The Netherlands

Last update: March, 2026

Active cultural participation is primarily (financially) supported by local governments. Most municipalities subsidise amateur arts associations, such as choirs, theatre groups and orchestras, as well as the facilities these associations use. Nearly seventy per cent of municipalities have a dedicated fund for children and young people growing up in poverty, enabling them to participate in cultural or sporting activities (Youth Fund for Sport and Culture). At the same time, in the past decades, there have been municipal budget cuts affecting (active) cultural participation. Provincial authorities also play a (smaller) role in cultural participation, trough provincial institutions supporting cultural education and participation (joined in the Council of Twelve), the provincial Heritage Houses (joined in OPEN)

The Ministery of Education, Culture and Science and the associations of municipalities (VNG) and provinces (IPO) have signed the Bestuurlijke Afspraken Cultuurbeoefening 2025-2028 (administrative agreements on cultural participation). The core principle of the administrative agreements is that municipalities, provinces, and the national government work together to promote active cultural participation for everyone in the Netherlands. Cultural practice encompasses the domains of cultural education, cultural participation, amateur arts, intangible heritage, heritage participation, and talent development.

Successive national cabinets focused primarily on investing in school-based cultural education, but recent years attention to active cultural participation in amateur arts and heritage practices grows. The Covid pandemic played a stimulating role in this. The Cultural Participation Fund (Fonds voor Cultuurparticipatie) operates since 2009 as a public cultural fund subsidised by the national government. It promotes active cultural participation with programmes in cultural education (such as Cultural Education with Quality and Music Education Impulse), amateur arts, and talent development (Multi-Year Talent Development Scheme). Also, the fund has a Cultural Participation Programme A subsidy scheme where the social and cultural domains work together to create culture for everyone, for example culture and healthcare. Concerning this domain, the Netherlands was involved with in the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) Group on Culture and Health. This EU OMC group recently posted a report with strategic recommendations.

In the field of cultural heritage participation, the Netherlands signed the ratification of the European Faro Convention in 2024. This treaty calls for cultural heritage to serve society and includes several key principles: broad participation, openness to alternative conceptions of heritage, and placing heritage at the heart of community life.

In the area of receptive cultural participation (i.e. cultural consumption), all three levels of government share responsibilities., Municipalities making the largest investment, by subsidising local cultural institutions (like concert halls, museums or public libraries), or through a City Pass for people with low incomes that provides discounts on admissions fees. The national government expects the cultural institutions subsidised in the BIS (see chapters 1.2.2 and 1.3.1) to engage with the widest and most varied audience possible.

Other national policies and programmes focus – at least partly – on receptive cultural participation. An evaluation of this policy over the years 2001-2021 (Beleidsdoorlichting cultuurdeelname 2001-2020) concludes: the national government’s cultural policy instruments are broad, stable, and transparent, with expert-driven assessments and a strong focus on artistic quality. The weaknesses are that there is too little focus on participation, existing habits make renewal difficult, and inclusivity, diversity, and accessibility still need improvement.

Instruments to promote receptive culture participation are cultural ‘cards’ or ‘passes’. Subsidized cards are the Culture Card (Cultural Youth Passport) for secundary school pupils and the MBO Card for students in upper secondary vocational education (MBO). In 2023, over 700,000 pupils held a Culture Card and approximately 80 per cent of primary schools took part. Nearly 80 per cent of MBO institutions currently participate in the scheme, reaching 263,000 students. The budget on the cards can be spent on cultural activities. In addition, the private initiative the Museum Pass (Museumkaart) gives cardholders free access to more than 400 museums in the Netherlands. In 2023, 1.5 million people held a Museum Pass. Several institutions also offer their own discount cards.

Last update: March, 2026

In the Netherlands, one of the monitors regarding cultural participation is a nationally representative survey that is carried out every two years since 2012 (de Vrijetijdsomnibus, or VTO). The goal of this survey is to measure participation in both sports and culture. The fieldwork is undertaken by the Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, CBS) and the analysis for the data related to culture is carried out by the Boekman Foundation since 2018. The sample consists of people 6 years and older that are living in the Netherlands. Each year approximately 3000 respondents fill out the questionnaire, leading up to a total of 18702 respondents in the period of 2012-2022.

Findings show that nine out of ten people in the Netherlands visited at least one cultural activity in 2022. More so than more active forms of participation, which we will further describe below, visiting culture was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The percentage of Dutch people that visited culture decreased for all cultural forms, and in 2022 has only bounced back for a few forms (including for example visiting dance and house parties). Moreover, visiting culture is not equally divided across the population., Culture is mostly visited by younger people, those with higher educational levels and higher household income.

In the Netherlands, 64% of the population is actively engaged in cultural activities. The performing arts are the most popular, with 39,7% of the Dutch population participating in 2022. This is followed by the visual arts (29,3%), heritage (28,2%) and media art (20,5%) (table 4) Especially kids and youngsters (below 19 years old) are culturally active. Additionally, women and those with a higher educational degree participate more in cultural hobbies

Table 4: Percentage of the Dutch population (6 years and older) that participated or attended a cultural activity at least once in the last 12 months in the Netherlands

Notes:  *Historical city, village or building

Table 5: People who have carried out artistic activities in the Netherlands in the last 12 months by type of activity, in % of total population (6 years and older), period 2018-2022

Source: Swartjes, B and T. de Hoog (2024). Cultuur en Participatie. See: https://www.cultuurmonitor.nl/thema/cultuur-en-participatie/.

Last update: March, 2026

Table 6: Household cultural expenditure by expenditure purpose, 2022

Source: Statistics Netherlands – Satellite account on culture and media 2022.

Notes:     *Subscriptions and online services are included in the categories above.

Last update: March, 2026

The cultural participation landscape in the Netherlands is highly diverse and, to a certain degree, also fragmented. Cities and larger villages in the Netherlands have cultural centres, centres for the arts, libraries and/or civic recreation centres where cultural activities take place. Municipalities are the main source of funding. Some of the cultural and recreation centres are dedicated to specific groups in society, for example students, children or people from a particular cultural background. In rural areas some smaller villages have a multifunctional building (or ‘Kulturhus’ (culture house)) which facilitates cultural, educational, sports and other leisure activities. On a regular basis, a library bus offers the inhabitants of these villages the opportunity to borrow books.

Some cities have a ‘centre for the arts’ as well, which provides, for example, music lessons and painting workshops (mainly non-formal arts learning). But the amount of centres for the arts has decreased drastically from 237 in 2005 to 130 in 2015 because of cuts in culture budgets. The impact of these developments has been subject to debate (see also chapter 5.4). The centres for the arts were important employers for arts teachers. As half of these organisations disappeared, many arts teachers had to find new ways to employ themselves and find pupils. Most of them started to work as a one-person business, without funding. Some of them decided to cooperate in a collective business. It is not clear yet how these developments have influenced cultural participation rates, the accessibility, quality and diversity of out-of-school arts education, or the amount of teachers working in the field.

Governments do seem to have a growing interest in arts and cultural projects that aim to improve social wellbeing, societal participation and/or health of citizens. These projects are often funded by a combination of governmental bodies, public or private funds, third sector associations and/or banking foundations. In most cases these projects arise ‘bottom-up’, as government policy stimulates citizens and organisations to come up with ideas and initiatives.

An example is the programme Age Friendly Cultural Cities, which promotes active cultural participation among the elderly. There are also national and local programmes and measures for community arts projects that aim to improve the viability of neighbourhoods and artistic projects targeted at the inclusion of refugees, people with disabilities or migrant communities. In the past ten years, the number of cultural interventions in health care and long-term care has increased as well.

Over the past years, there has also been a growing interest in urban arts, often regarded as a subculture that specifically appeals to young adults. In 2015, the Cultural Participation Fund launched the programme Urban Arts Talent to stimulate the professional development of talented urban artists. Urban arts have also become part of the curriculum of some institutions for vocational or higher education. An advisory report from the Dutch UNESCO Commission, titled "Irreplaceable: The Innovative Power of Culture," has generated widespread attention for urban arts in the cultural and policy sectors. ‘The Culture’ is a cultural ecosystem rooted in the (Afro)diasporic world. Whether it's music, dance, or visual arts.