Structures and movements representing the Culture sector called a protest for November 9th, in Lisbon, which they intend to extend to other cities, “For another policy for Culture. For a public service of Culture!”
The protest is called by the Manifesto in Defense of Culture, together with Cooperative Action, the Union of Archeology Workers, Apordoc – Association for Documentary and Cena-STE – Union of Entertainment, Audiovisual and Music Workers, all subscribers of a text about «the state of the Art of Culture in Portugal», entitled «We have reached the limit!», shared today on social media.
The protest is scheduled for 18 pm, in front of the Assembly of the Republic, where, at that time, the Minister of Culture Pedro Adão e Silva will be heard about the Government's State Budget proposal for 00.
The organizers' idea is to extend the signing of the document to other structures and take the protest to other cities, according to musician Tiago Santos, from Manifesto in Defense of Culture, speaking to Lusa.
In the text, subscribers warn of a “snowball” that was formed with the increase in the budget of the 2022 sustained support competitions from the Directorate-General for the Arts (DGArtes), which only covered the quadrennial modality, resulting in hundreds of candidates support in the biennial modality were not supported, despite being considered eligible, and which led to «total distortion of the specificity of each line of support, forcing people to always live in a logic of pure survival».
«Even the projects that received support continue to this day (8 months after the applications were submitted), developing creation processes without the support transferred to the associations, with some having already launched. To date, it was probably the program that took the longest to evaluate, publish results, evaluate complaints, verify documents and contract, tying up DGArtes' technical staff in an inhuman volume of work and pushing professionals to schedule creation processes and premieres, assuming , from the outset, that the State will not meet deadlines and will only make support available at least 5 months later than announced», they warn.
The subscribers emphasize that «a cultural policy is not created in survival mode, with professionals in the artistic and cultural field living without the minimum rights”, criticizing the “absence of funding for creation, forcibly reduced teams and no money to hire , an insurmountable wall in the Network of Theaters and Cinemas that makes it impossible for creations to circulate, a source of financing at this crucial time, unemployed people without the right to any type of social support, people covered by the Statute of Professionals in the Area of Culture who, instead of be quick, it is time-consuming and bureaucratic».
The text recalls that, in addition, professionals in the Culture sector “also suffer from the same problems that affect the rest of the population: lack of affordable housing in large cities, rising prices of essential goods and services, etc. , causing dozens to abandon their profession or live in permanent anguish».
«We have reached the limit with the mismanagement of funding for culture! We have reached the limit with measures and slogans that in practice do not materialize! We have reached the limit with the silence of the Ministry of Culture! We have reached the limit of survival!” they vent.
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