Cabinet: 15 million euros extra for theater and music

The Performing Arts Fund NL will receive 15 million euros from the cabinet to distribute to theater companies and music ensembles that were assessed positively, but for which there was not enough money. There will also be an extra two million euros to invest in culture in the region. This is evident from the leaked Budget Memorandum, which is in the possession of NRC.

The foundation divided in early August 21 million euros per year in subsidy for a period of four years (2012-2024) among 78 institutions. Among the 78 there were 33 newcomers, who received a structural subsidy from the fund for the first time. The fund fell short of 15.8 million euros to honor all positively assessed people, at the expense of 71 institutions. Some have already announced that they will disband.

The cabinet is still investing (almost) the amount required. The arts sector strongly advocated this. At the end of August, more than a thousand performing organizations and artists sent a burning letter to members of the House of Representatives and Minister Van Engelshoven (OCW). The commissioners of the nine non-Randstad provinces also wrote in an open letter that they were ‘perplexed’ and stated that the public in the province was ‘duped’. The nine warned of ‘unacceptable white spots’. There is now special extra money to tackle these places: 2 million for low-culture regions in Friesland, Drenthe, Flevoland, Zeeland and Limburg.

Regional spread was not a criterion for the Performing Arts Fund NL when assessing the applications. This contributed to the fact that of the eleven applications from the Eastern Netherlands, zero was honored by the fund, while 54 percent of the money went to Amsterdam companies.

Also read: Wende Snijders is better than ‘More than sufficient’

Most of the 71 who now receive a four-year subsidy are also located in the Randstad. Among them many esteemed cultural organizations and performers: Orkater, Wende, Laura van Dolron, Hotel Modern, Maatschappij Discoridia, Jazz Orchestra of the Congresgebouw, Amsterdam Klezmer Band and Dood Paard (that had announced that it would disband). It is also good news for collectives with young, talented makers who had just made their name in recent years, such as Club Gewalt, Nineties Productions, Urland and Black Sheep Can Fly.

Of the 71 institutions that are still receiving funding, 23 have a municipality outside the Randstad as their location. So there is good news for, among others (at the large institutions), Theater Production House Zeelandia (Zeeland Nazomerfestival) and theater groups Suburbia and Vis à Vis (Almere), for (at medium-sized institutions) music theater company BOT (Arnhem, Theatergezelschap PeerGroup (Donderen) and Matzer Producties (Den Bosch) and for (at the smaller institutions) Kompanie Kistemaker (Arnhem), Youth Theater Group Garage TDI (Assen) and development platform Het Geluid (Maastricht).

The question is how the Fund will distribute the extra money. The fund applies a ranking of the order in which institutions would still receive money. Since the new budget for 8 tons remains insufficient, groups at the bottom of the ranking, such as Het Geluid, can still be left out. The alternative is to give all applicants just a little less.

The regional companies remain in the minority. There is a reason for this: fewer requests are made from the region. A good example is Limburg, with three applications to the Performing Arts Fund NL, out of 202 applications from all over the country.

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