DutchNews.nl - Culture cuts will boost prices and cost jobs, says arts council

Government plans to cut spending on the arts and culture will lead to a 20% increase in ticket prices and the loss of 3,000 jobs, the national arts council said in a report on Friday.

The council was commissioned by culture minister Halbe Zijlstra to look at how spending can be cut by €125m a year from 2013 – on top of the €75m in savings he has already pushed through.

In its recommendations, the council says the cuts are so severe that they should be phased in more gradually, starting with €72m in 2013.

In total, subsidies for the visual arts and orchestras should be cut by one third while the performing arts, museums, libraries and films should get 25% less funding.

The council does not name any actual institutions which will be forced to close but says many will disappear or merge. In particular, town and city-based theatre groups will merge into regional operations, along with youth theatres.

Spending on the Nederlandse Opera will go down from €24m to €19m and the future of the Travelling Opera and Opera Zuid remains in question, the Volkskrant says in its coverage of the report.

The government has already put up value added tax on theatre tickets from 6% to 19% in July, the start of the new season.

The planned cuts in arts spending were widely condemned when they were first announced in October. And Zijlstra was heavily criticised in January when he said the public rather than experts would decide what is ‘good art’.

Readers' Comments

Dutch orchestras have been "surviving" on subsidies for 85% of their operating costs for decades. They've gotten comfortable programming all sorts of crap that people don't want to hear, then they're surprised when folks don't buy tickets.

Obviously this situation can't and shouldn't continue.

By YoMama | 30 April 2011 9:09 AM

This is the time for the Dutch corporates to step up and show their support for the arts. While times have been tough for some of them, long-term prosperity is in sight for many others. From a PR perspective it is a no-brainer.

By Gavin Stok | 30 April 2011 3:26 PM

Holland was once a leading country in arts and culture Whats happened?OH yeah i almost forgot its all to keep the fascist wilders happy once he claimed the arts was nothing more than a hobby for the left wing communist elite.Yip yet again the Dutch bend over backwards to accommodate a racist.

By Jason Buttle | 30 April 2011 6:24 PM

"Cinema, circuses and sports events still fall under the 6% tax rate."

And that says it all about the tastes of our government. If circuses and whatnot are what the public really wants, then a 19% tax rate won't hurt these activities at all...Out of principle, they should also sink or swim based on its ability to make a profit, just like the art the government doesn't "get".

By CW | 2 May 2011 6:57 AM

Why the heck the media and entertainment businesses are still in the category 'culture'? Why should the professional sports enjoy tax cuts? I think that these are regular business activities and deserve full taxing.

By George | 2 May 2011 10:39 AM

I think it is only fair that cultural events pay the same taxation as the rest of non-essential services. There is no justification for this special treatment and I think equaling the VAT taxes is a fair policy, long due.

By Andre L. | 2 May 2011 5:12 PM