was going on. Eindhovens Dagblad reported (Blendle link €) that the entire Supervisory Board of Stichting Cultuur Eindhoven had resigned. There was trouble because, writes the ED, the... 

Read More "How a small riot in Eindhoven could have major consequences for all subsidies (But for now, it's just a blunder)

Still some places available on 9 May 2019 - Workshop: Storytelling in writing

On stories, message and social media Storytelling is the latest buzzword. Every organisation these days has to have a story to tell. Is it a fashionable marketing phrase? Not really. Storytelling is not new. We were always telling each other stories. It's just that we sometimes forget. Thinking that passing dry facts to each other is an effective way to get people moving.... 

Read More "Still some places available on 9 May 2019 - Workshop: Storytelling in writing

Peppie & UBO: privacy concerns for business leaders and directors. (Why anti-money laundering policies can wreak havoc on culture)

Our government leaders, united in Europe, have come up with something to combat the masking of corruption. It is called UBO register. The Netherlands is also going to introduce it in the near future. This has consequences, also for cultural foundations and associations. Because every organisation has to determine who is a UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner). This causes some complications. In the cultural sector, it is... 

Read More "Peppie & UBO: privacy concerns for business leaders and directors. (Why anti-money laundering policies can wreak havoc on culture)

On the death of a teacher (on Wil Hildebrand and the fate of the theatre scholar)

Learning is less about what you learn than from whom you learn it. Not that what you learn doesn't matter, but you simply learn more from an inspired person than from a teacher who completes his list. Fortunately, I have had many good teachers. Some of them are now demented or dead, with almost all of them... 

Read More "On the death of a teacher (on Wil Hildebrand and the fate of the theatre scholar)

PODCAST! Why the paper book will never disappear

The paper book will never disappear. Of that, both Robbert Hak (Storytel) and Maarten Richel (New Book Collective) are convinced. And both are working on new ways to market books. 'The publishing world will become much more hybrid. The book, in all its different forms, should be present in as many places as possible.' Robert Hak 'The... 

Read More "PODCAST! Why the paper book will never disappear
M carbunaru [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

All balls to Cuijk. Why it really is a good idea for the Netherlands to have a Capital of Culture every year.

How nice it would be if Zutphen were to be Cultural Capital of the Netherlands next year, proudly representing itself and thanks to a strong impulse from its surrounding area: the province of Gelderland. They could immediately tackle the hopeless situation of the local theatre, the kids from the suburbs could also go to hip-hop in a real hall and everyone in the Netherlands would know... 

Read More "All balls to Cuijk. Why it really is a good idea for the Netherlands to have a Capital of Culture every year.

Brabant feud between orchestra and province comes at the expense of children, schools and small companies.

Cultural summit will take place Friday, February 1, 2019, at the North Brabant Provincial House. Reason: The 'Orkexit', or, the decision by the Philharmonie Zuid Nederland to cease all education activities in North Brabant with immediate effect. This not only deprives thousands of children of culture, but also puts a number of small youth theatre companies in dire financial straits. The Philharmonic, a merger orchestra, formed... 

Read More "Brabant feud between orchestra and province comes at the expense of children, schools and small companies.
TivoliVredenburg during construction. Photo: Wijbrand Schaap

Without TivoliVredenburg, the improvement of the Utrecht station area would have come to nothing.

There is an artist café in Utrecht that few Utrechters know about. And I don't mean Theatercafé De Bastaard, where by now a whole generation of actors, filmmakers and writers come from, but the artists' foyer of TivoliVredenburg. I've eaten and hung out there a few times, as an embedded reporter of De Nacht van de Poëzie, when it's very late into... 

Read More "Without TivoliVredenburg, the improvement of the Utrecht station area would have come to nothing.

Lower House gets less say on arts subsidies. (If the minister gets her way)

Some people read Christmas stories over Christmas, others the interview supplements of newspapers, and a few do so with policy documents. So, quite a few people have read our Culture Minister's 'Advice Request' in the past few days. I, at least. Those who 'officially' cannot have done so are the members of the Culture Council, because the whole package came... 

Read More "Lower House gets less say on arts subsidies. (If the minister gets her way)

Performing artists miss out on million in European grant due to 'administrative inability'

'Indecent and rude,' is how Miep van Diggelen, former chairman of the board of the Performing Arts Social Fund (SFPK), calls the actions of the board of that same fund. That board, or at least about five members of the seven-member board, decided - outside the official meeting - to withdraw a subsidy application they had initiated earlier, without having read it. The promising... 

Read More "Performing artists miss out on million in European grant due to 'administrative inability'

The non-visitor does not exist. Research commissioned by minister ends debate.

The Netherlands suffers from a problematisation problem. In case you find that a problematic term, that is part of the problem. Indeed: we make something into a complicated problem and explain it complicated because there is actually no reason to make it a problem. Venue: our national assembly. Reason: not everyone benefits equally from... 

Read More "The non-visitor does not exist. Research commissioned by minister ends debate.

September 26, 17:00 Culture Press readers' drinks: the beginning of a beautiful friendship?

Ten years ago, I got new glasses. Two weeks later, a retired ophthalmologist drove his car through my left leg and a month after that, from a wheelchair - fortunately temporary - the idea for the Cultural Press Bureau was born. Partly because the arts editorships of the Associated Press Service and NRC were decimated. So September 26 is just a date,... 

Read More "September 26, 17:00 Culture Press readers' drinks: the beginning of a beautiful friendship?

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