Policy of Culture and Education
(i) To offer artistic and cultural experiences to students of public schools; (ii) to recognize and promote the school as a space of circulation and production of Brazilian cultural diversity; (iii) to contribute with the formation of an audience for the arts and to expand the cultural repertoire of the school community; (iv) to promote, strengthen and consolidate education territories, appreciating the value of a dialogue between community and scientific knowledge; (v) to integrate local artistic and cultural experiences in the educational political project of the schools, contributing with the expansion of the number og social agents responsible for education in the national territory; (vi) to expand the access of the population to training courses involving arts and culture; (vii) to develop and strengthen the citizen’s formation in the field of art and culture in Brazil, in its symbolical, economic and civic dimensions, generating the conditions to strengthen its agents and means of action and innovation on the several spheres and scales of the territorial development of the country.
The Policy of Culture and Education is comprised of three institutional programs of national scope, aligned with the National Culture Plan and the National Education Plan. They are: Mais Cultura nas Escolas Program (inductive policy for Integral Education on Basic Education); Mais Cultura nas Universidades Program; and National Program of Access to Technical Education and Employment – PRONATEC Cultura.
(i) Mais Cultura nas Escolas: fosters actions that promote the meeting between the educational project of schools and the ongoing cultural and artistic experiences of the community, through the elaboration and development of a Plan of Cultural Activity. It reaches 1,450 Brazilian municipalities, with 5,069 public schools developing cultural activities in the school day-to-day life.
(ii) Mais Cultura nas Universidades: fosters the implementation of Culture Plans of public federal institutions of higher education in all the regions of the country, aimed at expanding the role of the universities and the federal institutes in the dissemination and preservation of Brazilian culture, in the construction and implementation of public culture policies. The Plans must observe the cultural and socio-spatial diversity and the regional specificities and involve the local community in the cultural activities. Its execution legitimizes the learning institutions as knowledge hubs as well as spaces of production and circulation of Brazilian culture, of access to cultural assets and of respect to the diversity and plurality of our culture.
(iii) PRONATEC Cultura: instituted by Law Nº 12513, of 2011, the National Program of Access to Technical Education and Employment has been working within the scope of culture since 2012, to expand the access of the population to formation courses in the arts. Up until the present moment, the program has reached 275 municipalities in 24 states and the Federal District.
Mais Cultura nas Escolas Program: it is expected to invigorate the articulation between the culture and education agendas in the effectivation of public policies; to expand the cultural offer in territories of social vulnerability; to consolidate educational territories; to develop cultural and artistic actions on learning spaces – from children’s education to higher education; to expand the knowledge of the Brazilian cultural diversity; and to execute the goals of the National Culture Plan and the National Education Plan.
Mais Cultura nas Universidades Program: to expand the offer of presence and distance courses and programs of professional qualification, high school-level technicians as well as undergraduate and graduate courses, an increase on research and continuin education in the areas of artistic languages, creative sectors and formation of cultural administrators; to expand the artistic, cultural, civic and critic education of students of higher education as well as professional and technologic education with technical and financial aid to the federal institutions of education in the development of culture plans, with a focus on the appreciation of the Brazilian cultural diversity; to increase the articulation between higher education and professional and technological education and basic education and popular/traditional knowledge.
PRONATEC Cultura: it is expected that it will substantiate the training of artists, technicians and culture makers in technical expertise in the scope of the arts; to counter professional informality; and to expand the knowledge of workers in the field of culture.
The total amount of resources invested in the policy added up to 74,206,627,21 USD, where:
Mais Cultura nas Escolas Program: Each school benefits with values between 5,917.15 USD and 6,508.87 USD. The defrayal capital is directed toward cultural experiences in schools. On its first edition, in 2013/2014, the investment was of 29,585,798.81 USD originating from the National Fund of Education Development.
Mais Cultura nas Universidades Program: The first Public Call of the Program happened in 2014 with the participation of 101 federal higher education institutions and contemplated 28 Culture Plans. The total amount of resources is of 8,875,739.64 USD, of which 5,917,159.76 USD are from the Ministry of Education and 2,958,579.88 USD from the Ministry of Culture.
PRONATEC Culture: the resources are from the Ministry of Education. The estimate is that, from 2013 to 2015, 35,745,088.75 USD have been invested in the Program.
The Mais Cultura nas Escolas Program was evaluated nationally. Among the preliminary conclusions collected during meetings through all of the Brazilian regions, it was found that: (i) the program proves to be an important channel for the articulation and integration of projects, programs and activities developed at schools; (ii) the formative processes must promote experiences and cultural practies geared toward the recognition of territories, spaces and traditional knowledge; (iii) there is an absence of specific spaces for artistic and cultural practices in most of the schools; (iv) the integration of diverse cultural spaces in the development of educational activities contributes toward the promotion and recognition of educational territories; (v) integrating new knowledge in the daily life of schools is still a challenge to be tackled.