Rio Artists react to Arts Policy

Sérgio Sá Leitão, the New Secretary of Culture of the City of Rio, announced that his management model for support of the arts and culture, as published last Monday in the Segundo Caderno,  will be divided into two segments. The first segment will be dedicated to projects that ‘aim for profit’ and are directed to a ‘significant number of viewers’ - and the second segment will be directed to manifestations  ‘that are only artistically’ and with ‘no commercial ambitions’.

This anouncement created a vivid discussion amongst artists in Rio like the theater director Enrique Diaz. He questions the criteria that will determine to what extent a project has exclusively artistic or commercial ambitions? Diaz wants to create work that is provocative and economically viable.

Nelson Motta thinks that it is proper to separate projects that have distinct functions: “The function of commercial projects is to generate profit. But there must be space for experiments !”

And the founder of the Grupo Tá Na Rua, Amir Haddad agrees: “It gives me goose bumps to see a secretary seeking a competitive culture”, he says. “It seems that diminishes the importance of culture. It is urgent to think of public policies for the arts that are not governed by the laws of the market. Art and culture have always been public, then it was privatized. A manager needs to have this kind of awareness.”