Members of the Culture Plan 2025–2028 Committee

Introduction to the Organization

The Culture Plan is a subsidy program for arts and culture administered by the City of Rotterdam. Every four years, the City of Rotterdam sets forth in the Culture Plan its intention to provide subsidies to a number of cultural institutions for the coming four-year period. The Mayor and Aldermen seek advice on this matter; this advisory process is organized by an (external) agency, which assembles committees of experts from the field for this purpose. The City of Rotterdam is seeking committee members to evaluate applications under the Culture Plan 2025–2028.

Both disciplinary committees and a comprehensive committee will be formed.

The disciplinary committees are organized according to the various artistic disciplines. They evaluate applications for the cultural plan and draft a (draft) recommendation for each application, including a recommendation to the integrated committee on whether or not to award the grant amount or percentage.

The integrated committee consists of a chairperson, the chairpersons of the disciplinary committees, and three or four independent members. This committee reviews the draft recommendations of the disciplinary committees in their entirety and advises on the allocation of grant amounts within the limits of the total available budget.

Based on the applications received for the cultural plan, the external agency selects candidates for the various committees, including both the disciplinary committees and the integrated committee. Chairs for each committee are also selected from among the selected committee members.

Your profile

If you’d like to join one of these committees, please apply if you think you fit the profile below:

• You are critical, objective, and impartial, and have no personal interest in any individual institutions.
  
• You are able to evaluate policy plans and articulate your vision clearly and substantively, both verbally and in writing. You have a thorough understanding of the city of Rotterdam and its cultural sector.
  
• You have knowledge of or experience with one or more of the following areas: programming, production, presentation, education, marketing and communication, and collection management and conservation.

You establish logical connections between the value of an application and municipal policy, particularly the 3 I’s:

• Inclusivity
  
• Innovation
  
• Interconnectivity
  

Plus the three national codes:

• Culture Governance Code
  
• Code of Fair Practice
  
• Diversity & Inclusion Code
  

You have expertise in one or more of the following areas:

• Performing arts (music, theater, dance), Visual arts (fine arts, photography, moving image), Design (graphic design, architecture, digital culture), Literature, debate, and spoken word, Museums and heritage, Cultural education, Talent development.
  
• For each committee, we are specifically seeking expertise in the areas of the operational management of arts and cultural institutions, cultural governance, finance, venue management, human resources, communications and marketing, and IT—including data protection and privacy. The agency will determine how these experts are assigned to the committees.
  
• Each committee needs a chairperson. This means that each committee must have at least one candidate who possesses the qualities needed to serve as chairperson.
  

The following qualifications carry additional weight:

• Understanding of business operations: finance, human resources, facilities and real estate, governance; entrepreneurship in the broadest sense.
  
• An understanding of the relationship between art, culture, and the city.
  
• Festivals and festival policy;
  
• Collaboration with other municipal departments or stakeholders (port, housing, social services, employment, tourism and marketing, healthcare, education, other (commercial) cultural providers);
  
• Diversity and population dynamics;
  
• Art and culture in relation to spatial developments.
  

Knowledge of national, European, and international arts and culture policy:

• National and international developments affecting the arts and culture sector;
  
• Developments at national institutions;
  
• Cultural policy of the national government and other large municipalities;
  
• Developments at cultural funds and other advisory boards.
  

Practical

In the second half of 2023, committee members will be exploring Rotterdam’s cultural scene.

Applications for cultural funding from cultural institutions will be received in early February 2024 and will be reviewed by the committees during a series of meetings between February and May 2024.

We expect every committee member to attend as many meetings as possible and to be fully prepared (by reviewing the materials). A meeting will take up half a day or a full day. Please note: the workload can be heavy; during the review period, 10 to 20 hours per week is not uncommon.

Our offerings

As a committee member, you will receive compensation in the form of an attendance fee. This amounts to €300 per meeting (half-day). For chairs of disciplinary committees, the amount is €350. This is not full compensation and is intended as a token of appreciation. Naturally, we do expect you to ensure your attendance at the meetings as much as possible.

The orientation program consists of a number of sessions, for which the reimbursement mentioned above applies.

You will be reimbursed for tickets to performances and exhibitions. Visits to institutions (to their offices, to meet with management, etc.) are not permitted.

The City of Rotterdam adheres to the Diversity & Inclusion Code in its hiring policy, and we strive to ensure that the advisory committees reflect the population of Rotterdam as accurately as possible.

Apparent conflict of interest

We are aware that conflicts of interest can never be completely avoided in a relatively small sector such as culture. Contacts between committee members and Rotterdam cultural institutions will generally not be a deal-breaker, but (the appearance of) a conflict of interest must not stand in the way of independent, objective, and ethical advice on applications. We want to prevent an institution’s application from being assessed by a committee member who has contacts with a similar institution. After all, that could lead to (undesirable) competition, whereas the municipality is actually striving for collaboration.

To avoid conflicts of interest, we follow the rule of thumb that prospective committee members must not have had any financial or policy-related involvement with any of the applicant institutions during the three years prior to responding to this vacancy.

Finally, we have established a rule that if you hold a position with the City of Rotterdam, you are unfortunately not eligible for this position.

Are you interested?

If you would like to contribute to the cultural climate of our wonderful city as an expert by experience, please apply by submitting your resume and a detailed cover letter via the button below.

The application deadline is May 15, 2023. After the deadline, it will no longer be possible to apply. The selection process will be conducted by an agency (to be selected) that will also handle the administrative and secretarial tasks. Interviews with the agency are currently scheduled for June and July 2023. We expect the agency to contact you in May or June to discuss the next steps. From that point on, the agency will take over responsibility for selecting committee members.

For more detailed information, please contact Nasr Essalhi at 06-4383-6262.