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Belgium beware: artists defending subsidies. You can do better.

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... 

Photo: Wijbrand Schaap

Joop Daalmeijer Marathon (closing): 'But who knows anything about it? They are all generalists sitting there.'

Wijbrand Schaap: 'The amateur arts. I experienced the cuts myself 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 slightly on top...' Marathon interviewAfter the fuss around Melle Daamen's opinion piece on art policy, we... 

Joop Daalmeijer Marathon (7): 'If the knowledge is lost, so is the heritage.'

Wijbrand Schaap: 'Just one more point. Then we're almost through.' Joop Daalmeijer: 'Continue quietly, we have until half past five.' Wijbrand Schaap: 'We have a problem with real estate. A lot of inner cities are empty. Shop premises are empty, downtown office buildings are unrentable. What do the municipalities say? Put artists in them. Cost nothing, because for free rent they do... 

Joop Daalmeijer Marathon (6): 'The Rijksakademie will go to pieces if we don't intervene'

Wijbrand Schaap: 'The basic infrastructure was keelhauled by Zijlstra while it was not yet ripe. That, in its smaller version, now runs the risk of leading to further rigidity.' Marathon interviewAfter the uproar surrounding Melle Daamen's opinion piece on arts policy, we were invited for a 'conversation about everything' with Joop Daalmeijer, chairman of the Council for Culture. The conversation... 

Joop Daalmeijer Marathon (5) "All balls on Amsterdam", I'm not into that at all.

Wijbrand Schaap: 'Now on the role of cities. One of the reactions on our site is about the role of the randstad in cultural policy. Melle Daamen puts the primacy in the randstad, and goes further than the Council in this.' Marathon interviewAfter the uproar surrounding Melle Daamen's opinion piece on arts policy, we were invited to a 'conversation about... 

Joop Daalmeijer Marathon (4): 'Broadcasters squeeze out artists'

Wijbrand Schaap: 'Next hot issue. Copyright is mentioned in a few passages of the Cultural Exploration. I am also affected by that in various ways. There is, of course, that new author's contract law, which is going to be discussed in the chamber one day, maybe. Nice about that is that the creator's position in that law has been strengthened.' Marathon interviewAfter the fuss around... 

Joop Daalmeijer Marathon (3): "The arts sector should have reached out to consumers"

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.' Marathon interviewAfter the uproar surrounding Melle Daamen's opinion piece on arts policy, we were invited for a 'conversation about... 

Joop Daalmeijer Marathon (2): 'So that caution is not always necessary.'

Wijbrand Schaap: 'When it comes to talent development and embedding in society, it is also very much about 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.... 

Photo: Wijbrand Schaap

'Cuts do lead to loss of quality' The great Arts Council interview (1): "Patronage is, of course, bullshit."

Joop Daalmeijer: 'I never authorise. I find that such nonsense. A journalist should just do his job properly.' Wijbrand Schaap: 'We agree on that then. We write up everything in full, but because conversations about everything tend to be endless, I want to hang it on the Culture Exploration. That's the most concrete piece and the most topical, and it... 

We will talk to Joop Daalmeijer. Did you have any questions?

We are going to talk about everything, because Joop was a bit fed up. All this criticism of the Council for Culture. That on his leadership it had degenerated into Halbe Zijlstra's lapdog, and that Jet Bussemaker laughs out loud at them. And that they conduct discussion behind a paywall. That's why we're going to talk to Joop Daalmeijer. The President. We agreed... 

Praise the arts, my soul! #Paradisode debate mostly confession of faith, but there is hope

"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... 

The future is not fixed. 7 solutions to the arts crisis.

By Melle Daamen 'What do you want then?' was a question I received quite often in response to my articles last year in NRC, in which I expressed my concerns about the state of the arts in the Netherlands and especially its future. I argued for a fundamental debate from within the arts sector itself, focusing on the future, including... 

Melle Daamen on @culturepress: 6 reasons why the arts debate in the Netherlands is so laborious.

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... 

8 million for talent development, but 4 tough problems remain

Culture minister Jet Bussemaker can again make up for the cultural devastation caused by her predecessor Halbe Zijlstra. As promised earlier, money will be freed up for talent development. That was a demand of the chamber and a wish of the country. Are we happy? Of course. Although happy, there are also a few things that remain troublesome. [Tweet "1 Develop... 

Culture Council debates only with like-minded people.

Update: Meanwhile, the Culture Council has picked up the gauntlet. Melle Daamen posted his pieces on Culture Press, and Joop Daalmeijer has agreed to give a comprehensive interview. More news soon, then. 'Melle is a member of the Supervisory Board. You have nothing to do with that. So that's why NRC anyway?' Dixit Joop Daalmeijer, the man who since he became chairman there... 

'Fix it yourself.' Culture minister puts fate of amateur arts in hands of municipalities and citizens

In March this year, the Council for Culture sounded the alarm. Unique under the new leadership, which is usually extremely docile when it comes to culture cuts. But what happens to the music schools, children's drama schools, libraries and amateur orchestras is otherwise entirely up to the citizens themselves, and their local councils. This is the minister's response to the chamber.

In the letter, which landed in MPs' inboxes this weekend, the minister states, "I will maintain my commitment to the terrei...

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Culture Council notes total destruction of amateur art. Minister worries.

Over 60 million has disappeared from the coffers of the Netherlands' amateur artists in recent years. That money from your daughter's dance class, the brass band and your son's hip-hop class has been spent by municipalities, which had to compensate for cuts elsewhere, and provinces that suddenly saw no point in amateurs. That the national government additionally took 200 million from professional arts institutions is added to that.

The Culture Council, in an advice to the minister, is now trying to see if there is movement ...

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'The Dutch themselves do not realise what has been built up in this country.'

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. It does not have to mean that art takes a stand against current issues. The way dance is rooted in society is much more important to Wuersten. This is reflected in Holland Dance Festival ...

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4 old cows in eternal Amsterdam theatre war cause Daamens oekaze?

How can a usually very ordinary, amiable theatre director suddenly come out with the announcement that a few orchestras can go and the National Ballet has to be outsourced? We wondered so and headed to the Concertgebouw car park yesterday. Because at the Concertgebouw there was a get-together due to the celebration of a new grade, and where there are get-togethers, there are loose lips. Especially in car parks. And there, among all the pulmonary emphysema complaints, we heard some news: Melle Daa...

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Why the National Ballet should stay and Melle Daamen should become chairman of the Culture Council.

Update
Meanwhile, in NRC Handelsblad reacted somewhat panicked to the opinion of Melle Daamen, whom he calls an impatient entrepreneur: "You can imagine structurally subsidising two instead of four dance companies anymore. The other two could apply for grants for projects from the Performing Arts Fund, which should then get more funding."

Lower chamber talked about art. We followed the debate for you

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.

Below are our updates, which paint a picture of a room that still doesn't really know where it is in d eculture ...

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'Museum sector buzzing with collaborative initiatives' but keen to keep doing it themselves

An enthusiastic press release in times of severe headwinds. That calls for a closer look. Last Friday, a study on the state of cooperation in the Dutch museum world was presented. After all, cooperation is a must from minister Bussemaker and sort of from the Council for Culture. So it's nice that things are already going ok. Can we get back to doing nice things.

What the press release does not tell, but the research report makes clear, is that it is not at all that fantastic ...

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Culture Council delights ministers with nice note

On Friday 12 April, there will be a 'Film Summit' at Eye, Amsterdam. Government, producers and financiers will spend a day there discussing what needs to be done to help the Dutch film industry get through the winter. This Film Summit came at the request of filmmakers, who hope for a Dutch variant of the 'tax shelter'. Such a tax measure makes it a lot more attractive for financiers to put money into films. In Belgium, very nice Dutch films have been made for a while, such as e.g. ...

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