Performing Arts P 29 4.5

_CRISIS _UNCERTAINTIES _SYNERGIES THE STATE OF CULTURE AND THE ARTS 01_2013 National Council for Culture and Arts _CONTENTS 01. Culture/strategic axis p 3 1.1. Plurality/cohesion p 5 1.2. Territories/interconnection p 6 1.3. Catalonia/cluster p 7 02. Economy/culture p 9 2.1. Sustainable model/creativity p 9 2.2. Patronage/sponsorship p 12 03. The digital paradigm: a culture reset p 13 3.1. Challenges p 15 04. The situation in the sectors p 16 4.1. Book p 17 4.2. Cinema and audiovisual p 21 4.3. Music p 26 4.4. Performing arts p 29 4.5. Visual arts p 33 4.6. Popular culture p 37 4.7. Heritage p 40 05. Some priorities of the cultural system p 43 5.1. Artistic education p 43 5.2. Institutions: from efficiency to need p 46 5.3. The social value of culture p 47 06. Redefining the model p 49 6.1. Economic model p 50 6.2. From receivers to leaders p 52 6.3. Internationalisation p 54 6.4. Excellence and merit p 55 07. CoNCA’s commitments p 57 Annex: diagnosis p 60 2 01 _CULTURE _strategic AXIS The notion of culture is crucial to understanding its The classic notions view culture as a set of knowledge creator and bearer, man, to the extent that it is often - also in a very broad sense, which includes the arts - said that the human animal’s most distinctive feature is which humanity learns and teaches. It is a notion that that it is a cultural animal. And it is precisely the pivotal underlines phenomena such as science, literature, importance of this notion that makes the term culture thought, etc., and generates terms as such input, enrich- so versatile, so all-encompassing and so diffuse, permit- ment and communication. The classic notion of culture ting many different and divergent definitions. is more restrictive than the anthropological one, and perhaps more substantial, because it points straight to the Most definitions can be grouped into two main blocks, heart of the imagination and creative thinking. Accor- anthropological matrix and those that follow the classic ding to the anthropological vision of the phenomenon, model. The former, when they talk about culture, refer both the Stock Exchange and the University of Barcelona very broadly to the set of ideas, habits and skills a given would be cultural objects; for the classic view, it would society has at a given time. Everything that allows a be only the University, and it would distinguish between group of people to tackle the environment and create its the latter’s different functions: teaching, publishing, re- own more or less autonomous world within this framework search, etc. (and indeed transform the framework) is its culture. It is an utterly all-encompassing notion. Everything that is The classic notion of culture is very dynamic and tends to not genetic is culture. But it also permits endless speci- be hierarchical. You can have more or less culture, it fications, as many as the definitions of human groups can increase, it can deteriorate. It is also universal. that we can think up. Everyone, be it a person or society, participates in a de- 01. Culture / Strategic axis 3 termined, and perhaps specifiable, way in culture; but, that we have got our priorities seriously wrong. The fact strictly speaking, they do not have a specific culture, that the managers of society - and a large part of society because at least ideally the body of knowledge that hu- itself - may regard something which is decisive as su- manity has come to acquire is compatible for everyone. perfluous and dispensable, is a telling symptom of the state of confusion surrounding the socially prevailing Every society, in every era, educates its members in a notions of what culture actually is. And the consequen- more or less given way and instils certain knowledge ces are by necessity catastrophic. If academic educa- and customs, and not others, or not as much, in them. tion, artistic creation, scientific research and debating It has a particular cultural heritage because of and to ideas are all regarded as superfluous, then it is not diffi- the extent to which it collectivises it. Social groups are cult to conclude that a very sombre future awaits us all. characterised precisely by the cultural habits shared by their members. Thus, the classic view eventually agrees Turning culture into a strategic axis is essential for - with certain nuances - with the classic one. This is the sector’s survival, but it is above all a pressing re- why, when all is said and done, it is not paradoxical that quirement if we want Catalonia to be recognised for within culture, understood as the body of knowledge its linguistic and cultural uniqueness. The collective that humanity has, there can also be as many forms vocation, linked to aspirations pursuing the recogni- that could be approximately delimited as social sub- tion of Catalonia as a nation, must be reflected in the sets that we can distinguish within the human group. Government’s priorities and therefore also in the finan- We can distinguish between a universal notion, culture, cial support to strategies developed. and specific embodiments, parts.Regardless of whether we call it culture in Catalonia or Catalan culture, we can The cultural sector is now a growing worldwide indus- approach it from both the anthropological and the classic try. Markets are increasingly more global, and despi- point of view. Both of them remind us that culture is te the challenge of the digitisation process, content crucial. It is the main determining factor in any idea creation is an activity of the future and the opening that we may have of human beings, their history and up of markets is an opportunity in itself. The global their future. framework is where Catalan cultural enterprises can bring their growth opportunities to fruition and achie- In modern society, there seems to be an impression that ve their sustainability threshold. culture, or at least high culture, which would be the quintessence - is conceived, as a luxury, and therefore, The cultural sector must be able to harness all the in- and ultimately, as a superfluous and perhaps dispen- direct wealth generated by the sector, which is by no sable ornament in times of austerity. And in periods means small. Areas such as heritage, for example, clo- of economic crisis, cultural budgets are the first to be sely linked to tourism, should be capable of generating slashed by all the governments affected. Perhaps most business projects, of making culture an economic en- people will find it understandable that spending on hos- gine that taps into the wealth generated around it. The pitals should take precedence over the funding of the structural consolidation of the sector therefore requires Liceu - we can survive without music, but health is no a clear commitment to a model of economic and social laughing matter -, but when the cutbacks affect medi- progress that places culture at the core of its strategy. cal research, student scholarships - for medicine and the rest - and, so to speak, the very cores that generate and transmit knowledge that could improve and perhaps even save our lives, or also, and why not, extricate us from the crisis that now overwhelms us, then we have the conviction that we are making a big mistake, 01. Culture / Strategic axis 4 in a highly effective and similar fashion for millions of years. They never change. Human societies are not like 1. 1. that. And if this is so, then it is thanks to culture, always dynamic and always contentious. This is a good reason to _Plurality bear culture very closely and continually in mind. _Cohesion The population of Catalonia has grown by 1.3 million over the last twelve years. Most of this growth - more specifically 88% - came from immigration: 30% from In Catalonia, the constellation of organisations that pro- European Union countries, 27% from Africa, 26% from mote the generation, declaration, discussion and trans- South America, 11% from Asia and 5% from America. mission of knowledge, ideas and imaginative insights in Despite the economic crisis, which has led this trend the various areas of a complex society is small, and has to become stagnated, the population of Catalonia is now obvious constraints, and the current circumstances, at least for the moment, would not ap- Catalonia is a small country, representing 1.5% of the population of the European Union, and its territory covers pear to be conducive to any less than 1% of Europe as a whole. kind of expansion. However, a rethinking of the decisive im- The European Union consists of 27 countries, with 23 official languagesand 150 live linguistic communities. portance of culture, not only as a form of social cohesion or a Catalonia is not essentially different, and the problems it faces are similar to those of the European Union as a pole of identity recognition, - whole, particularly the European countries with a minority language and culture. which it evidently is - but also, and above all, as an absolutely essential instrument for change and social progress, and ultimately as a major factor comprised of 16% foreign-born inhabitants, with up to that humanises man - the only creature whose awareness 180 different languages spoken, including Arabic, Ro- drives it towards perpetual transformation, i.e. it never lets manian, French and Galician. We can therefore say that up, will help us to undo dangerously suicidal confusions contemporary and cosmopolitan diversity is the main and establish more sensible priorities.

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