The Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, announced this Monday that sustained support for the arts for 2023-2026 will increase by 114% compared to the previous period, for a total of 148 million euros.
“In the previous cycle [2018-2021]the endowment was 69 million euros and this time it will be 148 million euros, which is more than double the funding”, said the minister at a press conference in Lisbon.
The announcement is made weeks before the presentation of the State Budget proposal for 2023 and in response to a demand from the sector for an increase in funds for the support programs of the General Directorate of the Arts.
According to Pedro Adão e Silva, the entities to be supported will receive the amount requested and not just a percentage.
“This reinforcement is much higher than all the claims made in the sector, which are closely related to the additional money that was made during the pandemic. It goes far beyond expectations in terms of reinforcing the competitions”, said Pedro Adão e Silva, who was accompanied by the general director of the Arts, Américo Rodrigues, at the press conference.
According to the minister, in the four-year competitions 2023-2026, 361 eligible applications were considered and the results will be announced between the end of October and the beginning of November, so that cultural entities can count on the support contracted in January 2023.
“We will have more supported entities than in the previous cycle and each of the supported entities will receive more than what they received,” he said.
According to Pedro Adão e Silva, this increase stems from the commitment to increase the budget for Culture during the current legislature.
The objective of this increase in funds from the four-year program is to “provide stability and predictability and conditions to agents”, in a post-covid context, and “push for the consolidation of the sector in what has to do with labor practices and combat precariousness.
According to information released this Monday, the breakdown of the 148 million euros (ME) between 2023 and 2026 will be 20.2 ME the first year, 20.2 ME the second, 19.2 ME the third and 19.2 ME the fourth year.
By artistic areas covered, in the four-year period Music and Opera will have an increase of 276%, for a total of 15.3 ME, Visual Arts will have an increase of 154% (up to 10.9 ME), and Dance will have an increase of 127 %, corresponding to 9.2 ME.
The Theater area will receive 51.3 ME, which corresponds to an increase of 106%, followed by the Programming area, which has 27.7 ME (an increase of 79%), and Street Arts, Circus and Crossing Discipline will have 12.7 ME (an increase of 62%). ).
Regarding the allocation of the biennial support program (2023-2024), the allocation of 20.5 million euros is maintained and the reinforcement is only in the four-year period, because, according to Pedro Adão e Silva, there was “a great movement of nominations from biennials to quadrennials”.
Source: Observadora
