Tension is rising in Dutch cultural field

The Dutch cultural community is holding its breath for the official letter by the State Secretary for Culture Zijlstra, to be presented to the parliament on the 10th of June.

In this letter, the State Secretary will announce how to realize the cultural budget cuts of 200 million euro’s, more than 20%  of the current budget, within the next policy period (2013-2015). 

From the perspective of the cultural field: it’s not looking good. On 29 April, the Council for Culture, the official advisory body on the governmental cultural policy, plead for a more gradually phasing out of the financial support by the ministry, but rumours go that the State Secretary will ignore this and other critical elements of the advice from the Council for Culture.

The budget cuts will probably also affect the position of Dutch arts organisations in international cultural cooperation projects and the number of artistic presentations world wide.

A selection of recent posts on various websites about the budget cuts:

Painful cuts for Dutch arts funding

Dutch musicians stage flashmob protest

Trouble Dutch. Is the Hollywood of concert dance being torn down?

To be continued...