Article: Minister of Culture: “Summer is the right season to participate in festivals, concerts, movies, and exhibitions in museums that take place in the country”

Summer is characterized by being a date where you can enjoy countless cultural activities, many of them free, so it is an ideal opportunity to bring the population closer to these spaces.

This is precisely the invitation that makes the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Julieta Brodsky, who stressed that the “Summer is culture” program is currently in full swingan initiative that brings together the cultural, artistic and patrimonial activity that the ministry has for all Chileans.

The authority also took advantage of telling us what the challenges are for this year, and the effort that will be put into the task of recovering public spaces for the community.

– “Summer is culture” is an initiative that was presented by your ministry together with the President. Could you tell us what it consists of and what is its importance?

– Summer is Culture an invitation to participate in the great cultural, artistic and heritage programming that the Ministry of Cultures and other institutions have, this summer 2023. The objective is to facilitate citizen access to these activities, which can be found in ChileCultura.gob.clthe best billboard in the country.

Summer is the propitious season to participate in festivals, concerts, movies, exhibitions in museums, which take place throughout the country. When we encourage the participation of people in cultural activities, we also continue to support the reactivation of the sector, recovery of public spaces and the right of all Chileans to participate in cultural life.

– Does the “Summer is Culture” billboard include free activities?

– Yes, on the billboard chilecultura.gob.cl, you can find free activities and also at reasonable prices. Another important aspect is that the platform allows searching with georeferencing, by age, by the different artistic disciplines. In summary, in “Summer is culture” there are activities for all tastes, for all ages, throughout the country.

– Why did the Government decide to give such initiatives such importance?

– As a Government, we are convinced that culture is a right and an essential tool for well-being, with the potential to improve people’s quality of life, recover public spaces, and contribute to the security of our neighborhoods, communities, and territories. We want everyone to have the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired to start the year off right.

– Without a doubt, another January classic is “Teatro a mil” What would you highlight about this event and what’s new this year?

– Teatro a mil has been an ally in the development of the country’s cultural policies for 30 years and has contributed to the development of national and international performing arts, bringing new audiences closer, at a territorial and generational level.

For this reason, the ministry contributes to this festival that is taking place during January, with various activities and panoramas that are also available at chilecultura.gob.cl, such as the Isectes show, the works “This theater is not empty”, the revivals of Cinema theater and The Jungle Book reimagined (dance), to name a few examples. In addition, this institution has made an important effort to decentralize that we want to highlight.

– Continuing with the summer activities, another of the important cultural initiatives led by the ministry is “Summer Museums”…

– Museums in Summer is a day that is also replicated throughout the country, and consists of museums, and other cultural and heritage spaces, opening up to receive the public with free admission, activities and extended hours. That happened yesterday Thursday in more than 180 spaces (record number), public and private, and it is an invitation to visit museums, an opportunity to get to know museums and cultural and heritage spaces.

– What appeal would you make to families that sometimes do not know that these cultural instances exist?

– Precisely for this reason we have made an effort to invite, through the media, our social networks, to encourage families to join this initiative of Museums in Summer and the billboard of ChileCultura.gob.cl. In the summer, during the holidays, there is more time to participate in cultural activities that provoke reflections, emotions, teachings. There is a wide range of panoramas and activities throughout the country, you just have to get excited and schedule.

– I take advantage of asking you, what are the objectives that the ministry has set for this year?

– First of all, we will continue working on the reactivation of the cultural sector because the impact of the pandemic was enormous. At the same time, we will continue to develop the Government program, which in culture considers unprecedented public policies, such as the Decent Cultural Work Agenda; new programs such as Puntos Cultura, Sites of Memory, Cultural Work and creative ecosystems. We are also advancing in the Recovery of public spaces, the Modernization Plan of the Council of National Monuments, the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état and an intense legislative agenda. All of the above is intended to place cultural policies at the center of public policies and in Chile’s sustainable development strategy.

– Your ministry is one of those that will have the largest budget increases of all the portfolios. What will you focus your efforts on this year?

– Indeed, this year the Ministry of Cultures became one of the four ministries that grew the most in the 2023 budget, with a 16% real increase compared to 2022, the largest in 8 years. These resources will focus on advancing the institutionality of the Ministry, in addition to the implementation of what I mentioned above: new programs such as Puntos Cultura, Sitios de Memoria, the Decent Cultural Work Agenda and creative ecosystems; Recovery of public spaces, the Modernization Plan of the National Monuments Council and the decentralization of cultural and heritage infrastructure.

– These have not been good years for cultural workers, how is their work being supported, especially those who were hardest hit by the health crisis?

– Since our arrival we have been very aware of the difficult situation that the cultural field has experienced, which is why the reactivation of this sector has been one of the axes of our management these months. During 2022, along with making capacity more flexible, we implemented different measures to benefit trade union organizations, cooperatives, micro, small, and medium-sized companies with an important role in communities and territories. We worked with the Ministry of Economy, in a $8.300 million program, we developed a Cultural Reactivation Plan that allowed us to carry out more than 200 activities throughout Chile, reaching some 3,000 beneficiaries. In addition, we delivered a $450,000.- bonus to 32,841 workers and cultural workers. This plan will continue in 2023.

– You have stated that the recovery of public spaces, especially those related to culture, is one of your main concerns…

– One of the urgent challenges facing the Chilean State is the recovery of public spaces and the security of neighborhoods and territories throughout Chile. From the Government we understand that cultures, arts and heritage can play a relevant role in this complex task.

That is why we are working on a series of initiatives aimed at recovering public spaces such as the Patios Cultura program, in conjunction with the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security, and the municipalities; Open Parks (with the Municipality of Santiago), Culture Points; the recovery of cultural and heritage buildings; and participation in the inter-ministerial roundtables that are raising initiatives on this subject, among others.

In addition to security, the recovery of public space with cultural activities is related to the greater access of people to culture, which in the Government we understand as a right.