Open Letter to the Deputy Ministry of Culture
https://www.neme.org/blog/open-letter-to-the-deputy-ministry
To
Dr Ioanna Hadjicosti
Director of the Department of Contemporary Culture
Deputy Ministry of Culture
CC
Honorable Deputy Minister Dr. Vasiliki Kassianidou
Mrs Emanuela Lambrianides
Dr Louli Michaelides
Dr Elena Christodoulidou
Mr Petros Dymiotis
Mr Yiannos Ioannou
Co-signing organisations
October 18, 2024
Dear Dr Hadjicosti,
Following our meeting on October 14, where we discussed the grant program for the visual arts, we would like to express our disappointment in writing. While the focus of our meeting was on “Culture Program II, the work we have already completed, areas needing improvement, and a discussion about the changes your ministry intended to publish, which we believe are very problematic,” the new program was announced just two hours before our meeting, through a unilateral and authoritarian decision on your part, and unfortunately without consultation with the affected parties, at least those in the visual arts sector, while you mentioned that there were in-person consultations with other sectors.
This is a serious issue, which we can only interpret as a lack of desire to cultivate inclusive practices within the cultural policy framework of your ministry, and that you announced the plan for us, without us.
Present at the meeting were Dr. Ioanna Hadjicosti, Dr. Elena Christodoulidou, Dr. Louli Michailidou (for the Deputy Ministry), and Yiannis Colakides, Argyro Toumazou, Efklides Papadopoulos, and Christina Skarpari (for the working group of the Visual and Design Arts sector).
Although we have not yet had the opportunity to study the program posted on your website in detail, we wish to express our opposition to the adoption of a single funding category at 80%. The rationale for our disagreement regarding the single scoring system is shared by all the undersigned organisations:
- NGOs will overlook the completeness and relevance of their proposals, as they will feel confident that they will receive 80%. This will have a negative impact on NGOs that will have no room for improvement.
- The change will level all efforts and the art world, as they will be moulded into one category and will not provide motivation for their evolution and desire for excellence.
- As you may already know, the issue of 80% was discussed with Dr. Toumazis when he was Deputy Minister, and although it is used in the EU, it results in the acceptance of only a few proposals, as most are rejected even with a score of 94%. It also became evident this year in the published results, as well as in the statistics you shared with us, that up to 20% of applications with scores of 70-84% have been excluded from grants, and we anticipate that the new plan will exclude even more proposals.
- NGOs with lower scores will be eliminated as funds will be exhausted.
- There will be no opportunities for newly established organisations, usually consisting of young individuals, to compete with more experienced ones.
- The 80% will adversely affect high-ranking NGOs because, for large projects, they will need to find even greater co-funding from €1,164, which was previously, to €3,810. You noted that under the previous method, the maximum required co-funding from organisations was €2,884. Therefore, organisations with more ambitious projects and budgets over €15,000 will be further financially burdened.
- This approach will introduce the risk for some NGOs to submit proposals for larger projects beyond their experience in effectively managing larger budgets.
Beyond the above, your reasoning that with the single scoring method organisations will know in advance the funding they will receive does not align with our views, as evaluators have the discretion to change specific amounts on applications when they are deemed high, and it also does not assist in fair, objective, and impartial scoring per application.
As you may know, and as we wrote in our joint letter to the Minister of Education and Culture on October 15, 2021, there is a significant problem with supplementary funding in the visual arts, as non-profit organisations have no other income, sponsors, or ticket sales, resulting in “the remaining amounts being ‘donated’ by cultural professionals, who find themselves in a ‘unique’ position in the EU, where we must pay for the ‘privilege’ of working in culture.”
Unfortunately, for years, the problematic structure of your ministry’s cultural grant programs forces individuals producing culture on behalf of non-profit cultural entities in the Visual Arts to not only work for free but also to contribute their meagre resources to complete the requirements set by your ministry for the accounting of activities approved through your programs.
Following our discussion with you, we agree to add a pilot regulation for the visual arts sector that will take effect from 2025, allowing for the coverage of final expenses and the presentation of relevant documentation exclusively for the final amount approved as your grant, taking into account the many hours of work by organisers, curators, artists, and other professionals involved and contributing to the projects, as well as in-kind services that are not accounted for in the designs/outputs of budgets. This point has been part of our proposals from the beginning.
If this fails, our proposal is to reinstate the Culture Program II, as it states that its duration is from 2021-2025, so that we can continue consultations with your department’s officials for improvements in 2026, as we are very close to finding mutually acceptable regulations. We note that if we do not receive an immediate response and action on the issues we raise, we will be forced to issue a public statement.
Additionally, we propose that the application deadline for the visual arts for 2025 be extended to December 30, 2024, because:
- There is not enough time to study the plan.
- Most visual arts organisations are currently working on producing events funded by your ministry, which must take place in the next 2-3 months due to the delay in publishing the results for 2024, which were received only in July-August.
We request to commence discussions on the new points you mentioned for their inclusion in the 2026 plan:
- Synergies with bonuses, as is done in theatre.
- Tax incentives and exemptions for donations from the private sector to culture.
as well as for other issues that may arise or that have not been included in the existing guide.
With these considerations, we kindly ask you to reconsider your approach and remain at your disposal for further discussions as soon as possible.
Co-signed by
- Art Seen Projects
- Arts Celadon
- Άρτιον Πολιτιστικός Όµιλος Λάρνακας
- BPRarts/Actus anima
- Catherine
- CYENS
- D6 Culture EU
- ENAZ
- Ε.ΚΑ.ΤΕ. (Επιµελητήριο Καλών Τεχνών Κύπρου)
- Ένωση Γραφιστών και Εικονογράφων Κύπρου
- exArtis
- Φωτοδός
- Graphic Stories Cyprus
- International Association of Photography and Theory (IAPT)
- Interstellar
- Ίδρυµα Κουρούση
- Ίδρυµα Κώστα & Ρίτας Σεβέρη – Κέντρων Εικαστικών Τεχνών και Έρευνας
- Ίδρυµα Πιερίδη
- ΙΔΡΥΜΑ ΤΗΛΕΜΑΧΟΣ ΚΑΝΘΟΣ
- KAT’OIKON Πολιτιστικό Ίδρυµα
- Kimonos
- Korai
- Κυπριακό Κέντρο Σκηνογράφων, Αρχιτεκτόνων & Τεχνικων Θεάτρου
- ΚΥΠΡΙΟΙ ΧΑΡΑΚΤΕΣ (Κ.Χ.)
- ΜΑΜΑ Contemporary
- ΜΕΜ The Arts Biennale at Larnaca
- MeMeraki Artist Residency
- NeMe
- Νεόφυτος: Οργάνωση Πολιτισμού
- Oasis Space for Visual Experimentation
- Phaneromenis70
- Point Centre for Contemporary Art
- Pylon
- Παγκύπριος Σύνδεσµος Αγγειοπλαστών Κεραµιστών Κύπρου
- Πολιτιστικό Ίδρυµα Λευτέρη Οικονόµου
- SENCY INSTITUTION
- Sic. Contemporary Culture
- Sotto Voce (Contemporary Arts) Ltd
- Σύνδεσµος Εικαστικών Καλλιτεχνών και θεωρητικών Τέχνης – φυτωριο
- Σχολή-Μουσείον Χαρακτικής Χαµπή
- ΣΩΜΑΤΕΙΟ ΙΔΑΛΙΟΥ ΜΙΧΑΗΛ ΟΛΥΜΠΙΟΣ
- The Cyprus Creative Club
- Thkio Palies – P.S. ARTIST LED PROJECTS
- Urban Gorillas
- Ξαρκής
- Υπόγεια Σκηνή / +εργειο
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