A disaster for the Dutch

The rightwing Dutch Cabinet has overruled a commissioned report from its arts council and decided to go ahead with hard-nosed cuts to the culture budget.

The overall reduction will be in the order of 25 percent – compared to 15 in the UK – and, contrary to Britain, there will be closures.

Among those facing the chop are the Dutch Music Information Centre and the Theatre Institute, both of which act as essential archives for their art forms.

There is a proposal on the table to merge the Rotterdam Philharmonic (cond. Nezet-Seguin) with the Residentie of the Hague (Neeme Jaervi).

The worldclass Holland Festival will lose one-fifth ot its budget. No wonder its director is leaving for Australia. Others will surely follow.

This season’s tulips are uniformly black.

Here’s a brief English summary.