Filipa Colaço is a visual artist with training in plastic arts and contemporary arts curating. Filipa was executive director of Lugar Comum – Experimental Arts Centre from 2002 to 2004 and a member of the board of Clube Português de Artes e Ideias from 2000 to 2004.

Like most European countries, Portugal is very dependent on state funding for the arts. The role of the Ministry of Culture has also been crucial for the growth of the independent cultural sector. The state controls traditional and national institutions (such as museums, opera houses, orchestras etc.) and selects artists for international representation (e.g., for Biennales), but it also supports artists and independent organisations through funding, maintaining a healthy distance from programming.

The main quota of creativity and creative activities is in the hands of independent curators, programmers and artists. The independent cultural sector in Portugal not only promotes events, but also encourages experimentation, cultural interchange and the development of artists (through funding, residencies, etc.) and spells out the trends in dialogue with the international cultural “scene”. It is up to the independent sector, because of its ability to respond quickly and flexibly, to promote diversity, multidisciplinarity and innovation.

Background

Portugal’s obligation to preserve, encourage and promote access to culture is embodied in the Constitution that came out of April’s Revolution (in 1974):

Everyone has the right to cultural enjoyment and creativity, and the duty to preserve, protect and extend the cultural heritage.

It is the duty of the State, in cooperation with all cultural agencies:

* to encourage and ensure access for all citizens to the means and mechanisms of cultural activity, and to correct present imbalances in this respect;

* to support initiatives to stimulate the broad variety and expression of individual and collective creativity, and a wider availability of cultural works and assets of quality;

* to promote the protection and increased respect for the cultural heritage, making it a vital element of the common cultural identity;

* to develop cultural relations with all peoples, particularly those that are Portuguese-speaking, and ensure the protection and promotion of Portuguese culture abroad; and

* to coordinate the policies for culture with other state policies. (Article 78)] (Full version available in culturalpolicies.net).

Yet, for many years following the Revolution, there was only a department within the larger Ministry of Education dedicated to culture, with the consequent budgetary shortage and the lack of an integrated policy for both traditional and more “avant garde” practices.

It was only in 1995, with the socialist government of António Guterres, that a dedicated Ministry of Culture was born. In the decade that followed, there was a “boom” of cultural associations, cooperatives and foundations, all encouraged by the increase in new opportunities. These were mainly the result of major cultural events in Portugal. First, Lisbon became European Capital of Culture in 1994, followed by the Expo 98-International Exhibition. Then Porto became European Capital of Culture in 2001. This increase in cultural activity generated funding, programming needs, international interchange and provided new working environments and standards for a sector that had been quite amateurish until then.

These important events gave the opportunity for new structures to evolve. Some of these organisations were only created to produce a single event, but due to their success, they continued to become more stable.

The Sponsorship Act

In the late 1990s, the Ministry of Finance issued the Sponsorship Act to encourage companies to support the arts. Since 1999, this is known as the Statute of Sponsorship and it basically grants tax reductions to investments made in culture and cultural projects.

On the positive side, culture came to be perceived as having a value and not just as a “charity” (a common word used in Portugal for art funding in general). On the down side, companies created their own foundations to manage these investments, integrating this practise with their own branding and marketing strategies, rather than supporting artists and independent organisations.

Examples of foundations created after the Sponsorship Act include Culturgest (from Caixa, the state-owned Portuguese bank) or Fundação EDP (from the energy company, Electricidade de Portugal). As a way to decentralise control, the government itself promotes some of these foundations, including Fundação Serralves in Porto or the Fundação Berardo, which was recently established in Lisbon to manage the art collection of the millionaire Berardo, who owns the biggest private pop art collection in Europe.

Cultural policies

The Ministry of Culture used three agents to act as intermediaries in relation to artists and organisations:

·Portuguese Institute for Performing Arts (IPAE) for the performing arts;

·Institute for Contemporary Arts (IAC) for the visuals arts;

·and Portuguese Institute of Cinema and Television (IPACA) for cinema and television. (The latter was renamed Institute for Cinema, Audiovisual and Multimedia (ICAM) in 1999 to include multimedia, although the institute never had the funding or the expertise to respond in this area.)

Forced by rising multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary practices, the first two organisations were merged into one institute – the Instituto das Artes (IA), which now oversees all aspects of contemporary cultural activity.

These multiple changes in the naming of institutes show that there is some concern and a constant re-thinking and adjustment to contemporary practices. However, with new programmes and strategies at each government’s mandate, policies lack effectiveness. Since directors and board members are appointed by party political agendas, all previous work tends to be eliminated at each new mandate, causing great instability. When funding is delayed or frozen, which happens frequently, the frail cultural sector falls into crisis. Until very recently, organisations were not able to commit to programming strategies for more than a year in advance.

The IA changed this by introducing a longer view and using two different tools for funding the arts:

·a structural or plural annual programme that funds organisations for up to three or four years;

·and a yearly grant for artists or one-shot projects by area, such as dance, music, theatre, visual arts and multidisciplinary/transdisciplinary approaches. (In 2006, design and architecture were added as disciplines.)

Alternative players

Since it only has a very small portion of the state budget (around 0.6%), the Ministry of Culture has developed partnerships with other ministries in order to increase support for the arts.

This cooperation can be clearly defined by two main national goals:

·the protection and dissemination of Portuguese language on the one hand;

·and the effort to bring the sciences closer to art practices on the other.

Governmental organisations like the Commission of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) and Instituto Camões function as political platforms to facilitate international cooperation.

CPLP includes all former colonies, plus Brazil, and regularly promotes meetings between corresponding ministries, including Ministries of Culture. Their agenda only has an indirect impact on independent organisations, but this will nevertheless make an impact, since national institutes will be charged to carry out agreed policies or events, such as biennales, artists’ meetings and so on.

Instituto Camões, which falls under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is active in 95 countries. Although the majority of the institute’s activities are linked to teaching Portuguese at universities, in 14 of these countries it runs a Centro Cultural Português. These centres promote cultural programming in countries like Japan, India, France, Mozambique, and deal directly with programmers. However, the institute does not have a large budget and it has a rather traditional view of art practices.

On the other hand, the information or knowledge society trend led to an understanding that science and art should come together to promote a creative dialogue. One of the criteria for the IA’s project analysis is the level of technological and scientific issues that the art practice will include. Furthermore, some protocols with the Ministry of Science and Technology (now renamed Ministry of Science and Higher Education) for the development of new technologies in the arts have been put into action.

The independent sector: a view

Independent cultural structures serve as an intermediary between the state and artists, because most funding is only granted through an existing structure. Therefore a “partnership” developed. In general, artists were not concerned with administrative tasks and the necessary expertise to present their projects formally. Instead they relied on associations as agents for their creativity.

More recently, though, and because they had to depend on others, more and more artists are creating their own associations (micro-structures) as a way to receive funds directly, so that other organisations do not need to act as intermediaries and they become more independent. Alongside their creative activity, artists become producer assistants and carry out administrative work.

State activity in the cultural sector is complemented by its partnership with the independent sector, which offers the state visibility, closeness to the audiences and is more fast-moving than public and local administration.

Independent organisations have played a crucial role in the last decade. They complement local administration responsibilities by proposing projects for communities and schools and by providing services to society. The administration gets visibility and independent structures have the opportunity to put their projects into practice.

Many local politicians have understood that cultural activities give them a high profile. As a result, cooperation with artists and programmers has grown steadily since the 1990s. Yet, the ever growing debt of local administration is a setback and government pressure on financial control has hampered this investment.

Networking

With the help of European funding, some 35 new cultural spaces have been inaugurated by the state, local administration and independent structures since 1999. This was part of a wide-ranging programme from the first Ministry of Culture, called Rede de Teatros (Theatre Network), which involved regenerating old theatre houses or building new ones. In exchange for contents, independent or semi-independentorganisations (some of which will be in the payroll of local administration) will get some control over these new cultural spaces. Although this is very positive, it is also a difficult challenge, since buildings and equipment involve great costs in maintenance and human resources, and tend to use up a large chunk of available income. It is not possible to deliver a good programme regularly without a sustained budget.

Indeed, the independent sector has “re-invented” itself over the last ten years, diversifying its activities, connecting to a larger public and multiplying its services (increasing structures in music, theatre and dance areas).

Cooperation with other national and international organisations also appeared to be a solution to limited budgets for creation, promotion and representation in the cultural sector. Sharing budgets, human resources, decentralising means and creating network programming works as a catalyst for the development of culture allowed a growth of cultural offerings to a more demanding public. Professional workers in the field also had a more enriching experience because of their increased mobility.

Although the generation of institutional mentors who contributed to the development of culture had gained experience and knowledge through professional training (e.g., through the non-profit association Zé dos Bois (ZDB) and O Espaço do Tempo), some key players are now attending courses. This is a particular trend after European funding for the 1994 Lisbon European Capital of Culture, when there was a need to improve expertise. Today, there is an awareness that qualifications and experience are both fundamental to the development of the cultural sector.

Conclusion

In spite of the fact that the cultural industry has become more highly valued as an economic agent over the past few years (some companies invest in cultural businesses for profit; and there is increasing proficiency in the sector, with a greater number of courses and training), the effort of the independent sector to be flexible and adaptable has not proved favourable to the working conditions or the stability of the cultural sector.

In some organisations, volunteers make up the bulk of the workforce. There is no budget for personnel, so the use of volunteers minimises the fixed charges. However, these volunteers are mostly young, inexperienced and not qualified for the job, particularly in the case of locally run organisations. This betrays a degree of amateurism.

Just a few professionals in the cultural sector have reached a level of stability. The majority work on a freelance basis and temporary unemployment is common. In fact, there are two different worlds: one qualified and experienced and another unqualified.

The consumption of cultural products increases and culture is valued, but the situation in Portugal for the cultural section is still lagging a long way behind other European countries. On the other hand, the last ten years has revealed a huge change in the cultural sector. Big events (such as the Expo and Cultural Capitals) and an ever-changing approach to cultural production, consumption and awareness is a positive and promising step.

Bibliography/references:

Documents:

- “Entidades Culturais e Artísticas em Portugal”, Rui Telmo Gomes, Vanda Lourenço, Teresa Duarte Martinho, Observatório das Actividades Culturais (Cultural Activity Observatory), 2006;

- GAVE “Guia das Artes Visuais e do Espectáculo”, Miguel Abreu, Conceição Amaral, Miguel Amado, Otelo Lapa, Rita Sousa Guerreiro e Sónia Monteiro, Instituto das Artes /Ministério da Cultura (Institute of Arts/Ministry of Culture), 2006;

Websites:

- Ministério da Cultura (Ministery of Culture), http://www.min-cultura.pt

-Observatório das Actividades Culturais (Cultural Activities Observatory),http://www.oac.pt

- Insituto Camões (Camões Institute), http://www.instituto-camoes.pt

http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/oinstituto.htm

- Cultural Policies, http://culturalpolicies.net - Country Profiles, Portugal, chapter 5.1.1

- Europa – Gateway to the European union, http://europa.eu.int/comm/culture/eac/sources_info/pdf-word/annex1national_reports3pdf