Q: The reform brought by the Pontos de Cultura (‘Culture Hotspots’) in 2010 is considered revolutionary in the management of the public spending from the State towards the cultural sector. What has worked? What has not? As for the latter case, why so?
A: The idea behind the Culture Hotspots is that the State must have the means to strengthen initiatives that already exist in the society. In this sense, the aim was to approach culture and citizenship, to build a shared management between the society and the public authorities, as well as to propel the most diverse languages – from the traditional popular culture to the experimentation with new technologies. The Culture Hotspots helped consolidating and brought scale to thousands of spontaneous and well-succeeded initiatives…
Read the rest of the interview in the Transnational Dialogues Journal 2014 (pp. 52-55, ENGLISH and PORTUGUESE).
Juca Ferreira is a sociologist and the current Minister of Culture of Brazil. Luigi Galimberti and Lorenzo Marsili, the interviewers, are coordinators of Transnational Dialogues.