Dutch Performing Arts Fund to receive extra €15m
The Performing Arts Fund (Fonds Podiumkunsten, FPK) will receive an extra €15 million from the Dutch government to distribute among music ensembles and theatre companies which were assessed positively but did not receive support due to a shortage of funding, according to NRC.
In August, the government-backed cultural fund, which originally totalled €62 million, distributed €21m per year in grants for a period of four years (2012-2024) among 78 institutions.
Recipients of the Performing Arts Fund so far include Eurosonic Noorderslaag (granted €75,000 per edition between 2021 and 2024), Into the Great Wide Open (€100,000 for each edition) and Welcome to the Village, (€50,000 per event).
However, the fund was €15.8m short to honour all positively assessed applicants, at the expense of 71 institutions.
The fund announced that the percentage of grants given to festivals is much higher than the other creative sectors
Subsequently, more than a thousand performing organisations and artists sent an urgent letter to members of the House of Representatives and minister Van Engelshoven, urging the government to top up the fund so all positively assessed institutions could benefit.
Now, according to a leaked budget memo obtained by NRC, the Dutch government plan to do just that. The memo also indicates there will be an extra €2m to invest in low-culture regions in Friesland, Drenthe, Flevoland, Zeeland and Limburg.
The fund announced that the percentage of grants given to festivals is much higher than the other creative sectors that applied for subsidies, with almost all positively assessed festivals receiving a programming contribution.
Different amounts were available for each part of the country and the fund collaborated with municipalities and provinces to ensure an even spread of funding for festivals across the nation.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
Dutch Performing Arts Fund gives generously to festivals
The Performing Arts Fund (Fonds Podiumkunsten, FPK), a €62 million cultural fund provided by the Dutch government, has published decisions on multi-year grants between 2021 and 2024.
Almost 60 festivals across the Netherlands will benefit from multi-year subsidies that include a contribution to programming costs and an organization contribution.
The fund announced that the percentage of grants given to festivals is much higher than the other creative sectors that applied for subsidies, with almost all positively assessed festivals receiving a programming contribution.
Eurosonic Noorderslaag has been granted €75,000 per edition between 2021 and 2024, while Into the Great Wide Open will receive €100,000 for each edition and Welcome to the Village, €50,000 per event.
“Over the next four years, we will support a wide variety of festivals throughout the country: from large-scale and multidisciplinary to small and operating in a niche,” says director Henriëtte Post. “The knowledge about local roots and the contribution of a festival to the regional maker’s climate was optimally included in the assessment. This was made possible by working with country advisers.”
The multi-year festival fund also received applications from a number of new festivals, such as Roadburn and FestiValderAa.
Different amounts were available for each part of the country and the fund collaborated with municipalities and provinces to ensure an even spread of funding for festivals across the nation.
The fund will also provide a multi-year subsidy to 78 artists and performing arts institutions. Makers and institutions such as the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra, Rose Stories, Eva Line de Boer (Euphoria Foundation), Tjon Rockon (Grande Loge), Jasper van Luijk (Shifft), and Miranda Lakerveld (World Opera Lab) are among the 33 applicants who received a multi-year production grant for the first time.
Post says that because all applications have been assessed based on plans submitted to the fund in March, pre-pandemic, the initiative will review with the successful applicants whether the submitted plans require adjustments.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.