Veneto region proposes continued cuts to culture, and the sector mobilizes

“We have managed to make culture an issue at last, do you understand?” speaking is Filippo Tognazzo, actor and director, among the animators of RES - Rete Spettacolo dal vivo, one of the many realities born in 2020 that today are forcing the institutions of the Veneto Region and the public debate to come to terms with the situation of the regional cultural sector. “Making culture an issue”: this might sound like a platitude to those unfamiliar with the local reality (throughout Italy Culture is more or less marginalized) and yet what is happening in Veneto in recent weeks has very few precedents in recent regional history.

It began on November 9, when in the region’s sixth council committee (which deals with culture and education), at a hearing regarding the 2022 budget in the presence of several representatives of the regional cultural world, linear cuts of about 20 percent were communicated: from 14 million for 2020 to 9 for 2022. This should not have been a particularly problematic communication from those who had decided on the cuts: Veneto does not have a councillor for culture (the delegation of culture is to the councillor for territory and security Cristiano Corazzari), has always been at the bottom in Italy for investment in the sector, with 3.5 euros per person (Tuscany spends 8.66), and has never had much trouble cutting back on a sector that has been accustomed to working with crumbs, or private spending (ticket receipts, which only certain sectors can access). In 2017 alone, the appropriation for the enhancement of cultural heritage and activities was 32.7 million euros, then dropped in 2018 to 29.1 million and in 2019 to 20.6 million, down to 17.1 million in 2020 (forecast figure): the obvious antechamber to further cuts. But something in that committee went wrong, as some of those present recount. The pandemic had led the realities of the sector to organize, on the one hand, and on the other had brought greater awareness of the economic and social role of the sector, but also of the thousands of people who work there. But not only that. Even before the lockdown, in 2019, a regional law for culture had already seen the light of day, which was supposed to come into force in 2022 and which would finally create, as in other regions, standards for obtaining public funding even for entities not participated by the region itself. Cutting, by not investing anything in that law, would have made it ineffective. The funds, taken away from culture, should have been allocated to private television stations. But that was not the case: some of those in the committee, starting with AGIS, the industry union, but also some minority regional councilors, rose up. Councillor Corazzari left the discussion (speaking of a work commitment) and on the day of the cuts all the local newspapers were talking.

In the days that followed, data were flowing in: the Veneto, second to last in Italy for spending on culture, is still cutting. “This is not new at all. It has been happening for years. [...] But cutting resources means making in vain the regulatory reform introduced with Law 17/2019 that AGIS wanted and built together with the Department of Culture. And it took 7 years! But after 7 years, the lack of resources calls everything into question and we are more than concerned; we do not dwell on the figures (which are important anyway) but remember that the comparison with other regions is merciless”: this was how AGIS Triveneto President Franco Oss Noser reacted on November 9. But he was not alone. Regional councilors, performing arts organizations and associations, foundations and museums, but also distinguished personalities such as Andrea Pennacchi, Natalino Balasso or Andrea Segre were speaking out against the Region’s action.

A week later, the cuts were not only withdrawn, but an extra million was added to the 2020 budget. The majority in the regional council celebrated the fact with pride. “As anticipated already in recent days,” Leghist councilors Villanova, Scatto and Sandonà wrote in a note on November 17, “we have restored more than 4 million euros to be allocated to Culture. A due act that once again demonstrates the importance assigned by this administration to our artistic and cultural heritage.” Chairwoman of the Sixth Committee Francesca Scatto, who had also personally spent herself on the goal, said, “We have kept our commitment and we are satisfied with the attention that Councillor (budget ed.) Calzavara has paid by reintroducing the spending chapters and allocating one million for the implementation of the Culture law but also 400 thousand euros for Venetian Identity.” While Councilor Calzavara claimed that “in fact (with the amendment) we start with a budget already equal to the one fired by the previous budget law.” Indeed, without unease even within the majority over these additional cuts to the sector, such an abrupt reversal could not have taken place. But, as activists who have been outspoken in the fight against the cuts note, returning to 2020 levels still means remaining on totally inadequate allocations, and, moreover, what is allocated now is almost entirely devoted to regional participations (Biennale, Arena di Verona, Fenice, Stable Theaters...) with nothing or almost nothing coming to the rest of the sector.

Here begins the least expected part of the story. With the cuts eliminated, the cultural sector has not stopped. As early as Nov. 17, the PD oppositions, with Giacomo Possamai and Vanessa Camani, explained that “the real goal, sanctioned by the Sixth Committee and the Council, is to increase funding, instead, to date, there is the same sad underfunded budget as last year,” while Councilwoman Elena Ostanel, of the civic list Il Veneto che Vogliamo announced that “the mobilization has served but it is not over. In the coming days we will still launch the campaign of artists, workers, unions and operators who want to aim for the final goal: to increase funding.” And so it went. A petition calling for a return to at least the 2017 allocation (30 million) launched a few days ago has surpassed 1,500 signatures, and the promoters are ready to increase media and protest actions. “We are getting the support of artists and well-known faces,” explains Ostanel, who says she is confident of increased attention to the issue. “It would be enough to do as Piedmont does, a region with a leghist traction and similar to Veneto also in terms of inhabitants. There the region allocates 84 million for culture. But I reiterate: the battle over culture is not of the right or the left. It is everyone’s.”

Compared to other regions, Veneto actually has less availability of “free” funds, freed from state allocations, to devote to culture, because it has chosen to keep taxes for high incomes lower (by avoiding the IRPEF surcharge). But this does not prevent a return to the allocations of a few years ago. On Dec. 6, discussion begins on the regional budget, which will be voted on a few days later. And for the first time it will be done in a context in which both the sector and the citizenry are aware that, without a change of pace, there will be 18 Italian regions that will spend more on culture than Veneto, from 346 euros per person in Val d’Aosta to 3.57 euros (slightly more than Veneto) in Lombardy. Despite the fact that, proudly, the region presents itself as the most touristic region in Italy and, according to the regional governor himself, Luca Zaia, culture (already, despite such low investments) represents “5 percent of the regional GDP and 6 percent of employment”: therefore, it is not clear why investing only 0.001 percent of the budget in it.

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