De Jonge: it was ‘unfortunate’ to call culture non-essential | Inland

At first, De Jonge did not understand the fuss in the cultural sector about the term non-essential, because his words would have been taken out of context. “Then three columns are written about it and half a sector is angry, sad and offended, but I didn’t mean that.” A column by Maxim February in NRC changed his mind, the minister said.

February wrote that the minister will soon establish by law that art is non-essential: „that it is not of primary importance to play, to experience and to experience something, to look for meaning together, as a bored adolescent under protest in a theater hall. to sit, to hate the performance and thus shape your personality in a sovereign way. ” The term non-essential to art is now permanent, the columnist warned.

The minister said in the senate on Tuesday that he found that column “quite striking”. “Of course culture is essential, we cannot do without cultural expressions.” According to De Jonge, the work of artists and theater makers is “what makes life beautiful” and people also need it to be able to attend performances in “the largest possible halls.” Incidentally, he did not attach any further consequences to this.

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