At the head of the National Union of Artistic and Cultural Enterprises (Syndeac) in 2019, Nicolas Dubourg, director of Théâtre La Vignette-Université Paul-Valéry, in Montpellier, will preside over his last general meeting of the union on Monday 25 November. He just announced his resignation “to avoid any conflict of interest”while he was a candidate for the management of a cultural venue. The name of his successor will be known on Monday, December 9. The premier employer organization in the subsidized performing arts, this union has over 500 members (venues and companies) representing over 15,000 employees. He is worried about the Ministry of Culture’s budget freeze and recent attacks by politicians against subsidies to the cultural sector.
In 2025 funding billthe culture budget has been kept and should be renewed at the same level as in 2024. Is this finally good news?
A status quo budget means that we will not have the 100 million euro increase that we requested for the cultural public service. Moreover, we risk suffering numerous cuts from regional councils, departmental councils, metropolises, cities, from which the state withdraws 5 billion euros in PLF 2025. However, 70% of cultural funding is from these local authorities. So no, they are not good news.
Under the pretext that the debt has exploded and the deficit is no longer under control, the general budget for 2025 will accelerate the dismantling of public services. It’s all happening as if we’ve let an economic situation get out of control to justify political choices that would have been truly unbearable before.
How would you characterize the current situation of the cultural public service?
We are in an extremely critical situation. If nothing happens, if the budget proposals are not changed, we can expect that, in 2025, artists will cease to work, the permanent staff of public institutions will be made redundant and the number of creations and performances offered to the public will register a drastic decrease. .
In the Pays de la Loire, in response to those who are worried about a decrease in the cultural budget, the regional president, Christelle Morançais, responded to , is it so dependent on public money? Isn’t this evidence that our cultural model urgently needs to reinvent itself? » Could we be at a tipping point in the issue of local authority engagement?
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