Seventy-one artistic entities are designated to receive financial support from the Sustained Support Program in the Theater area 2023-2026, according to the provisional results released this Tuesday by the General Directorate of the Arts (DGArtes).
“In the artistic area of the Theater, it is proposed to support 71 entities”, of which 48 in the four-year modality, out of 55 admitted to the contest, and 23 in the biennial modality, out of 58 admitted, according to the figures announced by the DGMartes, in a statement.
The total number of entities supported represents 70% of the applications admitted to the contest, with a positive assessment by the jury, that is, they obtained a final score equal to or greater than 60%, being eligible for aid.
In the four-year modality (2023-2026), the number of supported entities thus represents “89% of the candidacies with positive evaluation”, while in the biennial modality (2023-2024) the number of supported candidacies is limited to “the 55% of the eligible applications”, according to the DGArtes.
For the four-year support (2023-2026), “the amount of financing is 51.4 million euros”, recalls DGArtes, which highlights “an increase (of the order of 99%) compared to the previous cycle (2018- 2026). ), whose amount was 25.8 million euros”.
In the biennial modality, the amount of financing for the 2023-2024 biennium is six million euros, “recording an increase (of the order of 6%) compared to the previous cycle (2020/2021), whose amount was 5, 6 million euros”, in the words of DGArtes.
The provisional results in the Theater – Creation area were the last to be known of the six competitions of the 2023-2026 Sustained Support Program, which also include the areas of Visual Arts (in creation and programming), Music and Opera, Dance, Crossing Disciplinary and Programming (for Performing Arts, Disciplinary Crossing and Street Arts).
The offers are now in the “interested parties hearing period.”
When the call was opened in May, the six Sustained Support Program Calls had a global amount of 81.3 million euros. In September, the Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, announced an increase in that amount to 148 million euros.
Thus, the official highlighted at the time, the entities to support would receive the requested amount and not just a percentage.
The reinforcement, however, covered only the four-year modality, since, according to Pedro Adão e Silva, there was “a great movement of candidacies from biennial to four-year.”
The absence of financial support for the biennial modality has, however, been criticized by artistic structures and associations of professionals in the sector, given the provisional results: close to half of the structures that can receive support lose it due to lack of financial resources, in the biennial modality; almost all the eligible candidacies, in the quadrennium, obtain support.
Last Friday, representative structures of the Culture sector demanded from the DGArtes a “new increase in funds for sustained support”, in a statement sent to the Government and parliamentary groups, pointing to “equity” in the reinforcement between the two types of contests.
These structures also demanded the “opening of tenders to support projects” and the “reestablishment of dialogue between the Ministry [da Cultura] and the sector”.
The statement was signed by Plateia – Association of Performing Arts Professionals, REDE – Association of Structures for Contemporary Dance, riZoma – Intervention and Research Platform for Musical Creation, the Association of Visual Artists of Portugal, CENA – STE – Union of Entertainment, Audiovisual and Musician Workers Companies and Ação Cooperatividade – Informal Support Group for Culture and Arts Professionals, and joined previous demonstrations warning about the inequality in results between the two support modalities.
Given the known results of the contests, and the disparity between the support granted in the two modalities, the parliamentary groups of the PSD, the PCP and the BE requested an urgent hearing from the Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva.
These applications will be voted on Tuesday, in the Parliamentary Committee on Culture.
MAG (JRS/SS) // TDI
Portuguese/End
Source: Observadora
