Curator Susan Cross offers this information about arts fundingin in the Netherlands:

In response to the drastic cuts in government funding of the arts in the Netherlands – a country known for its stalwart support of the arts – artists and arts organizations in the Netherlands and elsewhere are setting off “art bombs’ in protest.

Roma Pas, an Amsterdam-based artist included in MASS MoCA’s Eastern Standard exhibition writes us that alternative art spaces, residency programs, and schools  including De Ateliers, the  Rijksakademie, and Jan van Eyck Academie may be forced to close.

She sent us photos of some art bombs and this video of  artbomb at the rijksakademie

Many of the organizations at risk have petitions on their sites. Show your support:24.06.11

Letter Jan van Eyck – a Defendable Space

This weekend some newspapers are publishing the letter ‘Jan van Eyck – a Defendable Space’. This letter is requesting State Secretary Halbe Zijlstra to withdraw his plans to stop financing post-academic institutes like the Jan van Eyck Academie. The academy is happy to see the letter signed by a long list of names from people within and outside of the academy, from the national and international fields of arts, culture and education. If you want to support the Jan van Eyck Academie, you can sign this letter by sending an e-mail to Judith Lindekens.

A group of Dutch artists placed this in the New York Times in response to funding cuts, advising would-be visitors of the cultural meltdown.