/ world today news/ Only after the war in this small Western European country did culture and the arts receive wider public and state support. Since the 1960s, subsidies have grown significantly. Provided in three directions (government, region and town hall), the spiritual sphere has finally taken its rightful place.
It is interesting that if the funds from one direction increased, the money from the other two also increased. At first this system was very successful, but in the first half of the 1980s, when the recession reached its peak, things had to change. At the end of each year, a rather serious deficit occurred, which led to a reduction in the subsidy for the following year. The government could not outline long-term projects and provide opportunities for new and especially experimental events, which are generally too well received in the Netherlands. The level of wages and working conditions (for creativity!) were firmly established. Reorganization was inevitable.
And here it is: in 1985, there they created a concept for the new structure of state subsidization of culture. After only one year, it came into force under the name “Kunstenplan” (Plan for the Arts). This plan was envisaged for a relatively short period of four years and provided for the distribution of funds in three main categories:
a) structural
b) long-term
c) on specific occasions.
The first is intended for the main cultural institutes in the capital The Hague, in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and other major cities of the country, such as the Royal Symphony Orchestra, the Theater Institute, the major opera houses, and is given for a period of four years.
The second is for large professional companies, such as the “Mickery” Dramatic Company, and is given for a maximum of three to four years.
The third is for experimental, youth and semi-professional creative teams. The state has organized special commissions to direct the distribution of the funds.
Parallel to this financial-administrative authority, there is also a Public Arts Council, which monitors and evaluates the state of the various institutes and creative groups. Of course, it was built entirely with the participation of specialists. This advisory body is able to oppose the possible interference of non-specialist officials in the assessment of individual artistic facts or new projects.
The Dutch system is much more flexible and provides both consistency – it is open to innovations and experiments, it provides maximum freedom for four years, and this is not a small period in the life of a creative institute. We must emphasize that the institutes in this country are autonomous – the state does not directly control their activities, it is interested in their general financial condition and their usefulness for the society and culture of the Netherlands.
The system of management of cultural institutes in this kingdom is also efficient. For example, opera houses are governed by boards of directors, which include: administrative director – quartermaster, music director – chief conductor, artistic director – director and financial director. Unfortunately, in our country there is only one position – a director – usually a conductor, in rare cases a director, and these are, in principle, persons without management experience, who at the same time “pull” mainly towards themselves. This is where the troubles in our theaters come from.
The experience of the Netherlands, a country with an old culture, with traditions in music, visual arts, theater and ballet, although with no greater creative potential than Bulgaria, and with much fewer state institutes, can be of use to us.
And another very important thing for our information: the funds from private sponsors there do not exceed a modest 4-5 percent of the total amount needed to support Dutch culture. And the budget in this regard is over five percent, while in Bulgaria it is ten times smaller! The major responsibility there has been taken by the state, as it is in most EU countries.
Only there, in the Netherlands, as well as in the whole of Europe, even in Macedonia and Turkey, everything is perhaps better thought out and better organized than it is in our country, where the ridiculous reform with the “delegated budgets” slowly but surely will bury most of the native cultural institutes, and besides, they do not have such ridiculous and unsustainable ministers as our Banov and Rashidov.
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