Sven Gatz, time to backtrack
In his latest decisions on subsidies for the arts, Minister Sven Gatz has blatantly ignored 60% of the recommendations his administration and assessment comities made, threatening the continued existence of artists and small organisations. 79 of the 129 applications for support that were positively assessed have remained unsupported. Non-the-less, the government program boasts: “Flanders cherishes its cultural field as a hallmark of quality, and is renown in the world for its arts and artists.” How does Flanders imagine it can continue showing off, when it is emaciating the soil? A reputation doesn’t appear from nowhere, it needs a source. In the arts, artistic practices are this source. What does this government have in mind for them?….