Brazilian culture experts advocate ‘Cultural Incentive Laws’ in Africa to foster arts, economic growth

LAST October at Pa Gya, a literary festival in Accra, Ghana, hosted by the Writers Project of Ghana and Goethe Institut Ghana, travel writer Pelu Awofeso met Gustavo Brito (aka Gustavo Black), one of the festival’s guests, a poet, dramatist, lecturer, translator and Organizer of Cultural Incentive Laws – Brazil-Africa Connection. And at one or two of the festival’s sessions he spoke about how the creative arts community in Brazil has engaged with government and public officials to ensure that practitioners are supported through enabling policies and financial allocations. This became a plank for a series of virtual sessions called ‘Trans-Atlantic Dialogues: Cultural Incentive Laws for Artistic Empowerment,’ with the first one held on Saturday, December 14, 2024.

According to the organisers, “This online seminar aims to address the absence of cultural incentive laws in many African countries. Inspired by the vibrant artistic community in Africa, the event seeks to foster dialogue and collaboration between Brazil and African nations, strengthening ties and sharing successful initiatives in arts and culture. Featuring two Brazilian specialists, the seminar will explore the structure, implementation, and impact of Brazil’s cultural incentive laws, offering insights into their adaptability. This initiative represents a collective effort to inspire sustainable cultural policies that empower artistic communities across borders.”

According to the two Brazilian cultural experts – Gustavo Brito and the historian Iury Ercolani – cultural incentive laws play pivotal roles in fostering the arts to drive the economic growth and wellbeing of artists of various shades in society, as demonstrated by Brazil’s successful model. The two Brazilians shared insights into Brazil’s culture incentive laws with the hope of inspiring similar initiatives among African countries. Their discussions highlighted how Brazil’s laws, which offer both direct and indirect funding to artists and cultural projects, not only support creativity but also generate significant economic benefits by creating jobs and stimulating local businesses. They affirm that with these laws in place, many Brazilian creatives do not have to have side jobs besides devoting themselves fulltime artistic endeavours.

With the growing recognition of art’s economic value, the two emphasized the importance of adapting these Brazilian culture incentive law systems to local contexts and cultures, and the need for collaboration between artists, businesses, and governments to cultivate thriving cultural industries.

Speaking on the reasons for holding the seminar, Brito said, “This conversation is about developing connections and talking about the systems that we have already implemented in Brazil. Our systems are not perfect. They have many problems, and perhaps sharing our experiences with you may offer insight in developing the same area. It was an idea that happened while I was in Accra, Ghana, and in the opening of the event, I heard all these writers, poets and artists talking about their production, and it touched me because they talked about the production of art as something that you do because of your love that you have for art, the internal need and ontological need to produce art, but none of them talked about how they get the money to do art.”

Obviously worried about this negative trend towards culture production in Africa, Brito said he was motivated to set up the seminar series from hearing firsthand from African creatives in Ghana that mere passion and love for art was their driving force, as he didn’t hear how their productions get funded, an anomaly that he thought shouldn’t be.

“This conversation is about developing connections and talking about the systems that we have already implemented in Brazil,” he said. “Our systems are not perfect. They have many problems, and perhaps sharing our experience with you may offer insight in developing the same area. It was an idea that happened while I was in Accra, Ghana, and in the opening of the event, I heard all these writers, poets and artists talking about their production, and it touched me because they talked about the production of art as something that you do because of your love that you have for art, the internal need and ontological need to produce art, but none of them talked about how they get the money to do art.”

“All of them had different jobs that allow them do their artistic work, and I asked them a question about the importance of the state (government) in fomenting art, and to my big surprise, I realised they didn’t have any kind of law that granted them money for artistic works. And after the event, I was talking to my friends, and I realised that not just in Ghana, but also in Nigeria and South Africa, those laws are non-existent. So, I called this event to share with you our experiences with cultural incentive laws, to tell you how ours work and somehow inspire you to think about the development of something like that.”

Although Brito said such laws are good and at the heart of cultural productions in Brazil, he argued for their adaptability to local realities, as tax regimes in a country may directly impact the implementation of such laws for the benefit of artists. He, however, noted that that not to have such laws at all is a big disincentive to art production in any jurisdiction, a prospect he found disturbing.

“It’s not the same thing if you get a bunch of laws and try to translate them into your own culture, it doesn’t make much sense,” he noted. “They must be taught thoroughly. We need to understand the system of taxes in your own country and how to perform and bring these laws into reality. So, we need to discuss how they operate in Brazil, but we need to think how they will operate in your own countries as well.”

The cultural historian Ercolani who has worked closely with these incentive laws first traced their origin history that dates back to the 1930s Brazil after the country when seeking its unique Brazilian identity that would be different from its Portuguese colonial heritage. It was also a time of great political upheaval with the maximum ruler Getulio Vargas in power. Out of that identity crafting came a set of laws that gave credence to cultural ascendancy, with funding allocated to health, education and culture, backed by the constitution, which makes funding for these three core sectors the inalienable rights of every Brazilian citizen.

Ercolani further espoused on the laws, when he said, “In Brazil, we have some preservation laws. If something is important historically, artistically or culturally, these laws provide protection and make it difficult the undoing (destruction) of these objects. Here, we speak of houses, churches, museums, cities, paintings, craftsmanship and so on. So these laws of preservation provide protection to these objects. These laws are very old in Brazil. In 1930, we had a dictatorship in Brazil, Getulio Vargas, and this guy was interested in the history of Brazil. Brazil was discovered by ourselves. We needed to invent our history, because how will you know we are colonized country? So we would have to write our history, and these laws of preservation came in this situation of writing the history of this country.”

Ercolani said he used to work in the areas of these laws of preservation, but at the moment he works in the domain of incentive laws, adding, “In Brazil, we have some laws that are incentive to culture and art. These laws guarantee sources (funding) for groups, artists, cultural spaces, museum, dance groups, for producers of culture and art. That is very important because it generates large value and impact the economy.

“These policies are very important in the Brazilian economy today. The laws have an eye on circulation in many cities, and the (art/culture) projects (artists pitch) are evaluated and the better projects are qualified to receive the sources (funding) for the realization of the events and culture actions (performances/productions). So, there’s a kind of competition and the better project earns the right to receive the money.”

Ercolani said Brazil has two types of incentive laws, the indirect and direct laws, with the indirect coming from business organisations that wish to support culture for tax breaks and the direct laws with finding coming from government or public coffers.

“We have two types of incentive laws in Brazil,” Ercolani said. “The first one is the indirect incentive law, meaning the government grants a right to projects, capture money with companies, and the companies get fiscal benefits (tax breaks) in return. So, the artists go on stage and offer a project, and the state provides the right to negotiate with companies and businessmen, and if the businessman provides the sources (funding) for the project, they receive fiscal benefits in return. So, that’s the interest of the businessman.

“We also have the direct incentive law. In this case, the government will approve the project and put the money in the project in their direct way. They approve a project, give the money for realization of the event or culture action. The approved and realized projects have some obligations, like presenting accounts after execution, and providing a social counterpart. For example, Gustavo’s book is approved in an incentive law, and he produces his book and sells, but he will provide a socio-counterpart for the Brazilian Government, like a free presentation in schools, teaching English to children of public schools, and provide donations.”

Ercolani also highlighted the importance of these laws in Brazil’s economic life, when he said, “We see that (the laws help) provide many jobs and people live with it (live on proceeds from their art alone without having to do any other job). These laws guarantee the production of art and culture in Brazil and create many jobs. Recently, the incentive laws are executed for federal government, state government, and municipal (or local) governments, too. We have competition (pitches for art productions) in three levels: the city, states, and the federal level.

“For the indirect incentive, we use the power of the businessmen and companies for funding the projects of art and culture, and for the direct incentive laws, the government put the money directly for the artists. Of course, we have more laws, but these two kinds are present.”

Ercolani also touched on how these laws impact the lives of Brazilian artists, “Government provides resources for the artists to produce art. In Brazil, it’s very difficult. These laws allow the artist to work and live on his art. I think the best one is the improvement on economic numbers, and I think this is very important. This money injected in projects go back to the government. We have music concerts with public resources (funding) and we have someone selling soda or food. That’s a structure, and that’s the most important thing, in my opinion, in these laws, because they provide an environment for small businesses and people who need job can work with these events, and it impacts the lives of these people.”

The Brazilian cultural expert did not mince words on the challenges implementing these cultural incentive laws could pose for them to be adopted in African countries, assuring that it has to be a big fight that artists have to take to the government for such laws to be enshrined in the constitution. He noted that even in Brazil, there is still a push-back from those in authority to undermine the laws and implement them in breach, but for the vigilance of people like himself and Brito and many other artists.

“The artists need to organize (for) this fight and pick some good things,” he said. “I think we need to show those in power that this makes value and creates jobs that make money. I think that’s the way they will be convinced that it’s a good law. We need to produce economic statistics to prove to them that culture and arts have value and produce money and jobs.”

The session didn’t end without the African audience asking probing questions and contributing to the revelatory dialogue on Brazil’s unique funding model for the arts. Although Nigeria’s Minister of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy Hannatu Musawa recently set up a committee to work on the country’s culture policy, it is yet to be seen how far-reaching its recommendations will be, particularly in the area of funding for the arts. Nigeria’s Culture Policy, first formulated in 1988, has remained unimplemented and unsable. The laudable provisions contained in it like a national endowment funds for the arts, among others, have remained mere theoretical exercises 36 years after the policy was drafted.

But will Nigeria’s arts and culture community rise to the challenge of fighting for what should rightly be theirs – government funding of art projects? Several efforts have been organised in the past, but they all failed due to internal wrangling or vested interests that scuttle such laudable exercises. From Bank of Industry loans to the current Creative Economy Development Funds (CEDC) to Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (IDICE), how does the Nigerian artist stand to benefit? Can the artists turn a new leaf in the face of current realities and be intentional in demanding what should be due to them? Employment figures and microeconomics of art production scales are currently in their favour – from music to film, to fashion to festivals to theatre – but can they tally up the figures centrally and make a compelling case for themselves and their industry? That’s yet to be seen.

In the next meeting of ‘Trans-Atlantic Dialogues: Cultural Incentive Laws for Artistic Empowerment’ on January 17, 2025, a scholar will speak on the relationship between taxes and culture in Brazil. Also, some Brazilian artists will share there own experiences with the laws, how they benefit and what could learnt from their examples.

Source: Thearthubng.com