The eight representative associations of Culture workers who met this Thursday with the Minister of Culture, in Lisbon, left the audience without any commitment to increase funds in support of the General Directorate of Arts.
“The minister did not commit to this reinforcement. We hope you will commit, we will not give up on this claim”, Amarílis Felices, from the board of directors of Plateia – Association of Performing Arts Professionals, one of the structures meeting with Pedro Adão e Silva, told the Portuguese news agency.
The eight associations appeal to the Government to increase the provision of sustained support programs for the arts, in the biennial (2023-2024) and quadrennial (2023-2026) modalities, which was inaugurated in May, with a global amount of 81.3 million euros, and which are currently in the application evaluation phase.
“We try to provide the Minister of Culture with the arguments we have to demand this reinforcement, to avoid the destruction of the work carried out by a series of structures that are in place. (…) We are very concerned about the possibility of seeing structures less financed than those that are financed now”, said Amarílis Felices.
Asked by Lusa about the value of this reinforcement requested by the associations, Amarílis Felices did not want to advance amounts, justifying that she does not have data on how many cultural entities requested the support, from which regions they come and what are the levels of financing. .
“We do not want to find ourselves in the situation of five years ago, in 2018, of having ‘ad hoc’ reinforcements in the flow of the response. We believe that the amount needed for this reinforcement should now be evaluated and that it be done as soon as possible, so that the juries are aware of it and act accordingly, ”he explained.
For most of the associations, this was the first meeting with the Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, who took office last March.
The meeting with the Minister of Culture brought together representatives of Plateia, Ação Cooperativista, Acesso Cultura, Descampado, Rede – Associação de Estruturas para a Dança Contemporânea, Associação de Artistas Visualistas em Portugal, Performart – Associação para as Artes Performativas en Portugal, the Union of Spectators, Audiovisuals and Musicians (Dinner-STE).
According to the Directorate General for the Arts, the global financial allocation available for competitions for sustained support to the arts, of 81,335 million euros, “represents an increase of 18% compared to the previous support cycle (2018-2021)”.
Biennial competitions have a total budget of €20.5 million and quadrennial competitions have a total budget of €60.8 million.
Source: Observadora
