La Cultura es el Pueblo:

Venezuela’s Investment in Culture and the Arts

Venezuela’s social misiones are well known for their innovative approach to meeting the basic needs of citizens, including health care, job training and education. Less known, but equally important to Bolivarian philosophy, is the special focus Venezuela has placed on preserving its rich cultural history and promoting the arts among all sectors of Venezuelan society.

Under the Chavez administration, the Ministry of Culture has adopted the slogan La Cultura es el Pueblo (The Culture is the People), underscoring its renewed focus on regional folk traditions. In recent years, the Ministry has adopted a series of programs to document popular arts and crafts traditions and keep them alive in a modernizing world. The result has been a fast-growing awareness and pride in the distinct cultural traditions of all corners of the country. According to a 2005 survey conducted by the University of Chicago, Venezuelans today rank first in the world in their pride in their arts tradition.

Defining & Documenting Cultural Heritage

As globalization has increasingly eroded Venezuela’s native cultural traditions, the Ministry of Culture has seen as its mission to both document and encourage country’s unique local heritage. To begin, the Ministry established an innovative program, known as Patrimonio Cultural (Cultural Heritage), hosting forums in every region of the country for Venezuelans to define, at the community level, the aspects of local culture that are unique to their region and form a community identity. These traditions include all aspects of local culture, including music, dance, handcrafts, recipes, architecture, poems, legends and products. These traditions have been documented, described and published in a book series on Venezuela’s regional heritage, to be distributed to libraries and schools throughout the country.

Mision Cultura: Bringing Art to All Communities

Adapting the popular style of Venezuela’s literacy missions, the Ministry of Culture has established Mision

Cultura, which seeks to spread regional arts and crafts knowledge throughout the country. Troupes of volunteers, known as facilitators, are trained in the history and skills of regional arts, crafts and music. They then travel to far-ranging parts of the country, including inner cities and rural villages, teaching and sharing these traditions in free evening classrooms.

According to the Ministry, a full 315 of Venezuela’s 335 incorporated cities have partnered with Mision Cultura on at least one project. Currently, more than 33,000 arts projects are underway nationwide.

Investment from the federal government has also allowed for the creation of a network of folk art galleries throughout the country, which provide a forum both for local master artisans to display their work, as well as space for touring exhibits featuring craftwork from around the country.

In the past, only city residents and the wealthy had access to these types of classes and galleries, often creating the impression that art is a vocation for an elite minority. The presence of art in local communities expands the knowledge and opportunities for millions more Venezuelans than ever before.

Rejuvenating the Music Industry

New telecommunications regulations have included provisions that encourage musicians to rediscover traditional music and encourage radio and television channels to promote national and independent productions. Modeled after similar regulations in Europe, Canada, and Brazil, the Law of Social Responsibility requires that fifty percent of the music played on Venezuelan radio stations be either produced or recorded by Venezuelan artists.

In addition, the law specifically provides incentives for musicians who focus on traditional folk styles. Twenty-five percent of all radio programming now incorporates elements of Venezuelan folklore, including native instruments or rhythms. This has resulted in a rejuvenation of the national recording industry, generating opportunities for musicians and technicians. It has also introduced entirely new musical genres, including “neo folklore” which combines traditional sounds with contemporary beats.

Today, Venezuelan radio stations rotate in such long-overlooked Venezuelan folk masters including Serenata Guayanesa, Ali Primera, and Cecilia Todd. What is more, the re-released catalogues of these past masters are topping the Venezuelan music charts as a new generation gains access to their sounds. In the past two years, fully one-third of Venezuelan music sales have come from Venezuelan artists.

Establishing a Film Industry

This summer, Venezuelan authorities announced an 11-million dollar investment to create a national film studio outside Caracas. The purpose of La Villa del Cine is to reinvigorate a flagging movie industry, create opportunities for local filmmakers, and combat the many negative images of Latinos present in films from Hollywood.

Currently, the Venezuelan film industry averages just one film completed every four years. The government expects that the complex will increase the number of Venezuelan films entering the international market, as well as allow for the purchase of independent films from abroad.