STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

1.1.2. Alternatives to public funds
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Street Artists in Europe
When public funding are lacking or are not enough, it is necessary to find other means to get
money. European programs such as Culture 2000 are looked at positively. In fact, some of the
organizations contacted got C2000 funds and managed to organize international festivals, invite
companies from different countries, as well as conferences and symposiums focusing on the
problems of street arts.
Again, the main problem linked with this kind of funding seems that of money: i.e. the main part
of the total amount is paid only at the end of the project: therefore, the problem to find money to
pay in advance for the productions still remains, at least in part. Moreover, obviously EU
programs can only be applied to by EU countries.
Two elements are worth mentioning. In first place, contacted operators seem familiar mainly
only with the framework of Culture 2000; secondly they seem to ignore the possibility to apply
to other EU programmes (education, social cohesion), where street art practices could also be
funded. In general, besides cash flows issues, no one has mentioned the efforts and the skills
necessary to successfully apply to EU funds or the (personal) success rate.
Private supporters can be another way to find money. For instance, private foundations, bank
foundations, TVs, newspapers, private enterprises are the typologies more frequently mentioned.
Public institutions, such as cities, municipalities, regions, sometimes support festivals and
projects. Both kinds of supporters often do not provide money, but technical service, such as
lights, vans, cars, or cleaning the streets after the festivals.
Anyway, the operators stress that it is not so easy to get private support, and also that sometimes
they are not prepared to look for this kind of support, due to the specificity of their way of
working.
The Position Paper “Street Arts in Scotland”, by Sreetnet, published in January, 2005, spotlights
a risk linked to the support from the corporate sector for street arts in Scotland: though this
practice “enables practitioners to work without significant support from funding bodies and
provides the sector with an enviable degree of self-sufficiency”, on the other hand “corporate
clients usually request only certain types of performance that represent a small part of an
individual’s/company’s repertoire of skills. Corporate clients are also unwilling to book
experimental work or pieces that are too challenging or content-driven. Thus this kind of work
limits the growth of artists by constantly demanding entertainment-orientated work”.
Networks and co-production often remains the best solution: through networking, festivals and
companies can find money more easily, eventually applying for EU funds; professionals,
festivals and companies can get in touch and build partnerships; costs can be shared among the
members of a network, for example mobility and performance costs – when inviting foreign
companies – or production costs – in case of co-productions.
When looking for alternative ways to finance their activity, street artists and companies often
find it difficult to fill in forms and dealing with bureaucracy matters. Forms provided are
considered “too complicated” and not clear, sometimes requiring the help of other professionals
or being discouraging. “The lack of access to funding is a source of great frustration; either
because of lack of appropriate amounts of dedicated funding, or insufficient information given
about available and appropriate funds. This lack often manifests itself when practitioners make
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