SICSUR distributed in 2010 a survey on institutional models for culture in its ten member countries. It asked about the type or national body in charge of cultural policy, its hierarchical rank within its governmental structure and its main cultural policy objectives. In November 2010 a preliminary analysis of this survey was carried out and the final results will be published in November 2011. The preliminary analysis points out that five countries have a Ministry of Culture (Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru), two have a National Secretariat (Argentina and Paraguay), there is one National Direction (Uruguay) and one Council (Chile) it being the only one in which the regions and the sectors are represented.
The existence of ministries in the region is relevant, if you take into account that this is a recent process in most of the countries. Indeed, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru have changed their cultural model during the last ten years and brought it to the level of a Ministry. Paraguay modified its structure and separated culture from the Ministry of Education by creating the State Secretariat for Culture. In South America a new trend towards taking cultural policy within national states to a higher-level is evident. If you take a look at their cultural policy objectives you can find some similarities and some differences.
The only topic in common is heritage promotion and research. This can be explained as a result of the fact that heritage is part of the central core of South American countries’ objectives and practices on protection and preservation of the region, where identities are based mainly on the debate on the past, focussing on: indigenous, colonial and independence. In this sense, the concept of culture used by most public cultural institutions in Latin America is linked to the traditional notions of fine arts and heritage. In terms of their importance follow other notions like cultural rights and equal access to culture. These have been incorporated during the last twenty years. The promotion and development of cultural expression also appear, with the exception of Bolivia.
It is interesting to see that the promotion of cultural diversity is considered an objective in five out of the nine responding countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru. Identity is set as an objective by five countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay. Other topics taken into account that are related to the public administration of culture are territorial decentralization (Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay), coordination of related cultural institutions (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Paraguay), the relationship between the private and public sectors (Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay) and knowledge management (Brazil, Chile and Peru).
In conclusion, public cultural institutions in South America, aside from the political signs of each country, have experienced growth in their public policy. The cultural policy objectives are clearly linked to traditional notions of culture –fine arts and heritage–, and new trends like cultural rights, identity and the promotion of cultural diversity are appearing.