Pla de Drets Culturals: from paper to action

On July 8, the Ministry of Culture will present the new Plan of Cultural Rights. This is a widely expected announcement. If not, it has only just become evident that there is a need for a change of focus in relation to cultural policies – the pandemic will only prove so. And, frankly, we have rebutted the news with joy: we have recognized by the public administration some ideas that have emerged from the sector. Two central motives emerge from the Pla: on the one hand, the need to adopt a perspective that understood culture as a fundamental goal, not only as a consumer product; Furthermore, the recognition of the transformative potential of culture and of its usefulness to address the issues we face as a society.

Now that we are going to take on the direction of the Fundació Carulla, there are few who in us look at culture as a veritable engine of social change, as an effort to unite society and resolve the issues that surround it. Evidently, not all culture must be transformative, but in the emotions that are stirred up, what cultural fet has the impulse that can drive social effectiveness; and this espurna has to be taken care of.

The Ministry's Cultural Rights Plan offers a new paradigm that the transformative character of culture goes from being a peripheral idea – and conceptually poorly defined – to being placed at the center of the discussion. So, it is crucial that these questions are not left in the sphere of discourse and are applied correctly and concretely. Given the current state of the cultural sector, such a transformation is so necessary and urgent.

The people, at the center of culture

Finally, the commercial approach to culture has concentrated and centralized the resources of the sector and, consequently, the way in which the population interacts with this culture. The bulk of supply is made up of mass-scale productions, the survival of which in the collective imagination does not tend to look much further than consumption. Cultural products are – worth the redundancy – products, not pas xarxes for teixir social and symbolic relations, which is how culture is really understood from an anthropological perspective. Added to all the folds are various barriers of access that believe that this fundamental dret followed, in practice, the privilege of some few.

In this context, cultural equipment and practices cannot avoid certain questions. Expanding the audience is not the only way to measure success; cultural consumption cannot continue sent passiu. To fully guarantee cultural rights, citizens must actively participate, both in the production and in the making of decisions. People must be placed at the center of culture.

The transformative potential of culture only shines if the person is placed at the center of the action.

This is one of the main lessons we have learned: the transformative potential of culture only shines if the person places himself at the center of the action. Blurring the borders between producers and consumers opens up a rich creation space, in which the particularities of each country and the territory are fully integrated into the experience. Sens dubte, this approach affects the dynamics of a large part of the sector. But it is precisely here that we can rethink culture – and the futures – that we want. In the news also ask hi trobem new ways to explain-to us.

From play to action: a strategic path

The Pla de Drets Culturals is great news, but it is only a first pass. In Catalonia there are some months that we also work to advance in this matter. With an avant-project of the law of cultural rights and with a table of horizontal dialogue, we are moving to consider that it is one of the pillars for maintaining democratic health. So, I insist, we ensure that these ideas receive the necessary support, both at the public and private level, because it is important to develop them correctly.

The new law must be equipped with an adequate budget and a good deployment plan in coordination with the third cultural sector. In order to have a strategic framework at the state level, we have the responsibility of creating the structures that sustain these impulses at the time. The nou Pla cannot remain paper mullat. Because we all work together because, in short, culture does not just follow for everyone, but FROM everyone.