CREA Cultural Center in financial trouble

The problem is not new, but it is becoming increasingly acute: the finances of CREA, UvA's Cultural Center. The annual UvA subsidy the center receives has long been insufficient to cover costs. The UvA's employee council wants CREA to get an extra €800,000.

“The amount of €800,000 that we would need is realistic,” says CREA director Dennis van Galen. He has been struggling to make ends meet since he took office in 2019, but now it can no longer be done. The CREA budget for 2024 is around one and a half million, but in 2017 the budget was €1.4 million. In other words, in seven years, the CREA budget went up by €100,000, an increase of seven percent.

The year 2012

“But costs have gone up much faster,” says Van Galen. “Just consider personnel costs: In 2023, salaries went up nine percent due to a new collective bargaining agreement. That was in no way reflected in an increase in the CREA budget. But it is especially accommodation costs (rent, Facility Services and energy) that have made the cost increases so gigantic. So it is UvA costs that almost entirely cause the problem.”

The question regarding subsidizing CREA has been going on for years. Van Galen’s predecessor, Sjoerd Jans, said at his farewell in 2019 that substantial extra money would be needed to balance operations because the UvA subsidy was lagging far behind ever-rising costs. “We pay the UvA €300,000 more rent now than in 2012, but the subsidy has not increased,” Jans said in October 2019. Since then, rent has only continued to rise.

CREA affiliate J/K

In addition to the annual UvA subsidy, CREA must fend for itself, in other words, support itself. In the corona years, this didn’t work out at all because everything was closed, but even in the post-corona era, generating more income is only possible to a limited extent. Van Galen says: “There is an upper limit to what we can charge for a course or a cappuccino. After all, we focus mainly on students, so you can't raise prices indefinitely. I suggested once before to establish a branch of the CREA café in the renovated J/K building, but nothing was ever done about it. Now there is a subcontractor of the leading caterer Cirfood in the new espresso bar in that building.”

Drag bingo

Van Galen does try to generate additional income in other ways. “We currently rent out the Theaterzaal and course rooms to the UvA when we don’t need them. That already brought in €100,000 of extra income last year. We are also going to plan more events in the CREA café such as a pub quiz, drag bingo, or a dance night. The more spaces we can rent out, the better. Preferably to the UvA, because they are good customers and renting space to them also strengthens our bond with them.”

Students and employees of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) can also use CREA, but there is no long-term, fixed subsidy attached to that, Van Galen said. “At the end of the year, we send a bill to the AUAS, based on the number of AUAS-students who used our services.” Throughout 2023, that resulted in a contribution of €75,000. “But that could vary year to year; it's hard to predict. We are now in discussions with the AUAS to make that income stream sustainable, because the AUAS community does have potential for us.”

Front Factory

CREA is located in an old diamond-cutting factory on the Roeterseiland campus, where it was established in 2011. The building has a café (with a terrace) and two rooms on the first floor. It has two wings: the “back factory” with offices and course rooms and the “front factory” where student organizations such as ASVA and the CSR are housed. Van Galen explains: “More than 50 student organizations have offices in the front factory. That's unique in the Netherlands and we want to keep them there, but we can't charge them market-level rents, because then they'll be gone and we don't want that. They belong with us, we (and they) think, but financially we are not much better off.”

The intention now is to find a financial arrangement for the front factory so that the student organizations can stay there and CREA does not make a loss on it. Van Galen is also working on an operating plan for the coming years. “That is going slowly, but that is also because the existing situation has lasted so long.” Van Galen is not afraid that the UvA will let CREA slip. “We belong to the UvA and will remain so. But something has to happen now and we are in discussions with the UvA about that.”