What is the Culture Monitor?
The Culture Monitor brings together data on developments in cultural life in the Netherlands and makes it accessible in various ways. Textual analyzes report on long-term trends and put current developments on the agenda. An interactive dashboard also provides access to a database with a large number of indicators about the Dutch cultural sector.
The Culture Monitor is for everyone with an interest in cultural life in the Netherlands and its developments. Policymakers, administrators, researchers, journalists, cultural professionals and other interested parties can visit this website for information about and interpretation of broader trends in the cultural sector. The aim of the monitor is to provide adequate information for policy and practice, thus contributing to a strong cultural sector. The monitor therefore meets the needs of the sector and policymakers to bring together existing and new information, data and knowledge about long-term trends, and current affairs.
The Culture Monitor builds on and connects as much as possible to previous monitoring instruments such as Culture in pictures (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, until 2017), Cultural life (SCP, 2018) and the Culture Index and The State of Culture (Boekman Foundation, 2013-2019).
How does the Culture Monitor work?
The Culture Monitor provides information about the Dutch cultural and creative sector. However, because culture is not a well-defined concept, we consciously opt for a broad and fluid concept of culture. We assume culture 'in a broad sense': subsidized and non-subsidized, outdoors and indoors, canonical and popular, professional art and amateur art, individual and collective. As circumstances change, new forms and genres can be added to the Culture Monitor.
The information in the Culture Monitor is presented in different ways, which are explained below.
Domain pages
Domains within the Culture Monitor can be compared to cultural 'disciplines' or 'subsectors'. The Culture Monitor currently contains information about the domains of Architecture, Audiovisual, Visual Arts, Design, Heritage, Games, Literature, Music, Performing Arts and Theatre. This selection is largely taken from the publication Cultural life of the Social and Cultural Planning Office. New domains or further breakdowns will be added in the future.
The domain pages contain information about each domain in a fixed order. The pages successively offer a selection of key figures about the domain, describe the most important developments and identify which knowledge gaps still exist.
Theme pages
The theme pages of the Culture Monitor deal with current and important topics that are not only relevant to one cultural domain, but are important for the entire cultural sector. Theme pages place developments in perspective and make it possible to discover cross-connections between domains.
In contrast to domain pages, theme pages have a freer form. Depending on the theme in question, the pages take the form of, for example, a data story, analysis or literature review. In the future, new themes will be continuously added to the Culture Monitor and existing theme pages will be updated.
Dashboard
Underpinning the Culture Monitor is a database containing a large number of indicators that map aspects of cultural life over a multi-year period. We take a flexible approach to indicators in the database. We do not place any restrictions on the total set of indicators, but on individual indicators. In any case, these must be collected over a multi-year and sustainable basis, be reliable and traceable, and provide relevant and overarching insight. This allows us to add indicators when there is reason to do so.
Indicators can be chosen in the Dashboard by filtering on domains,
Source explorer
The Culture Monitor offers an overarching picture of the cultural and creative sector, and is therefore indebted to a large number of studies, publications and datasets that describe parts of that sector in much more depth than is possible in the Culture Monitor. The Source Explorer offers a visual overview of a selection of these sources, thus pointing the way to more in-depth information about the specific domains and themes from the Culture Monitor.
Annual report
The domain and theme pages of the Culture Monitor are updated periodically. However, once a year we create a summary overview of the cultural sector and bundle the most current texts in an annual report (as a web publication and PDF). The annual report therefore offers the opportunity to easily read all pages and serves as the archive of the Culture Monitor.
How do we produce the Culture Monitor?
As far as possible, we base our research for monitoring on existing sources, publications and datasets. Some of these sources cover the entire cultural sector, such as Creative Industry Monitor (Media Perspectives) or the Culture & Media Satellite Account (CBS). In addition, the Culture Monitor brings together important data and insights from relevant thematic, sectoral and regional reports at an aggregated level in a central location. Examples of sources from which data are collected are leisure research (CBS, Vrijetijdsomnibus [Leisure Omnibus]), the Monitor Amateur Art (LKCA), the Games Monitor (Dutch Game Garden and NEO Observatory), the Heritage monitor (RCE) and the DutchCulture database the DutchCulture database.
To monitor culture in a sustained and complete manner, we are therefore dependent on available datasets and research results from other organizations. We are happy to discuss the inclusion of existing and new data, prioritizing questions and indicators, and coordinating new research projects. In this way, together with partners from the (policy) field, we can set up a central place for cultural data and contribute to a strong sector and well-informed cultural policy.
The Boekman Foundation's researchers continuously collect data and insights about the various domains and themes. They do this together and in consultation with many stakeholders and experts from the sector, who feed the monitor with indispensable and in-depth knowledge and information. When adding new data, we make a distinction between the data in the Dashboard and the textual domain and theme analyses. We will continue to continuously update the Dashboard with new figures as they become available. In 2022, we focused our attention mainly on the theme pages within the Culture Monitor. We have written completely new analyzes for the existing themes and added the new theme pages Culture in the region and Digital transformation. The domain pages also regularly received smaller updates, in which we updated texts and added new data. We will update both the domain and theme pages in 2023.
At the end of each year, the most important insights and data are bundled in an annual publication that is presented during a public meeting.
Who makes the Culture Monitor?
Authors
Felicia van Andel
Researcher
Domains: Literature, Visual arts
Themes: Professional practice, Diversity, equality and inclusion, Digital Transformation
Maartje Goedhart
Research coordinator
Domains: Architecture, Heritage
Themes: Culture and participation, Culture in the region
Maxime van Haeren
Researcher
Domains: Theater, Design, Performing Arts
Themes: Diversity, equality and inclusion
Thomas de Hoog
Researcher
Domains: Games, Architecture
Themes: Sustainability, Digital Transformation, Culture in the Region
Jan Jaap Knol
Director
Mutaleni Nadimi
Researcher
Domains: Audiovisual, Heritage
Themes: Diversity, equality and inclusion, Digital transformation
Britt Swartjes
Researcher
Domains: Music
Themes:
Guidance committee
- Koen van Eijck (Professor of cultural sociology, Erasmus University (chairman)
- Sarah Malko (Board Secretary and head of research, Mondriaan Fund)
- Marieke van Engelen (Strategic advisor Culture and Heritage, IPO; strategic policy advisor Culture, province of Overijssel)
- Ellen Loots (Assistant Professor in Cultural Economics and Entrepreneurship, Erasmus University)
- Hugo van der Poel (Director, Mulier Institute)
- Dennis Stam (member MT, Heritage and Arts Directorate, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science)
- Janita Tabak (Alderman for culture, municipality of De Friese Meren)
- Marianne Versteegh (General Secretary, Arts '92)
- Jakob van der Waarden (Director, Council for Culture)
Former employees of the Cultuurmonitor
Rogier Brom, Thomas van Gaalen, Mariska van den Hove, Janna Michael, Claartje Rasterhoff, Shomara Roosblad, Bjorn Schrijen and Sabine Zwart.
Methodology sounding board group
- Andries van den Broek (Researcher, Social and Cultural Planning Office)
- Kim Joostens (Researcher, Central Bureau of Statistics)
- Giselinde Kuipers (Professor of Sociology, Catholic University of Leuven)
- Claartje Rasterhoff (Assistant lecturer, Maastricht University)
- Joris Veerbeek (Researcher, Utrecht University)
- Henk Vinken (Researcher, Pyrrhula Research Consultants)
Many thanks to
- Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Subsidy)
- Robert Oosterhuis (Research Coordinator Culture and Media, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science)
- Van Lennep (Design website)
- Van Ons (Realization of website, dashboard and CMS)
- Menno den Engels, Petra Dreiskämper and Daan van Baal (Realization of database and API)
- Lisa Maatjens (Photography)
- CLEVER°FRANKE (Realization of Culture Monitor pilot website)
- Cultural Statisticians Platform
- National Cultural Policy Working Group
- Research network Culture in education, leisure and policy
- All our discussion partners
- All colleagues at the Boekman Foundation
Want to stay informed?
With the newsletter of the Boekman Foundation you stay informed of the latest developments surrounding the Culture Monitor.
Image credit
Photography: Lisa Maatjens
Accessibility
As the Boekman Foundation, we believe it is important that the Culture Monitor is accessible and usable for everyone. In 2022, we therefore had this website examined for accessibility for people with a visual impairment. Van Ons subsequently made several adjustments that increase accessibility for users with a screen reader. In the future we will also continue to look at where improvements are possible.
Are you encountering an accessibility problem on this website, or do you have a question or comment? Then we would like to hear from you! You can contact us via contact form or by calling 020-6243736.