STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
Public intervention is still local and isolated. Most public funding comes from the towns – for
example Tampere 243 , which hosts local festivals that include street performances in their
programming – although the Ministry of Education can intervene at national level, as can the
Arts Council of Pirkanmaa at regional level. There are also promotional aids and aid for tours
abroad in order to promote Finnish culture in the world, as well as specific grants for art
information centres.
3.2.5. Hungary
After the political upheavals in 1989/1990, Hungarian cultural policy was defined around two
poles: maintaining national traditions, and increasing liberalisation on the model of western
European countries. The Hungarian cultural landscape has the following features:
• institutional theatre on a large scale but undergoing a financial crisis; independent theatre
that receives much less funding and is developing to the best of its ability on the margins
of the official promotional agencies and where possible turning to audiences abroad;
• ‘a (fairly) healthy’ musical sector, which has always been an unquestioned political
priority; it is also worth noting the revival of traditional music, strongly supported by the
public authorities;
• lastly, festivals play a very important role in making the artistic scene more dynamic 244 .
Public intervention for live performance is organised under the Ministry of Cultural Heritage
(NKÖM), which mainly supports the major theatrical and musical institutions, and the National
Fund for Culture (NKA), which funds national works, commemorations and festivals, the
presence of Hungarian artists at international exhibitions and innovative art forms 245 . It is also
worth noting the role of the Hungarian secretariat of the Soros Foundation, which organised a
programme (2002-2003) of support for contemporary art and theatre networks. That foundation
seems now to have withdrawn its support for Hungarian artistic life. Private partnership schemes
are poorly developed in Hungary.
That is the context against which respondents to the survey point out that official support for
street arts is very limited. The Hungarian Government provides no funding for street arts.
Certain organisations may do so; but they are generally private, such as the ‘cultural houses’
(themselves supported by local authorities). The municipalities can also support this kind of
project. Those replies confirm Robert Lacombe’s findings: ‘Hungarian cultural policy in support
of live performances has a very cautious policy of aid for contemporary creation or new forms
of theatrical expression (what is called alternative theatre and, a fortiori, circus and street arts),
which, incidentally, have not been supported by any of the governments that have held office
since the transition to democracy.’
243 The cultural department of the city of Tampere states that its EUR 80 000 a year allow it to support companies
and shows which include street arts performances. The average amount of such support ranges from EUR 2 000
to EUR 15 000. The city subsidies three or four street arts productions in this way.
244 For a historical and political overview see Lacombe, Robert, Le spectacle vivant en Europe: modèle
d’organisation et politiques de soutien, op. cit. p. 355-378.
245 Ibid., p. 368.
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