Arts cuts damage Netherlands culture

The decision by the government to cut the Netherlands’ arts council subsidies by 25 per cent over the next four years means that some orchestras, theatre groups and dance companies will no longer get government funding.

This could have a serious effect not just on programming but also on the development of young talent and creativity, according to the head of the country’s arts council.

Plans for the national theatre museum in Amsterdam have been scrapped, as have subsidies to seven of the country’s 14 orchestras, including the Holland Symfonia, which works together with the National Ballet.

The International Danstheater and the Noord Nederlandse Dans will have to find alternative funding. Sculpture and archaeological organisations have also been targeted and the Netherlands Media and Art Institute in Amsterdam, one of the foremost in the field of internet, video and new media art, has announced that it will have to close at the end of 2012.