Association of Curators of Peru

The measure we want to report is the creation of the Association of Curators of Peru, which complies with objective 4 of the Monitoring Framework of the 2005 Convention, "Promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms", specifically in the "Artistic Freedom" area of monitoring. The Association seeks to safeguard the labor rights of its members, as well as to guarantee their freedom of speech, through the recognition and positioning of the curatorial activity as an intellectual work that can constitute a contribution to society. One of the steps taken is the preparation of its own bylaws, which include, as some of its objectives, to contribute to the artistic development of society, to ensure the professional and union interests of its members, as well as to reach institutional agreements and/or alliances at the national and international levels. In order to achieve its objectives, a dissemination work has been undertaken on the scope of curatorial activity, as a task that belongs to the field of cultural workers; the dissemination is carried out before civil society, other actors in the cultural field, as well as private and public institutions. It is expected that the initiative for the creation of this Association and the educational work that is being carried out to make known the importance of curatorship promote the protection of the labor rights of its members, and guarantee the free expression of ideas and artistic creation. Another effect would be to provide better cultural services to citizens. The strategies developed to achieve the objectives of the association consist in, first of all, its formal creation and approval of bylaws, dissemination of the curatorial activity through the creation of a website and profiles on social networks, creation of an institutional video, dissemination in the media and sending letters to various institutions to make known the existence of the association. Likewise, several work commissions have been created: communication, education, institutional relations, labor rights, and ethics and good practices. Through these commissions, the aim is to make known the curatorial work and its importance for society, as well as to ensure good practices. On the other hand, the association seeks coordination with organizations capable of providing cultural services to the population, to discuss the possibility of including the curator as a cultural worker within the corporate scheme. The lack of knowledge on the existence of this activity and its scope is a core problem we have identified, and due to which the rights (labor and intellectual) of curators are not respected. Due to this problem, the institutions do not contemplate in their organizational charts or in their budgets the hiring of a curator, which has negative effects on the cultural services intended to be provided to the public. Some of the problems detected are: a) nobody fulfills this role, and the cultural rights of society are affected; b) personnel lacking the specific preparation for the position are hired or appointed; c) when the need to seek suitable personnel is perceived, the institution does not have the administrative tools needed for their hiring (the position does not exist in the organization chart and there is no assigned budget), in such a way that the curator must be hired under unfavorable conditions, such as external personnel (without labor rights).