STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
CHAPTER 3: INTELLECTUAL AND INSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITION
3.1. Background
Despite the growing enthusiasm of the publics, the recognition of street arts is far from being
obvious. Consequently, it constitutes, for most of this sector’s cultural structures, a major
challenge. Municipalities or structures had some difficulty in answering the questionnaires
because generally the public authorities do not have specialists who can be consultants on these
intellectual and political questions in their institutions. Furthermore, in order to evaluate this
recognition, it would be necessary to model the different cultural policies in the various
European countries. Moreover, it appears that public policies vary according to the relationship
that each European State has with culture 33 .
To use the typology defined by French researcher Robert Lacombe, three groups of countries
emerge according to their institutional organisation and the division of jurisdictions that they use
concerning culture:
1. ‘The states of the federal or very decentralised type’ such as Belgium, Spain and Germany
that turn over cultural jurisdiction to linguistic communities, regions or the Länder;
2. ‘The states where cultural jurisdictions are delegated to “Arts Councils”’ i.e. the United
Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. They implement, with
variations, what is called the arm’s length principle, or remote administration; the Arts Council
is then relatively independent of the government;
3. Lastly, ‘the model of the centralised cultural State, with the predominance of the Ministry of
Culture’, notably embodied by France and Portugal.
3.2. Framework
In France and Belgium, the governments support street arts, not only in financial terms but also
by supporting inspiration and creativity (even if these supports are nothing compared to dance,
opera, theatre). This happens because of a precise mindset that considers street arts as true forms
of art and culture, not as entertainment, and this attitude has a major impact on the number of
production centres, companies and festivals held in those countries.
An approach may nonetheless be presented according to a grouping of countries based on the
following distinction:
• The states that have politically recognised street arts. They have defined a policy
orientation and have established dedicated funding systems and support professional
training: France, Belgium, Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom, Poland, Catalonia
(Spain), Piedmont (Italy) and Nordrhein-Westfalen (Germany) are developing their
policy and intervention in favour of street arts, and are included in this category.
• The states that have not yet politically and artistically recognised street arts, but are
experiencing an artistic dynamism in the field in this sector: Portugal and Italy, where
street arts are increasingly present, as well as Nordic and Baltic countries, where streets
33 Floch, Y. (coord.), Public Policies in Favour of Street Arts and Circus Arts in Europe – Preliminary Study,
CRCMD-Université de Bourgogne, Paris, HorsLesMurs, 2006.
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PE 375.307