Articles

Main lines of cultural policy

policy & politics

22/07/22
Xandra Nibbeling

State Secretary for Culture and Media Gunay Uslu presented her recovery plan for the sector in late May. Recovery, renewal and growth are central to this plan. This year an amount of 135 million euros is available, in the following years 170 million euros extra per year for culture.

For this year, the Secretary of State is focusing on five points: recovery, strengthening the labor market position, return of audiences, cultural offerings for young people and further investments.

During the committee debate in the House of Representatives (on June 15 and June 22), the State Secretary announced the extension of the start-up scheme, which runs through Cultuur+Ondernemen, until December 31, 2023. Other decisions and details will follow later this year in a number of letters from the State Secretary. The details of the additional 170 million euros per year as of 2023 will follow in a letter after Prince's Day.

Recovery

An additional investment of 20 million euros goes to creators in the sector. Specific attention is paid to starting creators who had a difficult start due to the closure of the cultural sector. For them, 9.9 million euros will be allocated.

To encourage entrepreneurship, 15 million euros will be available through Cultuur+Ondernemen to invest in productions and projects through a low-interest loan.

Strengthen labor market position

10 million euros will be available for a pilot that facilitates employers to jointly hire freelancers, giving them more social security. There will also be a pilot with a financial contribution to the cost of disability or pension insurance.

Returning public

In order to bring the number of visitors back up to standard, public campaigns will be launched for which 4 million euros will be made available. 5 million euros will be spent on additional cultural programming for public broadcasting to support creators and attract a wider audience to theaters, museums and cinemas.

Cultural offerings for young people

With a youth culture impulse of 19.6 million euros, there will be additional support for local places and initiatives for young people to develop creatively and practice culture. 2.5 million euros will be spent to make it easier for all mbo-schools and students to spend time on art and culture.

Further investments

There is a focus on innovation and digitization, a trend that has accelerated during corona. Investments will also be made in heritage, the Netherlands collection and libraries, starting in Bonaire. Extra money will be released for the online library. This support goes entirely to writers and their publishers.

Comments from the field

Arts Union

The Kunstenbond endorses the urgency of the extra investments and appreciates the combative attitude of the State Secretary, but misses a sharp choice in the plans to structurally improve the position of workers. The Kunstenbond feels that structural pillars to organize fair payment are not given enough attention. "With pilots we will not solve the loss of buffers, suffered capital losses and the structurally unequal bargaining position of workers in our sector." The union believes that the secretary of state must ensure that subject specialists want to return by making the labor market in the sector attractive to working people again. To that end
there must be "full (...) commitment to fair practice: fair pay, fair contracts, greater security and social safety."

Cultural and Creative Sector Task Force

The Taskforce also expressed appreciation and sees good starting points for working on recovery and transition in the long term. The Taskforce also sees the recovery plan as an encouragement for municipalities to make recovery packages available for the local cultural infrastructure, with attention to improving the labor market, the precarious position of the self-employed, promoting cohesion in the system, among other things.

Interprovincial Consultation

Through the IPO, the provinces let it be known that they consider it important that a thorough recovery plan for the sector is started quickly. The provinces would like to be actively involved in new policy developments and in shaping the recovery plan. According to the IPO, the outline letter from the State Secretary lacks an outlook on the future of heritage policy.