Private funding of theatre Accomodations in the Netherlands

Since the 1980s, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has tried to encourage the cultural sector to emancipate by acquiring private funding. Whether this encouragement has been effective for theatre accommodations is uncertain. There are no actual academic studies that present a complete overview of the partition of private funding in the total income of Dutch theatre accommodations. This research has mapped various private cash flows through a survey among seventy professional theatre accommodations and five interviews with theatre directors and a fundraising consultant. ‘What is the score?’ The most striking conclusion derived from the survey results is that Dutch theatre accommodations have acquired 5.5% of their total income by private funding in the book year 2006. This percentage is considerably higher than CBS data show. The CBS only distinguishes the giving scheme sponsoring within the costs and benefits of performing arts accommodations, which comprises 1% of the total income. (CBS Statline, 2002) Other academic studies do not provide a decisive percentage neither. (Scholts, 1992; Oomen, 2005; van den Berg, 2006) Consequently, the 5.5% private funding derived from the survey provides a completely renewed insight in the current financial situation of theatre accommodations in the Netherlands. On the exploitation balance of surveyed theatre accommodations, sponsoring is the largest source of private funding, bringing in 42%. Private funds take a second place with 27% and friends associations bring in 16% of the total private funding. Small theatres acquire private funding above average, in contrast to large theatres that generate private funding below average. In theatre construction projects, business sponsors and private foundations bring in most private funding. Yet, businesses request expensive compensations so one may conclude that the private foundation is the most cost effective giving scheme. Since 1992, the number of theatre managers that feels encouraged or strongly encouraged by the Dutch government to acquire private funding has increased. In 2006, the majority of the theatre managers feels encouraged or strongly encouraged by the government to acquire private funding. The surveyed theatre managers argue that they feel encouraged, because the Municipality does not provide sufficient subsidy to perform all of their ambitions. They feel forced to generate alternative sources of income, such as private funding. On the contrary, all of the interviewed theatre directors do not feel encouraged by the government to generate private funding. They claim that fiscal facilities are not attractive for donating to theatre accommodations. Moreover, the local councils of the interviewees appear quite indifferent towards to what extend the theatre managers acquire private funding for their construction project. The measures taken at State level meant to encourage the acquisition of private funding do not reflect much on the cultural policy at local level. However, the interviewees state that acquired private funding is never ‘punished’ by a decrease of subsidy by the Municipality. According to Job van Dooren, private funding of theatre accommodations has expanded in volume during the past fifteen years. Yet, relatively it has not increased, since exploitation and construction costs have risen proportionately. However, business sponsoring increasingly draws the attention in the theatre sector, whether it concerns sponsoring of newly built theatres or businesses that buy a tile in the scenery of a production by theatre company Alaska. The rise of maecenatism in the theatre sector manifests in expanding and reinvented friends associations, increasing contributions by various private funds en innovative giving schemes, such as the ‘Adopt a Seat’ concept. These developments indicate a positive perspective for the future of private funding in the Dutch theatre sector. Entries: cultural economics, private funding, art sponsoring, art maecenatism, theatre management, theatre accommodations, cultural construction projects, cultural policy, local cultural policy, friends associations, fundraising, art donations, charity lotteries, business clubs.