Within the General Framework, the municipalities have the responsibility for accommodations for performing arts and the financial management of municipal museum collections.
Dependent on their size, municipalities care for provision of education in the arts within and outside of schools, support of (associations of) amateur arts and heritage activities, their own archives and public libraries (including recent duty of care by law) and local broadcasters (see chapter 2.5.3). Municipalities are also the executioners of the Heritage Act (see chapter 4.2.2), that includes legislation on museums, archaeology, and monuments.
In the Netherlands, municipalities are the largest providers of subsidies, accounting for approximately 60 percent of all public expenditure on culture. Cultural funds and bodies that advise on subsidy matters exist at municipal level, like they do at provincial and national level. Examples are the Arts Councils of Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Groningen (for municipality and province). Other municipalities use advising committees.
Particularly at the municipal administrative level, more and more practices of citizen involvement in policy are visible. In cultural policy, for example, in the form of participatory budgets, where a predetermined budget can be spent on citizens’ initiatives, which are then voted on (see, for example, Oost-Begroot).
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