What is the future of the arts under Milei?

[sergio]

Milei has cut (or is it eliminated?) the subsidy for INCA (Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales) which keeps small independent filmmakers in business. He has indicated that he will cut the Teatro Colon's subsidy (the Colon is a municipal theatre however the city receives funds from the federal government which go to the Colon). Few, if any, arts institutions in the world can function without subsidies or heavy corporate/private support. The former is the European model; the latter the US model. Will arts institutions be out of business under the new government or will they be able to reduce surplus staff (the case with the Colon) and economise?

 

[Ries]

He has also closed the national foundation of the arts, the institute of theater, and is laying off arts employees. 90% of the staff at the museo de hombre, for example. Thats an ethnographic museum full of delicate historic artifacts. He is proposing to sell historic buildings, like the Victoria Ocampo house, close various national monuments, and close museums.
study after study globally show that every dollar spent on arts and culture have large multiplying effects, every arts job generates another 2 private jobs.

 

[mikic007]

He has also closed the national foundation of the arts, the institute of theater, and is laying off arts employees. 90% of the staff at the museo de hombre, for example. Thats an ethnographic museum full of delicate historic artifacts. He is proposing to sell historic buildings, like the Victoria Ocampo house, close various national monuments, and close museums.
study after study globally show that every dollar spent on arts and culture have large multiplying effects, every arts job generates another 2 private jobs.

I guess it's easier to govern, if you provide zero services to people, and have close to zero expenses. The question is, who needs such government?

Milei is pretending Argentina has it the worst ever, while almost every country in the world experienced similar troubles at some point, and most of them didn't dismantle the country completely... Milei is bringing major headache to Argentina.

 

[sergio]

He has also closed the national foundation of the arts, the institute of theater, and is laying off arts employees. 90% of the staff at the museo de hombre, for example. Thats an ethnographic museum full of delicate historic artifacts. He is proposing to sell historic buildings, like the Victoria Ocampo house, close various national monuments, and close museums.
study after study globally show that every dollar spent on arts and culture have large multiplying effects, every arts job generates another 2 private jobs.

It's true that the Colon has superfluous personnel and could operate more efficiently but the union is strong and resists reform. It's also true that even with greater efficiency the theatre will continue to need subsidies, especially as few corporations will contrubute (are there even tax deductions for corporate contributions to the arts?). Expecting ticket sales to cover costs is unrealistic. Pricing is already high. Some things have existential value. The Teatro Colon greatly enhances the image of the city and nation. Other arts institutions will continue to need support. The wiser approach would be to monitor spending, demand greater efficiency and ACCOUNTABILITY.

 

[Lanick]

Let me tell you guys one thing. Someone is a “filmmaker” if they make films. If they sit around and pretend to be a filmmaker and pocket the taxpayers money without any films or without any artistic merits, then it’s a different story. But, I completely disagree with the museums are not funded. Museums are the connection of a nation to their past and the heritage.

 

[Ries]

The Fondo Nacional is not funded by the regular budget. It has a special right to the proceeds of copyright fees on IP of Argentine artists who have died more than 70 years ago. Obviously, this is a pretty small amount, and it is not given to pretend filmmaker to pocket- it goes in very small grants to Architecture, Crafts, Art and Technology, Audiovisual Arts, Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Design, Letters, Music and Heritage. Things like scholarships, helping fund exhibitions, and collecting crafts, books, and heritage objects.
Its been around since 1958, and it leverages its funding to small projects all over the country, mostly in the provinces, and its seed money generates much more in terms of funding and jobs.
you can find the info first hand, including links to the laws, to the accounting, and to examples of projects, here.

Fondo Nacional de las Artes

Financiamos y promovemos el desarrollo de artistas, gestores y organizaciones culturales sin fines de lucro con una mirada amplia y federal.

www.argentina.gob.ar

It is not Teatro Colon, or the CCK. Its an umbrella organisation, and it has a tiny budget and a tiny staff.
This is the kind of thing that supports exactly the destinations tourists come to Argentina to see- Weavers in Catamarca, traditional dancing, awards (noncash) to significant architectural restoration projects, and much more
If they sell the Ocampo House, it will either become a home for some rich guy, or torn down and some crappy apartment building built there. You cant change your mind and buy it back if Milei doesnt get re-elected- its been a national historic monument for at least 15 years, its been restored, and is used for public functions that benefit everyone, not just the casta.
Again, these are just two examples- Fondo Nacional, and Casa Ocampo- of dozens of similar cuts and sales Milei is proposing. Once these things are dismantled or sold, it would cost much much more to rebuild the agencies or rebuy the properties- institutional knowledge is lost when you fire everybody, and often, we are talking 20 or 30 years of experience in crafts, or literature, or architectural restoration.
When its gone, its gone.

La casa de Victoria Ocampo fue declarada Monumento Histórico Nacional

Ubicada en Barrio Parque (CABA), la casa impuso un concepto arquitectónico innovador para la época. Ahí mismo se fundó, en 1931, la revista literaria "Sur", una de las más influyentes de su época. Desde el 2005, la casa abrió al público como la Casa de la Cultura del Fondo Nacional de las Artes...

www.argentina.gob.ar

 

[DK72]

He has also closed the national foundation of the arts, the institute of theater, and is laying off arts employees. 90% of the staff at the museo de hombre, for example. Thats an ethnographic museum full of delicate historic artifacts. He is proposing to sell historic buildings, like the Victoria Ocampo house, close various national monuments, and close museums.
study after study globally show that every dollar spent on arts and culture have large multiplying effects, every arts job generates another 2 private jobs.

Why not make a huge investment in arts and culture, employ 2 million people, which creates an additional 4 million jobs, and voila, the problem is solved for Argentina.

However, it is really hard to see how the 108 employees the INCAA took on the payroll 5 (!) days after Milei won in the PASO would create anywhere else 216 additional jobs….

I couldn’t find the actual numbers of INCAA employees, but it must be in the thousands.

I get it that “employees” (in order to avoid the Ñ word) are worried. As i also understand expats enjoying arts and culture for free.

But morally, how can you justify these expenses with 50% of the population poor?! (and which couldn’t give a damn about some ethnology museum they surely have never heard of)

 

[Ries]

I dont know anything about INCAA, but it seems pretty obvious that the way you develop a film industry that brings in foreign exchange and provides jobs is to fund students, small films, and other projects that allow young people to gain experience. Nobody gets hired on a Netflix set without any experience, and the way they gather the experience is by actually working on films. I have known a lot of filmmakers in the US, and met a few here- and aside from some friends who were union prop men or costume people, all are freelance, job to job, and hustle like crazy. If they get a $5000 grant, they make a $50,000 film with it.

This article leads me to believe that making films here is probably about a $1 billion dollar industry.
And those jobs are based on the availability of gaffers, electricians, set, costume, and prop people, camera rentals, craft services, and on and on. I work right by Plaza San Martin, and they shoot film there probably 2 or 3 times a month, and usually 50 to 100 people are working.
Here, and in Hollywood, government film commissions help make those jobs exist.
Netflix has been paying for a lot of Argentine film and tv lately- and just like Vancouver BC, its the combination of an industry base, employees, and government assistance that makes that possible.

The Multiplier Effect of the Screen Industries in Latin America - Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico - Industrias Creativas

Latin America has extensive and incomparable competitive advantages. Within just a few kilometres, you can find mountains with snow-capped peaks, deserts, rainforests, beaches, volcanoes and ancient cities, as well as countless stories that reflect our region's cultural diversity. By telling the

blogs.iadb.org

 

[sergio]

I think most or all cultural institutions that receive government money could operate more efficiently if they had to. The solution is not to eliminate them but to make them accountable. Paloma Herrera resigned as director of the Teatro Colon Ballet because she couldn't cope with the chaos of the bureaucracy including absurd union regulations that required the theatre to employ 65 year old dancers (ballet dancers aren't able to dance beyond 40-45 years). This nonsense must change but not by shutting down the whole operation. Here Paloma discusses the problems:

 

[Ries]

I heard from a friend who was on the board of the Fondo Nacional that even the new Milei appointee as head of the Fondo is fighting Milei on his attempts to cut all arts funding.