Local Context
The Dutch cultural landscape is experiencing significant transformations since the pandemic. In 2021, the Boekmanstichting, research centre for the Dutch cultural sector, monitors and reports on such developments and identifies 5 trends that will characterize the sector in terms of challenges and opportunities. Of relevance there are 1) the lasting financial impact that the sector suffered during the pandemic 2) a growing labour market of self-employed cultural workers, the 3) the need to tackle societal challenges through creative practices 4) an greater emphasis on and need for inclusive spaces and cultural diversity and 5) a move towards cultural production and consumption to digital domains.
Other important developments signalled by the cluster in various strategy sessions point to a highly competitive sector. Across the country, we find European festivals in a great variety of disciplines, no shortage of English-speaking platforms and institutions, there are renowned historic and contemporary art museums, a rich landscape of designers, a thriving creative game sector and many creatives aiming to put their skills to use in addressing societal challenges.
All these developments are taking place while current cultural policy circumstances – the soil below such a varied ecosystem – are not a given. The subsidized cultural sector may experience budget cuts, affecting the position of organisations and makers alike. That possibility demands of the cluster to be flexible and adaptable. As a cluster, we partner with the Dutch sector and promote the value of European artistic exchange.
In the next few years, there are several developments, starting with the European Parliament elections in 2024, a key moment in which we join forces to emphasize the possibilities and urgency of European collaboration and promoting the vote. In 2025, the 750-anniversary of the City of Amsterdam offers opportunities for our cluster to connect to the city’s long and European cultural history. Overall, Amsterdam and the more cosmopolitan Randstad are rich with different diasporic communities who are a grateful and substantial audience that has high levels of affinity and familiarity with European politics, literature and film. As a cluster, we have to however work outside the main metropolitan areas, where Europe or European collaboration is not as necessarily seen as an added value, and where the appreciation of culture takes different forms.
Strategic Objectives
OBJECTIVE 1
To commit to sustainable international cultural collaboration and to stimulate creative climate action
OBjective 2
to stand with the cultural sector for fairness, (gender) equality and inclusion in cultural collaborations;
Objective 3
to strengthen the cluster’s internal dynamics, creating synergies and broadening our reach;