Not very good news fron Netherlands.
The Dutch New Media Art Organisations Steim, De Waag, Mediamatic, V2 & NIMK are about to lose all their funding.
The Dutch secretary of state for Culture in the Netherlands, Halbe Zijlstra, has published his policy plan for coming years. In contrast to the official recommendations given to him by the Culture Advisory Board, the cutbacks will not be spread out over a number of years, but will take immediate effect in 2013. The budget for visual art will shrink from 53,3 to 31 million.
Among the more damaging and destructive decisions is the complete cutting of funding for the six leading New Media Art Organsiations that produce, distribute and facilitate New Media Art;
- STEIM: Independent Live electronic music centre that is exclusively dedicated to the performing arts.
- De WAAG: Organisation & Worklab for old and new media, developers of open source tools, research & technology for
the creative independant industry & intermediate between art, science and media. - Worm: Rotterdam based laboratory, venue and studios for film, music and internet featuring concerts, new media events, screenings, production of film, music and software art.
- Mediamatic: software art projects, lectures, workshops & screenings aiming on the young generation of artists, designers & tinkerers.
- V2: interdisciplinary centre for art and media technology in Rotterdam, activities include organizing presentations, exhibitions and workshops, research and development of artworks operating in an international network
- NIMK: The Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk) promotes the wide and unrestrained development, application and distribution of, and reflection on, new technologies within the visual arts.
Since the Netherlands Media Art Institute came into being in 1978 an extensive collection of video and media art has been assembled, to which new works are constantly being added.
These institutes together form the foundation for New Media Arts in the Netherlands and forfil an important role in the International Network that shares knowledge, exchanges, produces, distributes and promotes various forms of New Media Art.
For most of these organisations the budgetcuts will mean their disappearance.
More on he topic can be found e.g. here.
