STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
‘Ireland has been involved for a number of years through the funding of festivals through the
Arts Council. More recently in 2006 a specific Circus, Street Art and Spectacle policy has been
adopted by the Arts Council. Street theatre as such is quite thin on the ground in Ireland but the
culture fully embraces street spectacle (parade based work) and this is firmly embedded in the
Irish culture. As festivals are programming more street theatre work there has been a small rise
in the number of Irish street theatre companies but as there is little training available this has
slowed growth’
In some countries, a number of street arts companies receive regular funding to maintain
themselves, as well as for making shows. In the UK and Ireland, these are known as ‘annually
funded’ (there are around 20 companies in total), in France they are ‘conventionnés’ (around 29
companies). There are a small number of funded companies in Belgium, Holland and Spain.
Other countries declared that they both funded artists yet had no budget for street arts. In one of
these cases, they described artists as working indoors as well as out (Finland).
The vast majority of small companies have no grant, they create all their work and tour it in
order to make a living.
‘There are many companies working in street arts that actually don’t require a subsidy in order
to work regularly - they rely on the paid circulation of their shows through a big number of
towns’ (Portuguese Cultural Officer, this opinion not endorsed by companies!)
Many do not live only from their role as street performers; they work in education, in indoor
theatre, in other professions entirely; some own vehicles or buildings that they can rent out in
winter and earn a small income from that.
‘One of the difficulties [in trying to define how many companies are working in the UK] is that
there are a lot of people who do street arts part-time and, by necessity, support themselves some
other way’.
Some artists I spoke to said they did not go for grants as the administration was so arduous that
they would spend more time than was worth it for the money they would get. Another artist
expressed reservations about being ‘conventionné’ as the pressure was immense to have to
produce a new show every year, whether the artistic muse was there strongly or not! In their
opinion, this resulted sometimes in shows having to be presented when not ready.
France has the most enlightened system of artist support, known as the ‘Assédic’, where artists
(of all persuasions, where they have seasonal or irregular work, not just street companies) may
claim a form of stipend at quiet times of the year. This is one of the keys to the astonishingly
productive street arts scene in France, with hundreds of companies producing new, often
extremely high quality work every year. Another key is the extensive network of Creation
centres, designed to enable artists to create work with the maximum of support and the
minimum of practical deterrents – see Part 4 of this paper.
3.2. Grants for New productions
Where money is granted directly to artists (as opposed to the festival structures) the range of
knowledge was also very thin. Estimates varied greatly, from € 5 000 to € 50 000 with
everything in between. Few of the very large companies responded to this question – perhaps
because each show is so different, perhaps because the respondent is not in charge of the budget,
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PE 375.307