This new domain together with WordPress.org will let be more flexible and broaden the technical possibilities of blogging.

The domain “culturaespolitica.com” unify the three blogs, in three different languages​​, where I have been publishing in recent years. Now all three languages ​​are classified by different “Category”.

So, to read posts published in English you have to go to:

http://www.culturaespolitica.com/category/english/

In Spanish:

http://www.culturaespolitica.com/category/castellano/

In Catalan:

http://www.culturaespolitica.com/category/catala/

And all mixed up ordered by date of publication:

http://www.culturaespolitica.com/

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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

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.

Performing arts venues in the Netherlands

Just published the third volume devoted to the Netherlands in the collection “La Red Travel Notebooks”. This collection began with London and Berlin, is the result of the training trips I’ve been designing annually for the Spanish Network of Public Theatres. Its aim is to present models and best practices in managing theatres and concert halls in Europe. In addition, in each of the volumes is an immersion in systems of cultural policies that give its support to public and subsidized theatres.

The three volumes have been reissued in a new design and published bilingual, Spanish and English. With this step the activities of the Network of Spanish Theatres goes beyond, starting as an international research centre specializing in management of performing arts venues. The new publications can be downloaded at the following links:

Travel Notebook 3: the Netherlands

Travel Notebook 2: Berlin and Potsdam

Travel Notebook 1: London and Oxford

The new volume includes a first part of cultural policy and the Dutch system of performing arts exhibition. The second section describes the most innovative venues of Holland from the point of view of management, the artistic project and its architecture. Among others presents the Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Rotterdam Zuidplein Theater, Theaters Tilburg, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam and Het Muziektheater aan’tlj Muziekgebouw, these last two important concert halls in Amsterdam. All theaters show the main figures for its operation: budgets, audiences, number of representations, etc.

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

I leave this Christmas song to remember that John Lennon left us 30 years ago. An honest artist and concerned about the world around him.

Macarena Recuerda Shepherd

The strong commitment of the patrons  for the contemporary performing arts and the debate in the context of professional meeting point has given the expected results and I am convinced this year will be definitively consolidated. Anyway, we must be careful since no one escapes the strong dependence  of the culture sector  on politics in Spain  and the approaching election times, and therefore possible changes in the political ecosystem.

Compañía La Tristura

I encourage you to continue the link of the Fair to look at the Artistic Programme and the Professional Conference. Concerning artistic programme I put some significant videos, although there is much more. The Conference is titled “Time for Revolution” (look at the introductory text) and no doubt will be a good place to reflect what changes are needed in the cultural sector to advance much further, with or without crisis.

Montreal Danse

Whoever approaches La Feria de Huesca , I am sure will have a few days of discovery and reflection necessary for the future of their professional activity.

And if you want to give you a tour by mov-s/madrid from 10 to 13 June at Reina Sofía Museum, theatres and arts centres of Madrid.

Under the generic title of “The Active Spectator”, the third edition of mov-s aims to delve into the reality of today’s audience. The relationship between performer and spectator can be enriched through the transformation from a passive spectator to an active spectator, who is the protagonist in their relationship with the artist. Considering the spectator as being intimately involved with the artist’s work is a path relatively little explored by the arts, in particular the dance and movement arts, and is a way for a large number of people to be involved in artistic creation.

“Rosas” dance company presents “Bal Moderne”: The spectator can be dancer.

The characteristics that turn people into active spectators, capable of
recognising, and, at the same time, valuing contemporary performing arts
creations, are knowledge of, and interaction with, the artists. Moreover, on
numerous occasions, it is the creative activity of the spectator or his/her
community, who are in fact the real authors of the artistic work. On the other
hand one must bear in mind that nowadays participation doesn’t necessarily
depend upon geographical distances or adhere to set times, due to networks
and communities becoming more flexible, unusual in form, size and scope.

Cesc Gelabert dance with youngsters in a Barcelona’s high school centre.

It is as important for heads of artistic centres, programmers or institutions, as it is for artists, to consider the presence and growth of the number of spectators as a priority. Unfortunately this is a task often condemned to failure when methods of developing audience numbers have been centred exclusively on classical marketing methods. Opting for a different type of relationship with the spectator, which can also be maintained in other disciplines within the performing arts, opens more new paths for investigation.

“Ruedapies Danza”: Dance and integration.

In order to gain further knowledge into the different areas regarding the “Active Spectator” national and international experts will be invited. Professionals will also be invited who, from their experience, stand out for their in-depth knowledge of the spectator and for having developed activities that bring the spectator closer to the artist. The guests will talk about their proposals in plenary sessions so that afterwards the “spectators” participating in mov-s will have their say in smaller groups.