On 5 July, the HBO Council came out with a sector plan for art education. Following the report of the Dijkgraaf committee and the Brinkman committee, it was concluded that the autonomous fine arts courses will reduce the intake of first-year students by 25%, the conservatoires with direction of classical and jazz by 10%, and the rest by 20%. This is to be achieved in a period...
It came as a shock that still hasn't quite worked out. Haf September, dozens of arts organisations received a letter from the State Secretary for Culture, informing them that they could start using the subsidy they thought they were getting for projects until 31 December 2012 for redundancy procedures, selling property at a loss and staff lawsuits against...
A nice side effect of the Giving Act is that it gives the tax authorities a vital role when it comes to determining what is art, and what is not. That was the outcome of the hearing on Tuesday 11 October in the House of Representatives. There, the MPs listened to people from the philanthropic sector and tax experts in turn. Outcome of the two...
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?
Of course there are 'trolls'. Opponents of 'leftist hobbies' and supporters of the thesis that good art will survive on its own. Our liveblog on the March of Civilisation, which we had filled partly by following Twitter hashtags, turned a bit sour. We cleaned that up a bit, took out the loudest screamers (also pro, incidentally) and a few striking political...
This is an infographic from a series made by Abel, Niels and Willem at Mediamatic. Based on an idea by Ruben Pater. 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. During the hearing convened by the second chamber on Monday 20 June, the...
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...
We had done the necessary research work ourselves, and then it turned out that something had also been sent to the House of Representatives, which contained many more figures. We asked for those figures and were shocked. After 2012, when the current arts plan expires and after a year of inaction and wait and see for the whole sector a...
The Hague is quite complicated for those who do not visit it on a daily basis. I was there last Monday, as a spectator at the discussion of the culture and media budget, and it has taken me until now to fully understand what is going on. For that understanding, being there live was essential. After all, to understand a social system like the Lower House, you not only have to listen to what is being said, and see who is speaking, much more important are the 'listening shots': the body language and actions of those who are not speaking.
We were at a debate day in The Hague that was as inconspicuous as it was historic on 13 December 2010: it was about the budget of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the (first?) Rutte government, and that was the budget in which, at the request of the supporting party PVV, the amount to be cut in the arts budget was set at 200 million, with heritage and museums having to...
Motto of Zijlstra's culture letter: "The 19th-century painter Alma-Tadema said: 'As long as I paint, I am an artist; when it is finished, I am a businessman'." The art subsidy system is like a house, changing hands a little too often. In 2008, after long meetings, the previous owner fitted a new kitchen, replaced the bathroom, installed a new central heating boiler + underfloor heating and...
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