In his article “La misión que nos deja Morricone” (The Mission bequeathed by Morricone), Arturo Navarro Ceardi, Director of Centro Cultural Mapocho, Santiago de Chile, argues for the need to include private funding in the Ley de Donaciones (Donation Law) that outlines the tax deductions for which a private company can apply when it supports a cultural or artistic event. Jorge Orlando Melo, former Director of Luis Ángel Arango Library, funded by the Republic’s Bank, replies to Navarro with an alternative solution from his experience in the Colombian context, in an article entitled ‘Gratuidad cultural en Colombia’ (Cultural guarantees in Colombia).
The Chilean Donations’ Law, created in 1990, exempts a private organisation of 50% of its taxes when it finances a cultural event, if the tickets are free of charge. This mechanism, however, does not distinguish between those who attend due to their personal cultural expectations from those who are just taking advantage of free entrance. Even though Navarro acknowledges the importance of this private investment for the creation of audiences, he considers it necessary to start regarding these audiences, created as a result of public cultural policies, also as a financier of cultural events. Following this line of argument, he comes to the following conclusion:
‘The Law, in light of this recent experience, should start taking the public as a direct supporter, and still have some tickets free of charge for those who cannot afford the cost and who are willing to pick them up at a recognized cultural organisation. Thus, these tax incentives will help create new audiences who, later on, will continue filling auditoria and increase consumption in the cultural market, not only the supermarkets.
La Segunda, an important Chilean newspaper, considered this debate of importance, by expressing the need to discuss possible changes to the current legislation.
In response to the debate raised by Navarro and from the Colombian experience, Jorge Orlando Melo, proposes this solution:
‘My proposal, which does not solve all the issues at stake, is that public subsidies to exhibitions and concerts should become real tickets that could be distributed within the education system or sold to certain sectors of the population: students, people that receive social subsidies, retirees, etc. Thus, the buyers would be the ones subsidising cultural events, and, as a result, this would benefit mainly children and young people and also the poor. The reason why these groups should be the main beneficiaries is that, in this way, public resources would be used to create audiences that later on would be willing to pay to attend cultural events, working on the belief that cultural consumption requires habit and education’.
To read the rest of the articles, in Spanish, you can visit www.arturo-navarro.blogspot.com