In all, there were 52 activities, from April to December, at the Fortress of Sagres, Hermitage of Guadalupe, Castles of Aljezur, Paderne and Loulé, Megalithic Monuments of Alcalar and Roman Ruins of Milreu. It was the 2019 edition of DiVaM, a program for the Disclosure and Valorization of Monuments, launched by Regional Directorate of Culture of the Algarve, and which ended this Saturday, the 14th, with a concert by the Nelson Conceição Trio at the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe.
Adriana Freire Nogueira, regional director of Culture, was one of the attentive spectators of this concert, which echoed Nelson Conceição's accordion, Melissa Simplício's voice and Luís Trindade's guitar, among the centuries-old walls of that national monument. Among the audience, many foreigners residing in the Vila do Bispo area, as well as some Portuguese, who do not miss any of the shows promoted by DiVaM.
For the next year, Adriana Nogueira revealed to our newspaper, the amount allocated to the activities of that program, the result of the creativity of cultural groups and artistic associations throughout the region, should be between "65 thousand and 70 thousand euros". In other words, maybe a little more than the nearly 65 euros earmarked in 2019.
For the regional director of Culture, "DiVaM is here to stay." First, this person in charge stressed that she really likes the name and “the idea of “let's get off the couch to go to DiVaM”. By the way, I assume that this idea was underlying when the name was chosen».
“It's important that people visit the monuments, and the diVam, often serves as the first excuse to go to the monument, for example to see a concert, but next time they will come with more time to see it. That can add anything», he explained.
And has DiVaM contributed to increasing entries in the Algarve's monuments under the tutelage of that Regional Directorate? In some cases, yes, namely in the Megalithic Monuments of Alcalar, when the Day in Prehistory is promoted. But these numbers are not easy to measure.
«I don't know if you can see it in the results of the entries, but that's not all that interests us either. The entries have to do with the entire tourist flow that exists in the Algarve. And what interests us, with DiVaM, is bringing people together, namely those here, in the Algarve, the neighbors, to the monument».
"These actions may not even produce very obvious and immediate effects in terms of numbers, but they make the name of the monument be spoken," added Adriana Nogueira.
«One of the things that surprised me, last year, when I asked for the numbers, is that the number of people who visited the Roman Ruins of Milreu using the discount for residents in the municipality of Milreu did not reach 60. Faro. We also asked for the number of people who said “I am 18 years old” to enter for free. Very few people entered under this discount. I was also very surprised».
«They also tell me: I haven't been to Milreu since I was a child…but it won't be for the 2 euros entrance fee. Faro it's so close, the county isn't that big… people sometimes forget that they have a very important national monument there and don't visit it».
This is precisely the objective of the program created by the Regional Directorate of Culture six years ago: to bring people and communities closer to its monuments.
“DiVaM is good because people think: there's a concert there, I'm going to see it, there's an exhibition, I'm going there. The activity in Milreu, with the Cineclube, was very good because it also involved parents. Here in Guadalupe, activities involving the community are also carried out, in the Fortaleza de Sagres as well, such as those promoted by the Centro Ciência Viva de Lagos, with a day dedicated to families. This reminds people that they have a monument near here and that they can visit it whenever they want," said the person in charge of that organization.
"It is a slow, gradual work to raise awareness of the presence of the monument," he admitted.
Adriana Nogueira makes a point of talking about the “idea I've been trying to promote, which is to create the Amigos dos Monumentos. I can't be the one to do that, the community has to organize itself and create this group of friends around your monument».
On the other hand, even to better organize the distribution of funds for support, the regional director of Culture announced, in her interview with Sul Informação, that the Cultural Action program of this organization will be “reorganized” to “be more similar to the way DiVaM works”.
Unlike DiVaM, which has a period of just over a month for applications in January of each year, the Cultural Action program had «applications from January to July and people were asking. But then all the money was spent in those first months of the year and, when July came, an interesting project appeared and there was no more money».
“This year we are going to change the methodology and open a shorter period of applications, such as DiVaM”, he announced.
This will ultimately benefit the associations and artists who apply, as they get to know, every year, what they can count on, in terms of official cultural support.
«In the Cultural Action program, associations can compete with two projects, in DiVaM they can compete with two other projects. In fact, associations can have four projects supported by the Regional Directorate of Culture. DiVaM forces them to come to the monuments and do things here», added Adriana Nogueira.
«The associations are very creative, with very interesting ideas, which we, in the Regional Directorate of Culture, like to support», concluded the regional director.
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação
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