Eight representative associations of Culture workers meet this Thursday with the Minister of Culture, in Lisbon, on the occasion of the new cycle of support from the General Directorate of Arts (DGArtes), whose funding they say is insufficient.
According to information sent to the Lusa agency by Plateia — Association of Performing Arts Professionals, the meeting, at 6:00 p.m., takes place at the request of various associations in the sector, following a call, made in May, for the Government increase the amount available from the DGArtes sustained support program.
“At the meeting, the organizations will defend before the Government the immediate reinforcement of the funds for these tenders, which are now in the evaluation phase,” Plateia stressed.
The meeting with Pedro Adão e Silva will bring together representatives from Plateia, Ação Cooperativista, Acesso Cultura, Descampado, Rede – Association of Structures for Contemporary Dance, the Association of Visual Artists of Portugal, Performart – Association of Performing Arts of Portugal, the Union of Spectators, Audiovisuals and Musicians (Dinner-STE).
On May 13, the DGArtes opened the applications for six competitions for sustained support to the arts, in the biennial (2023-2024) and quadrennial (2023-2026) modalities, with a global amount of 81.3 million euros.
On May 25, these entities lamented the “policy of precariousness and austerity” and appealed to the Government to increase the budget allocation for economic support programs.
For those associations, this allocation “is below the amounts already spent or planned for 2021/2022. This will cause many structures to lose their funding, and many others will be left, once again, without access to the program, even presenting quality projects”.
“Much less, this program will be able to guarantee the fight against job insecurity and the qualitative and quantitative leap in artistic creation and dissemination, which are so urgent,” they said.
According to DGArtes, the global economic amount available for these six tenders, 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.
For the associations that represent the professionals of Culture, “these financing lines of the sustained support program of the DGArtes are one of the most important mechanisms of the State to guarantee the constitutional right of access to culture”.
In this new cycle of support, “it is also essential that the structures have the conditions to carry out the urgent transformation of labor practices, guaranteeing more income, social protection and labor rights for those who work in these areas”, the associations recalled. , in reference to the application of the Statute of Culture Professionals.
Source: Observadora
