The famous ballet and dance company Scapino Ballet gets nothing more, the youth-oriented performers’ house Dox does for the first time and Dutch National Opera has to return to the drawing board for a chance. These are proposals that the Culture Council has today presented to Minister van Engelshoven about the granting of subsidies to cultural institutions. The Council’s spearheads: more diversity and more regional spread.
At the beginning of this year, 220 cultural institutions submitted an application for 2021 to 2024. For that period, 200 million euros can be allocated annually. Today about half can fly the flag. As for the council, they get a share of those millions.
A number of institutions may supplement their plans in the coming period to still have a chance of receiving a subsidy. In the proposal, 55 institutions are awarded an amount for the first time.
Nieuwsuur visited DOX and the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, who were both awarded grants. The Scapino Ballet received nothing, and they were very disappointed in that: “Corona cannot help it, but the Culture Council can.”
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‘Corona can’t help it, the Culture Council can’
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The Cultural Basic Infrastructure (BIS), as the advice is called, focuses mainly on institutions with an innovative cultural offering and institutions from outside the Randstad. Now thirty percent of the subsidies will be awarded to institutions outside the Randstad, in the coming period this will be forty percent.
“We are looking for a good reflection in the country,” says chairman of the board Marijke van Hees. “We want to strengthen the cultural climate on the spot. During working visits, the evaluation committee noticed where the strength of the regions lies, what their artistic quality is.”
Zero Scapino Ballet
A notable absentee from the list is the famous dance and ballet company Scapino Ballet. In the past four years, the dancers were still awarded a 1.6 million grant, but now they are one of the five institutions that do not receive the grant.
“That is not nice, but assessment is necessary. If all the old institutions would always remain in the BIS, this would not even be necessary and everything would always remain the same,” says Van Hees. “But sometimes it is just like a match. Then you don’t know who wins in advance and you still participate.”
The number of applications per province varied considerably. For example, only three applications were received from Drenthe, Zeeland and Flevoland, while South Holland submitted 41. Most applications (76) came from North Holland.
Grant for culture in times of corona?
Just now that the culture sector has been hit severely by the coronavirus, the Council has decided to continue with their advice “to provide institutions with support in uncertain times”. According to the council, the institutions that have been chosen can respond to this situation on the basis of their artistic and substantive qualities.
On Budget Day, Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven will announce whether she will award the grants in the same way. She often takes the advice of the council in broad outline.
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