Arts and Culture – Municipality of Amsterdam
Renovation of De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB)
Our building will have an open character. Everyone will soon be welcome there. There will be an area around the former gold vault that is open to the public. Here you can view our art collection and money and coin collection. Or attend a seminar, lecture or debate. A sculpture garden will be built where the round tower used to be, where you can quietly read a book. And on the Singelgracht side there will be a deck where everyone can enjoy the water. Our building will become a knowledge and meeting center for employees, the financial sector, Amsterdam residents and all other Dutch people.
Arts and Culture
Delve into the intricate world of policy-making within the Arts and Culture Municipality of Amsterdam, where decisions are crafted to nurture and champion the vibrant cultural landscape of this iconic city.
From the museums and cultural breeding grounds to the city parks and the art-decorated facades of the canal houses. Art and culture is always and everywhere in Amsterdam. And it doesn’t stop when the sun sets: the club scene is also of cultural value to the city.
> amsterdam.nl/arts-and-culture
> amsterdam.nl/kunst-cultuur
How Amsterdam is losing its undisputed status as cultural capital
For years, Amsterdam was the undisputed cultural capital, where most of the money went. But now that the four-yearly subsidy circus has taken place again, it appears that a completely different wind has started blowing in The Hague. Amsterdam is said to be profiting too much from government money, at the expense of the rest of the country. Well-known Amsterdam groups such as ITA and the Amsterdam Klezmerband are receiving less or no money. Is the city under pressure as an art capital?
Presentation: Lorianne van Gelder
Guests: Touria Meliani (Amsterdam alderman for culture) and Jan Pieter Ekker (editor of Art Het Parool)
Language: Dutch
Arts and Culture – Councilor Touria Meliani
Since May 2018, Touria Meliani (GroenLinks) has been an alderman of Amsterdam, with Art and Culture, Events, and Inclusion and Anti-discrimination policy in her portfolio since the 2022-2026 council period.
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Amsterdamse Kunstraad (AKr)
The Amsterdam Arts Council (AKr), founded in 1952, is the permanent and independent advisory body of the Amsterdam municipal council. The arts council has a broadly formulated task: it can provide solicited and unsolicited advice, both on topics from the Culture portfolio and on art and culture-related topics from other portfolios. The arts council provides a substantive assessment of artistic expressions and advises on the profile and strategy of art institutions. As an advisor for arts policy, the arts council expresses its views on the relationship between the arts disciplines, the level of facilities, their financing and the reach. Every four years, the arts council draws up the Amsterdam Cultural Outlook, in which the cultural sector (the subsidized and the unsubsidized segment) is mapped.
One of the tasks includes providing advice in preparation of the arts plan. The arts council assesses the plans submitted for the Amsterdam Basic Infrastructure (Amsterdam Bis). This assessment includes the artistic-content qualities, feasibility (including entrepreneurship, public reach), the importance for the city and diversity & inclusion. Where necessary, the arts council invites international experts to formulate an opinion on applications with a strong international character. In addition, the arts council organizes a hearing and rebuttal with the field. If necessary, the arts council carries out an interim evaluation of the functioning of one or more institutions in the Amsterdam Bis. In order to appreciate the value of the chain responsibility of the applicants, the AKr is developing an integrated vision of the entire sector. The coherence between Amsterdam Bis and fund institutions is a point of attention.
The arts council also advises the municipal council on the AFK regulations and the principles of cultural policy, laid down in the four-yearly outlines. The arts council identifies opportunities and threats for the Amsterdam cultural sector at an early stage. The dialogue with the sector provides an impetus for and provides input for new perspectives for (international) cultural policy.
> kunstraad.nl
Hoofdlijnen Kunstenplan 2025-2028
With the Hoofdlijnen Kunstenplan 2025-2028, Amsterdam recognizes the great value of art and culture for our city. Art offers beauty, comfort, moves, inspires and brings us together. It is in the DNA of our city, whether we are talking about visual arts, heritage, night culture, photography or dance: the many makers and cultural institutions are indispensable to our city. In the period 2025-2028, the municipality will focus on neighbourhoods, makers and invest unevenly for equal opportunities.
> amsterdam.nl/hoofdlijnen-kunstenplan
No more Amsterdam Bis from 2025
The Amsterdamse Kunstraad recommends that no basic infrastructure be distinguished in the arts plan from 2025, and therefore no longer to speak of a separate Amsterdam Bis. All institutions that receive a four-year subsidy are included in the Amsterdam arts plan and are part of Amsterdam’s cultural infrastructure.
In a city where so many different cultural institutions work together to provide an offering that serves all residents, a ‘cut’ in the system that distinguishes one base from the rest is forced and harmful to the field.
The arts council recommends that individual subsidy awards be made by the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, with the exception of seven institutions that fall directly under the municipality. These settings emphatically do not form a basis.
This concerns Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Amsterdam Museum, because they manage the Amsterdam Collection; The National Ballet (National Opera & Ballet), International Theater Amsterdam (ITA) and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra because of their extensive national and international reach, the size of the organization and the significant municipal and national support, and Theater de Meervaart and Bijlmer Parktheater, because of the significant one-off investment that the municipality will make in both metropolitan venues in the coming years with regard to the building.
Art and culture budget
The arts council urgently calls on the municipal council to increase the budget for art and culture. The effects of rising real estate and energy prices are enormous, indexation is limited and institutions are (rightly) expected to pay fair wages. This could mean budgets that are 20% higher than four years ago. Most cultural institutions have to make significant cuts or cuts, adjust ambitions or make other tough choices while maintaining their current budget. The city is growing, the budget for art and culture is not growing and the versatile range of art and culture in the city is shrinking considerably, at the expense of Amsterdam residents.
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> Voor de kunsten – voor de stad
Municipality of Amsterdam / Subsidies
Overview of the subject of subsidies provided by the municipality of Amsterdam.
> amsterdam.nl/subsidies
Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst
The AFK is the fund of and for the cultural metropolis of Amsterdam. Based on our mission ‘Fantastic art for all Amsterdammers’, we contribute to a city where everyone has the opportunity to practice or experience art. That is why we support all art forms in every part of the city and in every neighborhood. We are there for both professional art and cultural practice in your spare time – for established organizations, as well as the fringes and pioneers. The AFK focuses its activities on three groups: artists and cultural organizations, Amsterdam residents, and the sector as a whole. By sharing knowledge for and about the sector – we contribute to a powerful, future-proof arts field.
> amsterdamsfondsvoordekunst.nl