While the president of the regional council announced a drastic cut of up to 73% of the operating budget for culture, a collective of artists and professionals in the sector denounces a decision which would be akin to a social plan for the culture.
We are artists, workers in culture, linked to Pays-de-la-Loire. We are shocked by the recent declarations of the president of the regional council, Ms. Christelle Morançais, and terrified by the budgetary decisions that would be planned for the vote of the regional assembly on December 19, 2024.
There would therefore be a question of a drastic cut of up to 73% of the operating budget for culture, completely interrupting from 2025 the subsidies allocated to festivals, theaters, museums, operas, authors' houses, to art centers, audio-visual productions, artists, but also to sports clubs and associations working for gender equality and solidarity. This is a blow to civil society as a whole. No other region has made such choices on a national scale.
We chose to live in this magnificent region and develop our activities there. It is this territory that we survey every day with our words, our works, our shows, our concerts, our images, our films, traveling through libraries, schools, colleges, high schools, neighborhood centers, community centers. pensions, hospitals, prisons… And it is in these places that we work.
Every day, we see the cultural vitality of this region. We know that it is the fruit of decades of patient work by committed women and men who have worked for cultural decentralization, ensuring that municipalities, departments, regions and the State agree to create institutions open to all, support citizen initiatives, cultural entrepreneurship and bring heritage to life.
A political shift taken without any consultation
This French model, which is based on cross-financing of communities and the State, has produced emancipation, opening up and sharing of knowledge everywhere. It is this model which has generated the cultural diversity and attractiveness of the regions and cities of France that the whole world envies.
All of this is today violently attacked by the Pays-de-la-Loire region, which under cover of the austerity cure imposed on communities by the Barnier government, announces 100 million euros in savings (when we asking for 40 million euros), a good part of which is taken from culture, sport, gender equality and solidarity, arguing that “in many areas, the region no longer has the vocation to intervene, or to intervene as much”.
This political shift, taken without any consultation and overnight, would cause the entire ecosystem to falter by weakening its major balances.
We denounce what appears to be a social plan for culture. This decision would be fatal for the 150,000 jobs concerned, whether permanent or intermittent, and for a whole group of liberal professions and small businesses which revolve around the public culture sector, which highly creates jobs and economic wealth. .
We denounce the incoherence of a regional policy which, through its dangerous choices, distorts its three political priorities: youth, employment and ecological transition.
We denounce a dialectic aimed at creating division within society, to designate the good and bad ways of producing artistic and cultural life, when it is the combination of a public sector of culture in good health with dynamic cultural industries which make up the richness and variety of the French cultural fabric.
We ask, finally, that democratic mechanisms be respected, and that cultural actors and actresses be concerted in making a decision with such serious consequences for all voters, citizens, users. · ligerians.
Among the signatories : Alain Mabanckou Writer, artistic director of the Atlantide festival Alice Zeniter Author, director Anna Mouglalis Actress Christophe Honore Director, screenwriter, writer and director Daniel Pennac Writer Dominique A Singer, author, composer Alexis HK Songwriter, singer Emily Loizeau Singer-songwriter India Hair Actress Jean Rouaud Author, Goncourt Prize 1990 Jeanne Cherhal Singer Jerome Clement President of the Premiers Plans d'Angers festival, former director of the CNC, former president of Arte, Marielle Macé Writer and teacher Henri Texier Jazz double bassist Amala Dianor Choreographer Etienne Davodeau Comic book author Marc Caro Director Vanessa Wagner Pianist Tanguy Viel Writer, screenwriter Xavier Veilhan Visual artist Zaho de Sagazan Author, composer, performer Pierrick Sorin Visual artist Patrick Bouchain Architect Phia Menard Choreographer, visual artist Philippe Decouflé Choreographer Philippe Katerine Singer, songwriter, composer, actor Philippe Torreton Actor, director…
Find the full list of signatories here.
