This article was originally published by IETM – INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR CONTEMPORARY PERFORMING ARTS

Things started going really bad in Spain between 2008 and 2011, with the beginning of cuts dictated by the European Commission, the Central European Bank and the International Monetary Fund – the dreaded Troika. Before that, the cultural sector and the performing arts had gone through almost 30 years of cultural policy developments aiming to create structures and to support creation and production of artistic works. With varying success, such policies organised   and strengthened an unprecedented artistic fabric. Austerity policies provoked a setback that will take several years to be overcome, if at all.

Read the complete article in IETM.ORG

La entrada SITUATION OF THE CULTURAL SECTOR AND THE PERFORMING ARTS IN SPAIN se publicó primero en Cultura es Política.

I wouldn’t say that the performing arts sector in Spain was strong and highly creative, but in 30 years it developed substantially. Regular framework funds for artists and companies were implemented and new venues and creation centres were opened. All of this at a local, regional and national level. A broad array of public institutions covered different aspects of the development of the performing arts. However, the modernization process was not finished yet, there were still reforms to do: the high political dependence, lack of democracy in cultural institutions and some new expensive buildings without artistic projects, only built to feed the real state bubble and increase the public debt. Besides, the presence and support to contemporary innovative performing arts was not guaranteed in local public venues, in fact the vast majority of the performing spaces.

But the austerity policies of the Troika beat Spain in 2011. At that moment the public funding cuttings started and the axe harmed the endowment state in its public health system, education and culture. And culture was who suffered the most, being reduced the public budget around 50% in average in four years. Moreover, in order to collect more taxes, the government raised the TVA for culture from 8% to 21%. The results of this policy has been the disappearance of a great deal of performing arts independent sector and the precariousness of those who have survived. Now is not easy to produce new works and worse if you feel as an artist the need to be innovative. Innovation doesn’t sell in Spain and now sell is the main way to get funds to survive. Some continue – just a few, because the lack on an international culture- widening their routes to international circuits.

In 2016 the situation is more stable, people are used to this new situation. However, new political movements are taking over local and regional institutions. These new politicians are more sensitive to the arts and culture, and some situations have been reversed in big cities like Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia ….. Nevertheless, the threatening hands of the Troika and its austerity policies, still alive, leave little air the Spanish cultural sector for breathe.

The question is, what artists would get of an advocacy plan of IETM in a European level? Is realistic that IETM alone or in coalition with other cultural sectors will be able to soften the hard hearts of the European politicians and bureaucrats? From the South of Europe the challenge is enormous but there are not many other chances. We should try it. We should make pedagogy of the public values of the arts and convince them or, why not, change them.

(This text was my contribution to the open discussion on “Public Funding for the Arts” in IETM Forum)

La entrada THE SITUATION OF THE PERFORMING ARTS SECTOR IN SPAIN AFTER THE CRISIS se publicó primero en Cultura es Política.

I was asked to present the different frameworks of the public support to artistic mobility in Spain and its current situation. I used the following slide presentation and I post it in the blog for whoever interested:

La entrada Supporting Instruments and Policy for Transnational Mobility in Spain se publicó primero en Cultura es Política.

I copy in my blog this text initially published in IETM website 

Spanish government budget cuts began in 2009, but the most important arts cuts have been in Autonomous Communities (regions)’s budgets, as they have the most responsibility and funding for culture. Autonomous communities share this with local governments, now mostly bankrupt or with huge debts. The total reductions for the arts are thus more than 25% in global figures, comprising regions and local authorities.

The reaction of artists and arts organisations is muted – everyone is in a state of shock (reinforced by governments and media). There is a universal reaction against cuts in public services, including education and health as well as culture, but culture is the last in the line. Other issues in the protests are corruption, lack of transparency …… There is widespread criticism of the European Council’s policy to control public debt by “austerity” budgets, when everybody in Spain knows that the problem is private, not public, debt : the banks.

In 2011 some movements and platforms started to protest against cuts in culture. Some are stronger than others but they are somewhat organised. Most of the cultural sector sympathises with the “indignados” movement. The most important culture movements are the platforms arguing for publicly supported culture and against culture cuts. These are made up by professional artists and cultural managers associations and, in some cases, other cultural organisations and individuals.

For example, Aragón is a small region but “+Cultura Aragón” is very well organised and very active. This collaborative website is a precious tool for Spanish cultural operator and activits in general engaged in advocating for “mas cultura” (more culture): it features interesting articles, videos, documentation, updates about the movement in Spain, and announces protests. Check out the website of “+Cultura Aragón” www.mascultura.org .

La entrada News from de Spanish Cultural Sector: Budget Cuts and Protests se publicó primero en Cultura es Política.

I was asked to write this article for “IETM Engage!”, newsletter of International European Theatre Meeting. The newsletter main goal is to highlight activist operations and present initiatives outside the network to reduce the impact of public cultural budgets cuttings in Europe and other restrictive laws for the cultural and artistic development.

What was a major change in Catalonian cultural policy when the first executive Arts Council in Southern Europe was born in 2008, has lost its executive responsibilities. On December 21, 2011 the Catalan Parliament approved a new law that drives cultural policies back to the periods of greater political interference.

The reason given by the Catalan Government for this change has been the need for restructuration and more flexibility for the public administration in this time of crises. Thus, the Catalan Arts Council’s capacity to distribute public funding through subsidies for the development of artistic creation has been revoked and transferred to the “Catalan Institute of Cultural Industries – ICIC” now renamed “ICEC – Catalan Institute of Creative Enterprises”.

After five years of debate between the cultural sectors and political representatives, in 2008 the Parliament of Catalonia approved the creation of the “National Council for Culture and the Arts – CoNCA”. The law sought to avoid partisan cultural interventionism, placing in hands of an independent body the responsibility of organizing government policy to support and promote cultural and artistic creativity, thereby avoiding that subsidies would be manipulated by partisan criteria.

Now, the new law approved in December gives the responsibility to subsidize artistic disciplines to the “Catalan Institute of Creative Enterprises – ICEC”. The ICEC will promote artistic creativity by means of “cultural enterprises”, cultural consumption and new markets for Catalan culture. In that sense, the new “ICEC” considers as “cultural enterprises” either individuals or companies engaged in business activity.

Thus, at one stroke the government of Catalonia has fatally wounded the autonomy of arts sectors and the support to non-profit innovative arts, leaving markets and business companies the responsibility for arts development.

La entrada The Catalan Arts Council Reduced to an “Advisory Agency” se publicó primero en Cultura es Política.

Artistas brasileños cantando la Navidad. Me lo envió mi querida amiga Tela Leao de Portugal y en seguida me lo hice mio para compartir.

Brazilian artists in a Christmas song. My friend Tela Leao from Portugal sent it to me and I loved it.

Artistes brasilers cantant els Nadals. M’ho va enviar la meva bona amiga Tela Leao de Portugal i em va agrada a l’instant.

La entrada Bons Nadals – Merry Christmas – Felices Fiestas se publicó primero en Cultura es Política.

The outcomes of all this process are in the following document (unfortunately only published in Spanish). It is a broad guide to get inspiration and discover good helpful practices to overcome the difficult moment that the performing arts sector is going through at this moment in Spain and in some other countries in Europe.

For me has been a great experience designing the process and creating this platform for free exchange of ideas and experiences and thus collaborate in the reinvention of the performing arts sector.

Everything started in this blog when at the beginning of the year I started to publish a collection of articles about “Solutions to the Crises from the Performing Arts”. The expectations created drove me to go further trying to involve as many as professionals of performing arts in the process.  And so, the Forum was thought as a communication space to share new ways of thinking and practices to permit artists, companies, producers and distributors of contemporary performing arts to cope with the future challenges of the deep crisis that is being experienced in Spain.  The Forum was open to any type of initiative that could help to reconsider the work models and find new ways of adapting to the current situation.

All ideas and experiences were included at the Forum.  It did not matter if they referred to creation, production, fundraising, administration, promotion or communication processes; each and every one of the aspects of work of artists and companies structures were taken into consideration. The topics developed can be encompassed into:

–  Increase the variety of creative products

– Changes in the structures of companies and organisations

–  Other funding systems for performing arts projects

– Internationalisation and mobility of artists, companies and performing arts products

– New ways to communicate with audiences and communities

– Take advantage of publicly owned spaces and other resources that are not in use because funding cuttings

The Facebook Group got to have 604 members with an important follow-up discussion and debate. From the 30th of June, when opened the Forum until September the 30th, there were 780 postings and 21 documents were generated.

The Forum members profile was professionals of performing arts and culture from Spain. The Forum was attended by all sectors involved in the processes of creation, production, distribution and exhibition. It is important to note that this communication among all sectors of the performing arts, especially between artists and managers is unusual in Spain, thing that could be considered the major success of the Forum.

The on-site Forum in Huesca was attended by around 50 people. Four working groups deployed their activity for different areas of Huesca’s Palace of Congress and two plenary sessions took place at the beginning and at the end of the session.

La entrada Challenging the Crisis in Performing Arts Sector se publicó primero en Cultura es Política.

I wrote this report four years ago as a result of the training trip I curated for the “Spanish Network of Public Theatres” to London and Oxford. In this trip, around 30 Spanish directors of public theatres traveled to London to meet English colleagues, exchanges information with them, being familiar with their projects and visits the spaces.

The report is written both in Spanish and in English and cover main aspects of cultural policies in England, description of the English model of management of theatres and a complete review of the theatres visited.

The performing arts spaces are divided into three geographical areas that cover three different theatre models. These spheres can be visualised as three concentric circles whose central point is in the centre of London.

First, the so-called regional theatres are in the outer circle, at a distance of over 80 km from the centre of London. Here is described the Oxford Playhouse.

The theatres in the London suburbs are in the second concentric circle. There can discover and analyse important aspects of the theatre policies such as setting up in the social fabric of the neighborhoods, consolidating audiences, community action, education, urban regeneration or supporting local young artists. In this circle is placed the Roundhouse, Theatre Royal Stratford East and Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) theatres.

In the inner circle, in the centre of London, can be discovered examples of structures that make London the world theatre capital. Learn about those specific features of the Anglo-Saxon model and its relation to the public sector through subsidies and commercial aspects, the funding system and the central cultural policies with respect to disseminating the performing arts. In that area is placed The National Theatre, South Bank Centre, The Royal Court Theatre, Sadler’s Well, and the Unicorn Theatre.

The publication can be downloaded at the following link:

Theatres in London and Oxford: Travel Notebook 1

Also available in English:

Theatres in Berlin and Potsdam: Travel Notebook 2

Theatres in the Netherlands: Travel Notebook 3

The three volumes are an indispensable collection if you want to learn the differences between the various management models of subsidized European theaters. Also provide a perfect tool for catching up on trends and innovations that pioneered performance spaces of Europe are currently developing.

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This is their letter:

“In Defense of the CoNCA”

After a long debate between the cultural sectors and political representatives, in 2008 the Parliament of Catalonia approved the creation of the National Council for Culture and the Arts (CoNCA).

The preamble of Law 6 / 2008 declared:

“After more than twenty-five years since the recovery of democratic freedoms and the restoration of its national institutions, Catalan society has reached a maturity that requires public authorities to rethink the cultural management model and support and promotion of artistic creation in order to adapt it to current requirements and new challenges. The opportunity to create the National Council for Culture and the Arts was founded after stating the need to generate new forms of cultural and support to creation policies. However, there must be added the conviction that policy of arts and culture expansion and development must be maintained outside of the specific and accidental political circumstancies, and in any case, society is the sole owner of the cultural assets of the country and should participate in decisions that affect within the model represented by the Arts Councils […]”.

In compliance with this law, the Parliament appointed the eleven members of CoNCA’s Plenary, by the Government’s Presidency proposal.

It is worth reminding that the law creating the CoNCA meant a new management of public resources to support the arts, as well as a democratization of cultural policies through participation and co-responsibility of members coming from the cultural sectors and not from political parties. The model implies that CoNCA’s institution is mainly based on three aspects:

• First, the Law seeks to avoid partisan cultural interventionism, placing in hands of an independent body the responsability of organizing the government policy to support and promote cultural and artistic creativity, thereby avoiding the subsidies to obey partisan criteria.

• Second, with the Law, the treatment of support to creativity, the more fragile and vulnerable area of ​​cultural productions, is distinguished itself, and separates the consideration of its problems with regard to cultural industries. Thus, the CoNCA especially serves purely artistic and cultural criteria, principles of risk, innovation, talent, social and collective involvement, and so on, which are the criteria governing support policies towards cultural industries.

• Thirdly, the Law seeks to establish through the CoNCA a continuity guarantee in certain cultural policies in order to prevent, with every new legislature, the general framework and guidelines for action initiatives to change, since they can only strengthen with a long term plan.

The presentation to procedure, from the Catalan Government, of the bill on Administrative Restructuring and Agility, involves a substantial change in this model. In this sense, it aims to ruin the timid advances in governmentalisation of support and creativity promotion policies, it seeks to reorganize again cultural policies through a political and administrative recentralisation, and it means an involution because it gives all the power of cultural policies and subventions awarding back to the political decision-makers from the Catalan Ministry of Culture.

The arguments to empty the CoNCA from its powers are the criteria of efficiency and savings. However, the new model proposed by the bill means no savings because subsidies will continue to be provided following procedures required by the law, but it directly from the Ministry, with the added risk that the criteria could not prioritize artistic appreciation. Also, the new model does not automatically imply higher efficiency, which otherwise is a primary objective of the CoNCA, while it surely implies less guarantee of transparency and objectivity. This is even more evident when the Ministry of Culture has no plans currently to include the Catalan Institute of Cultural Industries (ICIC) in the new structure that will concentrate all the subsidies, the “Single Window”, when these subsidies are by far the more important given by the Ministry: in 2010, 42 million Euros, representing 44% of the grants awarded by the Ministry.

It is worth remembering that, since its inception, the CoNCA has been supportive with the budget adjustments due to the economical crisis, and has seen its budgets substantially decreased against the deployment envisaged by the current law, to the extent that the budget of the CoNCA already represents only 2.9% of the overall Ministry of Culture.

In recent months, the CoNCA Plenary has expressed its opposition to the bill by a legal opinion, and with the utmost respect for institutions it has been holding talks with the governmental, political and cultural authorities (President of the Government, representatives of political parties present in the Parliament of Catalonia, Ministry of Culture and representatives of cultural sectors), in order to show the danger that means the current bill with respect to the existing model.

However, so far, it has been impossible to achieve that the Government changes its intentions expressed in the bill, nor the politicians who are willing to defend the model that exemplifies CoNCA form a parliamentary sufficient majority to prevent the bill to prosper. Not even after the manifesto promoted by cultural associations through the platform “No retalleu la Cultura” [Don’t cut culture].

In consequence of the above here, and consistently with the responsibility that we acquired in the Parliament of Catalonia when we were appointed, the undersigned members of the CoNCA Plenary, considering that the bill involves a political and cultural regression which empties the institution from its fundamental contents and converts it into an irrelevant body, we resign the position of members of the Plenary of the National Council for Culture and Arts of Catalonia.

Francesc Guardans

Xavier Antich

Sílvia Munt

Rosa Vergés

Chantal Grande

Marta Oliveres

Manel Camp

Jordi Coca

Manuel Forcano

Juli Capella

Barcelona, ​​November 7th, 2011

La entrada In Defense of the Catalonian Arts Council – CoNCA se publicó primero en Cultura es Política.

The reason for this shift is to explore the opportunities that this city and the UK offer for professional development. My objective is to establish contacts, gather information, build bridges of cultural cooperation among other researches and prospecting activities.

I will be available there to help to develop new horizons based on arts internationalization, collaboration and documented knowledge.

I will keep reporting.

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