Amsterdam’s Kunstverein Rallies Support from Dutch Museum Heads as Funding Dries Up

Amsterdam’sKunstvereinhas published anopen lettersigned by the leaders of arts institutions across the Netherlands and elsewhere in support of the organization after it was denied government subsidies owing to “lack of budget” despite receiving a positive rating from the Mondriaan Fund, a publicly financed Dutch fund supporting visual arts and cultural heritage. “No footballer makes his debut in the Dutch national team, and no artist makes his debut in the Stedelijk Museum without a safe space to practice first,” declared the missive’s writers in defense of Kunstverein. “The opportunities and possibilities that Kunstverein offers, form an indispensable link in that chain.” Among the signatories are Charles Esche, director of the Netherlands’ Van Abbemuseum; Rein Wolfs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Margriet Schavemaker, director of the Kunstmuseum Den Haag; and Ann Demeester, director of Kunsthaus Zürich.

Kunstverein on August 1 had announced that the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts would not support it through the period beginning 2025 and ending in 2028. In a letter to members andpublished on its website, the organization wrote that the denied funding “comes on top of the blow we already suffered earlier this summer when we found out that (for a second time in two years) we will not be receiving structural funding from the Mondriaan Fund for the period 2025–2028, despite a positive assessment of our plans and a conviction of our artistic voice. This mean[s] that Kunstverein will not be able to continue its existence. The Netherlands will lose (yet one more) unique institute, averse to temporary trends, that it has championed, invested in and held close for so many years.”

Kunstverein was founded in 2009 as a woman-led not-for-profit membership organization additionally encompassing a publishing house, an Amsterdam-based curatorial office, and affiliate outposts in Toronto; New York; Aughrim, Ireland; and Milan. “By working against the drive to produce calendar-based programming and in refuting the exhibition as the format that sits at the top of the food chain, Kunstverein offers presentations, performances, lectures, dinners, bar nights, screenings, independent publishing and everything in between in tailor made mise-en-scènes that reflect upon the manner in which cultural practices are traditionally administered,” the organization affirmed on its site, concluding, “Significantly and ultimately, Kunstverein aims to contribute in a novel fashion to the cultural scene in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and abroad.”

The funding cuts seem to bear out fears expressed by many in the arts scene earlier this year that the then newly elected government, in the grip of the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) led by MP Geert Wilders, would diminish arts funding and wreck the nation’s cultural standing. Among the party’s promises, outlined in a manifesto, were those to “stop art and culture subsidies” on the grounds that Dutch people were “discriminated against” in the arts. “We will scrap all of the nonsensical subsidies for art, culture, public broadcasting, expats, and going green,” pledged the PVV.