DutchCulture Database Mapping 2019: A Dive into International Culture

Each year, DutchCulture maps the international events that Dutch artists and cultural organisations produce and take part in abroad. This helps us understand the cultural impact of the Netherlands in other countries. In this edition, we look at the trends and changes in international cultural participation that took place in 2019. From artist participation to geographic diversity, this mapping provides an overview of the scope, scale and characteristics of the Dutch International cultural presence. Explore the 2019 DutchCulture Mapping (pdf).

Throughout 2019, we tracked Dutch participation in 19,227 international cultural activities. These activities were spread across 112 countries, in 3,010 cities across the globe. 3,736 Dutch artists and cultural organizations from all artistic disciplines participated in these events. The top ten countries remain relatively stable, with Germany, the United States, Belgium, the United Kingdom and France topping the list. However, 2019 tracked increasing geographic diversity, with more than 100 more countries tracked this year than last year.

International cultural activity often centres around key cultural events that bring artists and organisations together. Some of the top cultural events for artists in 2019 included the Gavroche Festival, SXSW, Milan Design Week, Theater Aan Zee, Tomorrowland, Kristiansand Children’s Film Festival and the Sao Paolo Film Festival.

Artists from every discipline were internationally active in 2019. Music continues to dominate as a discipline, accounting for 50% of the activities, in large part due to the strong presence of Dutch DJ’s in the international music scene. However, it is important to understand that activities in each discipline are not necessarily comparable; music activities are often single night events, whereas activities in the performing and visual arts are often part of a longer run exhibition, activities in literature are often translations distributed across the globe, and activities in design, digital culture, heritage and architecture are often related to large fairs, symposiums, conferences or research projects. To dive deeper into activities, search artists, disciplines, or venues in our database using the DutchCulture search bar.

Obviously, our 2020 mapping will look very different from our mapping of 2019. However, this 2019 mapping provides important context into what the international cultural scene looked like pre-pandemic. In the upcoming year, this mapping will serve as a baseline against which we can measure the changes to international cultural participation that have occurred in 2020. We have been working hard to track the impact of the pandemic on international culture and these mappings will help us understand how the international art scene has changed. We are currently collecting information on cancelled and virtualized international cultural activities for 2020; if you have information on 2020 activities you can email us here.