In the open letter ” Is Culture Stupid? ” published today, more than a hundred artists, from theater to music, visual arts, and dance, accuse the government of “detachment and lack of interest in the performing arts. “

Among the signatories of the letter, available online and published in the opinion section of the Público newspaper, are actors such as João Reis, Isabel Abreu, Beatriz Batarda, Zia Soares, Cristina Carvalhal and Mónica Garnel, musicians such as Sérgio Godinho, Lena D’Água, Filipe Sambado and Alex D’Alva Teixeira, directors such as Raimundo Cosme, André e. Teodósio and Marco Paiva. Teodósio and Marco Paiva, conductor Martim Sousa Tavares, choreographers such as Francisco Camacho, João Fiadeiro, Victor Hugo Pontes, Vera Mantero, Clara Andermatt, Diana Niepce and Olga Roriz.

The open letter is also signed by companies such as Cão Solteiro, Dançando com a Diferença, Teatro Praga, Teatro Griot, O Rumo do Fumo, Plataforma 285, and the Alkantara Festival.

The signatories argue that “the detachment and lack of interest in the performing arts shown by the Ministry of Culture so far has accentuated the chronic uncertainty and instability in the arts sector.”

“The reduction in the cultural budget for the performing arts or the dismissals of central equipment for the medium (the most recent example is the dismissal of the president of the Centro Cultural de Belém, Francisca Carneiro Fernandes) affect national and international cooperation networks that are essential for the maintenance of precarious artistic structures,” they warn.

They also refer to the “speculation about the resignation of the head of the Directorate-General for the Arts (DGArtes), a body that has undergone profound changes and benefits from stability”.

Questioning “what the Minister of Culture intends” for the sector, the signatories warn that the “lack of definition affects the quadrennial structures from the outset, which still don’t know if the decree-law regulating the possibility of renewing quadrennial support [granted by DGARtes], approved by the previous government, will be complied with”.

“What’s more, to date, apart from the competitions that are still taking place in the manner defined by the previous government, the budget approved for these arts is much smaller than that of previous years,” they say.

The signatories also address “the end of the competitions provided for in the DGArtes’ annual declaration, such as Arte pela Democracia, Arte e Coesão Territorial, Rede Portuguesa de Arte Contemporânea,” a decision that leads them “to recognize that the current government and its Ministry of Culture are clearly working to devalue the performing arts, backtracking on the growth that was underway.”

At a time when the sector has “less budget, less stability, more ignorance and more fragility”, there is also a “downgrading of the management of fundamental equipment for collaboration with contemporary performing arts, festivals, structures and artists”.

“We have noticed a lack of interest on the part of the Minister of Culture in dialoguing with the heads of state facilities (the board of directors of the D.Maria II National Theatre has been under management for a year and a member is missing) or getting to know the reality of the many cultural activities on the ground which, at the moment, find in the DGArtes an interlocutor who cannot commit,” they say.

At a time when there is “once again a cycle of abandonment of the performing arts, which has been concentrated on exonerations and changes of leadership”, the signatories believe that this is part of “a path of earthmoving of a contemporary art sector that should be protected”.

“We demand that the independence of the mission and program of the facilities and bodies (presidents and administrations) be guaranteed without interference from the tastes and interests of the state,” the letter reads.

Demanding “answers and visibility” for the sector, the signatories believe that “now” is the time to speak out, not least because the Ministry of Culture “has so far shown no interest in listening to the sector, its professionals and its structures.”

The open letter, available online for subscription, was sent today to the Minister of Culture, the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, and the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

The Minister of Culture, Dalila Rodrigues, has been the target of criticism, particularly after the resignation on Friday of the president of the CCB Foundation, Francisca Carneiro Fernandes, who had been in the post for less than a year, announcing the appointment of Nuno Vassallo e Silva to the post and justifying the decision with the “need to give new direction to the management of the CCB Foundation, to ensure that the foundation provides a nationwide service, participating in a new cycle of Portuguese cultural life”.

Hours after its announcement, the CCB Workers’ Committee regretted the dismissal, recalling the “openness of dialogue” and the “fundamental restructuring” it undertook during the year it was in office.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, a petition was published as an open letter to the Prime Minister demanding explanations for the resignation.

By 7 p.m. today, the online petition had gathered around 2,100 signatures, including those of Aida Tavares, CCB’s artistic director for the performing arts, Nuria Enguita, artistic director of MAC/CCB, and former CCB administrator Miguel Lobo Antunes, among many others.

Francisca Carneiro Fernandes’ departure was also echoed internationally, with the Union of European Theatres (UTE), which brings together 12 major European theaters, reacting “with surprise” to the “sudden resignation.”

In an open letter published on Sunday, the UTE points out that the exonerated president of the CCB “has been vital” to the institution “for her creative strength and her exceptional ability to bring together people from very different backgrounds, countries and theatrical traditions.”

The UTE brings together historic companies such as the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, the Teatro de Roma, the national theaters of Catalonia, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, and Serbia, the theaters of Prague in Czechia, SNG Drama Ljubljana in Slovenia, the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj in Romania, the Teatro Laboratório Sfumato in Bulgaria, and the Teatro Nacional S. João.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Culture’s visit to parliament for a hearing on Francisca Carneiro Fernandes’s dismissal, requested by the PS and the Left Bloc (BE), was approved on Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, actor and director Tiago Rodrigues, director of the Festival d’Avignon and former artistic director of the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, wrote in an opinion piece in the newspaper Público about what he defined as the “unacceptable action” of the Ministry of Culture in dismissing the president of the CCB Foundation, “before she had even completed a year in office, without any substantive explanation from the Ministry of Culture, interrupting a project which, although it was just beginning, was already giving a new lease of life to the much-needed institution.”

Tiago Rodrigues also mentions the change in the Évora European Capital of Culture 2027 team in the opinion piece. This led seven programmers and commissioners of the European Capitals of Culture to write to the European Commission expressing concern about the change in management of Évora2027 and considering it difficult to execute the program in two years.

In Jornal da Madeira

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks the Luso-American Education Foundation for sponsoring FILAMENTOS.