On the third Tuesday of September, 20 September, the Dutch Minister of Finance presented the government’s budget for the coming year, the Miljoenennota. We are pleased to report that CODART was granted continuing funding for the remaining years of the present Four-Year Plan for the Arts, the Cultuurnota 2005-08.
For 2005 CODART was granted a one-year subsidy awaiting new policy of the Netherlands Ministry for Education, Culture and Science (OCW), with regard to what she called "supporting organizations," a category in which CODART was classified. The State Secretary for Culture, Medy van der Laan, wished to restructure these organizations in order to strengthen coherence and prevent overlapping. Regarding CODART, Van der Laan adopted the positive recommendation from the Arts Council of the Netherlands (Raad voor Cultuur) published this summer.
The Raad voor Cultuur considered the aims of CODART – stimulating international cooperation between curators, enhancing knowledge about art from the Low Countries and increasing the awareness of the international public by stimulating the visibility and accessibility of Dutch and Flemish art – responsibilities that the government should support financially.