The way in which the Flemish government wants to reform the arts sector is met with strong criticism from the SARC, the Strategic Advisory Council for Culture, Youth, Sports and Media (SARC). The advisory council finds it inappropriate that the government wants to implement the reform in times of crisis and also has substantive objections. On the basis of the advice, Green Member of Parliament Elisabeth Meuleman advocates putting the planned reform “on hold”.
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Earlier this year, Flemish Prime Minister and Minister of Culture Jan Jambon (N-VA) already put a Vision Note on the Arts on the table. That memorandum looked ahead to plans for the coming years. These plans are now taking more concrete form in a preliminary draft of the Arts Decree. That decree is the most important instrument at the Flemish level that regulates subsidies and support for professional arts.
But those plans now collide with a very negative advice from the SARC advisory board. For example, the advisory council has major questions about the timing. “The SARC wonders whether it is expedient to develop and implement a new decree in these highly exceptional circumstances for an arts landscape that is in a deep crisis, the effects of which are currently by no means clear,” the advisory reads.
The advisory council also has a package of substantive objections. For example, there are questions about the introduction of the new category of ‘core institutions’. “The definition, selection conditions, the criteria for designating and assessing the core institutions and the interpretation of the management agreement are unclear and show a lack of internal logic,” it reads.
The SARC explicitly asks the government “to give more time for the planned reform of the decree”.
“Don’t shove it down your throat”
Green MP Elisabeth Meuleman, who was able to obtain the advice, calls on the government to take the SARC advice into account and to put the planned reform “on hold”. “Surely the government is not going to push this Arts Decree down the throat of the cultural sector without taking into account the fundamental concerns of its own strategic advisory council and of the field? What else was the sector’s advice asked for? To ignore it? ”
Meuleman finds it inappropriate that the government is now engaged in a fundamental reorganization of the arts sector. “Emergency measures have to be taken today to steer the sector through severe weather. After that, the focus will be on reopening and recovery. The corona crisis is already turning the culture sector upside down. Now is not the time for a fundamental reorganization. ”
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