Dear all,
The situation evolving in the Netherlands is shocking and
catastrophic. Can those involved in the Dutch media arts scene let
us know what the international community can do to help or support
the organisations who face oblivion?
I know they seem like small gestures, but I'm sure there's a petition
or open letter in circulation, and it would be great to post the
details of that here.
Plus, is it worth concerned colleagues from around the world, writing
letters directly to Halbe Zijlstra?
I'm saddened and concerned, and my thoughts are with all my friends
in the media arts sector in the Netherlands.
Best,
Honor
Last Friday the new policy plans of the new Minister were announced
and published and they are very dramatic in general for the whole
field of art and culture in The Netherlands. On the PNEK list it was
announced as:
New Media Art Organisations in Netherlands lose funding.
The Dutch New Media Art Organisations Steim, De Waag, Mediamatic, V2
& NIMK are about to lose all their funding.
The Dutch secretary of state for Culture in the Netherlands, Halbe
Zijlstra, has published his policy plan for coming years. In
contrast to the official recommendations given to him by the Culture
Advisory Board, the cutbacks will not be spread out over a number of
years, but will take immediate effect in 2013. The budget for visual
art will shrink from 53,3 to 31 million.
Among the more damaging and destructive decisions is the complete
cutting of funding for the six leading New Media Art Organsiations
that produce, distribute and facilitate New Media Art;
-STEIM: Independent Live electronic music centre that is exclusively
dedicated to the performing arts.
-De WAAG: Organisation & Worklab for old and new media, developers
of open source tools, research & technology for the creative
independant industry & intermediate between art, science and media.
-Worm: Rotterdam based laboratory, venue and studios for film, music
and internet featuring concerts, new media events, screenings,
production of film, music and software art.
-Mediamatic: software art projects, lectures, workshops & screenings
aiming on the young generation of artists, designers & tinkerers.
-V2: interdisciplinary centre for art and media technology in
Rotterdam, activities include organizing presentations, exhibitions
and workshops, research and development of artworks operating in an
international network
-NIMK: The Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk) promotes the wide
and unrestrained development, application and distribution of, and
reflection on, new technologies within the visual arts. Since the
Netherlands Media Art Institute came into being in 1978 an extensive
collection of video and media art has been assembled, to which new
works are constantly being added.
These institutes together form the foundation for New Media Arts in
the Netherlands and forfil an important role in the International
Network that shares knowledge, exchanges, produces, distributes and
promotes various forms of New Media Art.
For most of these organisations the budget cuts will mean their disappearance.
(fwd)
BUT of course there is more to it. In the document one can read that
Architecture, Design and eCulture are fusing together in a new fund
called Creative Industry (something non of these sectors wants). ALL
organization in the 3 domains won't receive any structural funding
anymore in this plan BUT the new Fund, that is now being structured,
will likely offer the change to organizations to get structural
funding (2 to 4 years). But since this fund is not there yet and
since they are having strong debates about the role and function,
and program of this fund nothing is indicated about this fund in the
published document. So when reading the document you get a different
picture of what is being debated right now insight the Ministry and
with the 3 sectors.
The thing that should be in place for this fund are
1. structural funding to some of the important plpl.ayers in the 3
sectors; and
2. creating space for basic research in the 3 sectors.
When we get this done we are still facing a hardcore economic agenda
(the Minister is a hardcore liberal) but that we can shape and
address 'creatively' since we can't and don't want to fullfill this
agenda ourselves. Dealing with the goals of the new Fund will be a
major challenge since NO ONE wants this Fund and it has NO bearing
grounds.
Still, if you read the whole document you can see that probably
eCulture, design and architecture are coming out best if you compare
what is happening in other sectors like theatre, performing arts,
post academic education, visual arts a.s. For example all production
houses for theatre won't be funded anymore; all post-academic
organization like the Rijksacademie, Jan van Eyck and Berlage
Institute won't receive any funding anymore after 2012. This are
just some of the cuts that have been done.
NIMk nevertheless, since they are not part of eCulture but the
visual arts, are serious trouble up from 2013. The Minister
indicated that he has NO responsiblity for an archive that is not
set up by the Ministry but by a foundation itself, so it's NIMk's
responsibility to deal with their archive he thinks. The same for
the Theater Instituut Nederland that won't get any funding and who
also have a large archive on theatre on theatre covering decades of
history. but it's also an archive setup and organised by the
institute itself so also here the Minister sees no responsibilities
for him.
So you can imagine that I have been lobbying, having meetings last
months since we saw all of this coming, even though the result is
very unexpected in its format (bringing architecture, design and
eCulture in one new sector called Creative Industry - that nobody
wants to be related to).
I keep you updated since the coming month will be essential for the
future of eCulture in the Netherlands since the new fund is now
being discussed and shaped and should be announced end of July. And
of course we think and push that this new fund will supoort some
organisations structuraly since the budget is there (eCulture is far
less cut down then any other sector, only about 15% while other
sectors face cut downs to 25 till 50%).
______________________________________________
SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe
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--
Honor Harger
Director
Lighthouse
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk
Address: 28 Kensington Street, Brighton, BN1 4AJ, UK
Tel: +44 1273 647197
email: ho...@lighthouse.org.uk
Find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LighthouseArts
Join our mailing list: http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/about/signup.html
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