Europe’s acute economic problems, and the subsequent austerity programs meant to tackle them, are coaxing several arts institutions to curtail programs, grants and tours.
The New York Austrian Cultural Forum’s director and president of the EU National Institutes for Culture’s New York branch, Andreas Stadler, states: “Culture is a basic need. People should have the right to explore it. Over all, culture is definitely much higher on our political agenda than it’s here since it is linked to our identities.”
France and Germany, the largest and also among the better places economies in Europe, are facing the least problem and can even allude to increased financing for certain officially favored programs and genres, which are seen as promoting images of the countries abroad, like film and arts.
But other countries with governments led by technocrats or conservatives like the Netherlands, Britain, Italy and Hungary have had their respective culture budgets cut down. So have others now being forced to slash public spending to stay in the euro zone, including Portugal, Greece, Spain and Ireland.
For example, in the Netherlands’s case, the culture budget is getting brought down by about $265 million, or close to 25 percent, by the start of next year. Taxes on cultural events’ tickets are to go up from 6 percent to 19 percent, although sporting events, zoos, circuses and movie theaters are exempted. Halbe Zijlstra, the state secretary (education, culture & science) has termed his focus as being ‘more than quality, a brand new vision of cultural policy’, wherein an institution must justify it does economically even while competing for limited funds.
In practical terms, what it has meant is that smaller companies, those engaged in more experimental and avant-garde ventures in particular, suffer the most owing to the projected cuts. Large, established institutions, such as the van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the Dutch National Ballet and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, are in a comparatively better position to manage things and fend for themselves.
The New York Austrian Cultural Forum’s director and president of the EU National Institutes for Culture’s New York branch, Andreas Stadler, states: “Culture is a basic need. People should have the right to explore it. Over all, culture is definitely much higher on our political agenda than it’s here since it is linked to our identities.”
France and Germany, the largest and also among the better places economies in Europe, are facing the least problem and can even allude to increased financing for certain officially favored programs and genres, which are seen as promoting images of the countries abroad, like film and arts.
But other countries with governments led by technocrats or conservatives like the Netherlands, Britain, Italy and Hungary have had their respective culture budgets cut down. So have others now being forced to slash public spending to stay in the euro zone, including Portugal, Greece, Spain and Ireland.
For example, in the Netherlands’s case, the culture budget is getting brought down by about $265 million, or close to 25 percent, by the start of next year. Taxes on cultural events’ tickets are to go up from 6 percent to 19 percent, although sporting events, zoos, circuses and movie theaters are exempted. Halbe Zijlstra, the state secretary (education, culture & science) has termed his focus as being ‘more than quality, a brand new vision of cultural policy’, wherein an institution must justify it does economically even while competing for limited funds.
In practical terms, what it has meant is that smaller companies, those engaged in more experimental and avant-garde ventures in particular, suffer the most owing to the projected cuts. Large, established institutions, such as the van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the Dutch National Ballet and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, are in a comparatively better position to manage things and fend for themselves.
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