Approximately 55 per cent of the Dutch population aged six and older engage in amateur art. Around 18 per cent occasionally or regularly take art classes, courses or workshops as a leisure activity, and 4 per cent practice or rehears in an amateur arts association or other group under the supervision of an artistic director or art teacher.
Extracurricular (out-of-school) arts education is offered by professional arts and cultural institutions (such as museums, theatre companies, etc.), local arts education centres and music schools, amateur arts associations, and by private/self-employed arts teachers and artists. These providers also often offer activities for, and sometimes directly in, schools. Music is the most frequently offered artistic discipline. Over the past twenty years, there has been a strong trend towards market liberalisation in out-of-school cultural education. In 2022, 94.6 per cent of registered extracurricular arts providers were self-employed entrepreneurs without staff. This trend can partly be explained by increasing labour market flexibilization and the municipal budget cuts to non-formal arts education in subsidised arts centres and music schools. As a result, these schools and arts education centres were forced to reduce their offerings or even close altogether.
Due to the declining number of subsidised arts education institutions, there are concerns about the availability and quality of provision, as well as about the recruitment of new teachers. A second concern, related to the first, is the affordability of arts lessons. Private courses are generally more expensive than subsidised options. Nevertheless, many independent arts teachers and artistic facilitators charge too low an hourly rate and report that their fees do not realistically reflect the costs they incur and the investments they make. Therefore, there are widespread concerns about their position in the labour market, similar to concerns for all self-employed workers in the cultural sector. (see chapter 2.1 Cultural Labour Market).
Amateur arts associations are an important part of the extracurricular cultural education and participation landscape. 20 per cent of the Dutch population is member of an amateur arts association or other amateur arts group. In 2024, there were around 10.000 formal associations active, alongside many informal groups. There are also thousands of heritage associations actively engaged in preserving, maintaining and practising heritage. After years of declining membership numbers in amateur arts associations and the closure of associations, this decline appears to have stalled in recent years (since the end of the Covid pandemic). Nevertheless, membership recruitment remains a challenge, because many associations are facing ageing populations. Additionally, fewer associations now offer their members the opportunity to take lessons, courses or workshops. Since 2015, libraries have played an increasingly important role in facilitating and promoting cultural participation (see chapter 4.2.5).
Cultuurconnectie is the sector organisation for employers in non-formal cultural education, amateur arts and adult education (Volksuniversiteiten). Its members include local centres for arts education, music schools, and local support institutions for arts and culture. These members are usually municipally subsidised centres for the arts and music schools, but a logical consequence of municipal budget cuts to these institutions is that membership has declined over the past decades. There are also organisations for individual arts teachers and artistic facilitators working in education, in leisure contexts, or both, for example, the Association for Education, Art and Culture (VONKC), the Union of Orchestra Conductors and Instructors (BvOI), and the Dutch Professional Association of Dance Artists (DBDK).
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