Política Nacional de Cultura Viva [“Cultura Viva” National Policy]
The Ministry of Culture defined social inclusion through culture as a strategic priority for the 2013/2014 biennial. With that, it became essential to consolidate and expand the “Cultura Viva” Program, created in 2004, and characterized as an integrated fostering policy, with the participation of partner federal organs as well as state, district and municipal governments and civil society. This was achieved by means of Law no. 13018 of 22 July 2014, which represented the transformation of the “Cultura Viva” Program of the Ministry of Culture into a State Policy – the “Cultura Viva” National Policy.
Cradled on the democratic mechanisms of dialogue and participation, the Policy of “Cultura Viva” has the following goals: i) to guarantee the full exercise of cultural rights by Brazilian citizens, providing them the necessary means and resources to produce, record, manage and broadcast cultural initiatives; ii) to stimulate social leadership in the elaboration and management of public culture policies; iii) to promote a shared and participatory public management cradled in the democratic mechanisms of dialogue with civil society; iv) to consolidate the principles of social participation in cultural policies; v) to guarantee the respect to culture as a civic right and a right to cultural diversity as a symbolic expression and as economic activity; vi) to foster existing cultural initiatives by means of the devices available to the Union, the States, the Federal District and the Municipalities; vii) to promote access to means of enjoyment, production and broadcasting of culture; viii) to boost cultural initiatives, with a view to the construction of new values of cooperation and solidarity, and to expand education tools with education; ix) to foster the exploration, use and appropriation of the artistic codes and languages as well as public and private spaces made available for cultural action.
The instruments are: i) the Pontos de Cultura [Culture Points]: groups, collectives and private law businesses that are non-profits, which conduct cultural activities with local communities; ii) the Pontões de Cultura [Big Culture Points]: entities that articulate and train a certain number of Culture Points through exchange, fostering of cultural-artistic action, management training, digital culture, among others; iii) the National Register of Culture Points and Big Points – mechanism of insertion, certification, monitoring and assessment of the entities that are involved in this Policy. It is one of the Ministry's policies with greater capillarity and visibility in the national territory. There are Culture Points in all of the 26 Brazilian states and in the Federal District, as well as in over one thousand municipalities (19% of the total). Moreover, the policy has international repercussion, as it inspired the creation of similar policies in several countries in Latin America, such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru, among others. It also inspired the creation of the international cooperation program IBERCultura Viva, within the scope of the Iberian-American General Secretariat.
* “Cultura Viva” policy has acquired legal character with the edition of Law nº 13018/2014, by which it is instituted. It is supported by public funds from the federative entities – the Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities, and it is organized transparently, via public selection call notices.
* This policy was conceived to expand the access of the Brazilian population to means of cultural production, circulation and enjoyment, with a focus on diversity and civic impact. Both Points and Big Points organize bodies of civil society that function as beacons of culture, incorporating, even, an anthropological approach to the field, going beyond traditional cultural output, with an emphasis on transversality and shared management between the public authority and the community.
Before the edition of the “Cultura Viva” National Policy, it became evident that the Brazilian State lacked proper mechanisms to effectively fund and propel policies focused on the diversity of cultural expressions and their preservation aimed at the sustainable development of the country. It was, therefore, urgent and necessary to furnish the “Cultura Viva” program with well-designer legal instruments capable of guiding the consolidation of strategic goals founded on the exercise of cultural civic virtues.
* Considering the period between 2012 and 2015, the total amount of allocated resources in the implementation of the program that became the “Cultura Viva” Policy reached 71,385,029.05 USD.
Considering the period between 2012 and 2015, the total amount of allocated resources in the implementation of the program that became the “Cultura Viva” Policy reached 71,385,029.05 USD.
Several studies have been conducted since the very moment of the creation of the “Cultura Viva” Program in 2004, including: i) Research in partnership with the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA), in 2010, entitled Avaliação do Programa Arte, Educação e Cidadania [Assessment of the Art, Education and Civic Rights Program], based in a sample group of 526 Culture Points; ii) Research in partnership with IPEA, in 2011, entitled Cultura Viva: As Práticas de Pontos e Pontões [“Cultura Viva”: The Practices at Points and Big Points]; iii) Research in partnership with IPEA, in 2011, entitled Olhares sobre o Programa Cultura Viva [Views about the “Cultura Viva” Program]; iv) Other studies, academic researches and dissertations about the subject are listed in Additional Annex III.
One of the studies conducted was the research project entitled "Cultura Viva Program: social impact and transformations", by the Observatory of Cultural Public Policies of the University of Brasília, which reached the following conclusions: in many cases, the activities offered by the Culture Points are the only cultural options within a radius of many municipalities; the actions perpetrated by the Culture Points go beyond offering courses to meet a local demand, because many of them act directly upon the rescuing of lost, denied or hidden values and identities. With a few exceptions, the courses involve non-hegemonic cultural practices that cannot traditionally be found in official art schools, such as hip hop, capoeira, circus and Afro-Brazilian fashion, among others. This offering of diverse courses in the cultural field expands the possibilities of professional placement of people that had never thought about them before and end up effectively working in the area; even when the Culture Points are dedicated to audiovisual and film courses, their productions always appreciate local cultural output (peripheral in terms of neighborhoods or cities); the non-interference of the State in the choices of which actions can or should be conducted at