Drenthe must formulate its cultural policy more concretely, according to the Northern Audit Chamber (NRK). The province has done a good job by keeping cultural institutions going with extra support during the corona pandemic. These are, among other things, the conclusions from a major study by the NRK into the cultural policy of the three northern provinces.
In that study, the NRK only looked at cultural policy for museums, performing arts and events and not at statutory tasks such as libraries and archives. The NRK has mainly focused on subsidy policy.
The province made €22,588,422 available for the period 2021-2024 for museums, €2,520,000 for performing arts and €2,672,000 for events and festivals. In addition, the province made €580,000 available annually through an incidental arrangement, including for museum projects, performing arts and events.
During the investigation in Drenthe, the Northern Court of Audit looked at both large and small cultural institutions: Drents Museum, Het Houten Huis, Hunebedcentrum, North Netherlands Orchestra, Peergroup, Popronde and Stichting Kunst & Cultuur.
In that study, the audit office concluded that the province of Drenthe has formulated its cultural policy far too abstractly and too generally. This means that the goals cannot be properly evaluated or controlled. According to the NRK, this really needs to change. This applies not only to institutions and events in Drenthe, but also to cross-border collaboration projects such as the musicians and stage talent project We The North.
There is simply no system in which all results are monitored. The province of Drenthe does plan to build such a monitor when drawing up the new cultural policy for the period 2025-2028. The Provincial Executive will therefore adopt the NRK’s second recommendation. Drenthe has also been subsidizing the same cultural institutions for a long time, but an assessment of these institutions does not take place in advance, the audit office concludes. The province does submit performance agreements and there are of course subsidy requirements that a cultural institution must meet.
The NRK also finds the province’s vision on its own cultural policy unclear. According to the audit office, only ‘The Story of the Veen’ is a positive exception. ‘What other Drenthe stories the province wants to tell is unknown.’