Antilles

(See Factsheet about Antilles)

The Netherlands Antilles are an integral part of the Netherlands. They are located in the Caribbean Sea and comprise two island groups of three islands each: the Netherlands Leeward Islands and the Netherlands Windward islands. Today Curaçao is still a part of the Dutch colonies, together with Bonaire, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Maarten. Aruba became autonomous in 1986.

The population of these islands consists of a multicultural community. The original inhabitants were Indians. The biggest part of the population is descendant from the slaves and the rest are immigrants like Dutch, English, Portuguese, Spanish and Indians. In order to be able to communicate with each other, the different origins developed a new language: Papiamentu, a new language that has elements of all languages of the people mentioned before in it.

Amateur arts

According to Fina Ferreira [owner of a dance art school in Curaçao] the amateur arts are recreational forms of spending time. The emphasis of this recreation lays on dancing, singing and painting. In the Netherlands Antilles amateur arts is not a field on its own but functions as a precursory as well as a preparation for the professional arts. This becomes clear when you look at the practitioners of the arts. Many of the dancers and singers start dancing and singing as a social recreational after-school activity. But the main goal of these activities is to become a professional. In other disciplines like visual arts the practitioners are not professional, but do aim at a commercial market.

The arts from the Antilles islands have their own sound. Music and dance have been influenced by the different origins that inhabit the islands. Traditional sounds have roots in slavery, like the usage of steel pans, and tiny percussion instruments are combined with modern beats and popular music. You can hear the typical Caribbean sound in the Carnival parade (Tumba Festival) and the Sehu Parade (Tambu), which are the main events of the year.

Organisation

As shown above there is a thin line between professional and amateur arts; not only in practice but also in the organisation.

The arts and culture were funded by the Dutch government until 1998. The advice organ of the Antilles, the OKSNA, received a yearly subsidy of approximately € 2,000,000 to maintain the arts and culture of the Antilles community. In 1999 the OKSNA originally would be replaced by the new Fund for Antillean Culture (FAC) but foundered in the transitional phase.
Today the only umbrella organisation is Kas di Cultura, the former Department of Culture, which is a part of the Antilles Ministry. In the future they plan to get special consultants for the different art disciplines, but the arts and culture are merely a part of other sectors like economy or education.

Because of the lack of subsidy granted by the government, many cultural centres on the islands find themselves in an insecure financial situation. Some of them are using their financial reserves or even stopped their activities. The cultural centres, art institutions and individual artist now mainly rely on donations and subsidies given by companies.