By Panayiotis Neufelt, Founder-Chairman of ICCIRA
#IAmAnArtist #NationalTheatreofGreece #Greece #ArtistsGreece #ArtsGreece #CultureGreece #ArtsCouncilGreece #InternationalIndependent #IndependentArtsCouncil #IndependentCreativeInductriesCouncil #IndependentEntertainmentCouncil #InternationalEntertainmentCouncil #ICCIRA #neufelt #Artality
Greece, Presidential Decree (PD) 85/2022, the cultural and creative sectors in Greece are in turmoil.
The cultural and creative sectors in Greece are in turmoil due to the recent circulation of Presidential Decree (PD) 85/2022. Artists from various backgrounds and disciplines are protesting against the bill, which downgrades the status of graduates from drama, performing arts, conservatories, cinema, and dance schools by equating them with ordinary high school graduates. As a result, overnight, their higher education certificates in the arts have lost value.
Artists from all over Greece, representing all political parties as well, including the conservative governing party, are gathering regularly outside the Ministry of Culture, swarming in squares, and occupying venues to strongly express their opposition to the bill, which specifically targets cultural and creative industries professionals. The government also supports the 2022 educational reforms imposed by the Minister of Education, despite the embarrassment caused by misleading announcements regarding the bill.
The new education bill affects the entire educational system, rapidly boosting the private sector, but also leading to disparities and imbalances in the art world. Through their protests, artists are raising concerns about the potential impact on their careers and the quality of the arts education system. The bill limits their ability to teach, causing reservations about human rights and democracy in Greece.
According to the artists, this could result in financial and productivity deficiencies, negatively impacting the Greek economy, and affecting hundreds of thousands of artists, their families, and the related service and goods providers. The standardized arts education curriculum in Greece is full of loopholes, manipulated according to political demands, and a unified arts academy could address this issue. Forming an Arts Academy in Greece could establish a unified arts education curriculum. The issue has been raised several times since 1961 by actors, politicians, and activists.
Above: 1961 Hellenic Actors Union resolution.
Sign the petition here: Petition · Against any kind of degradation of art institutions · Change.org
Despite efforts from notable figures such as the late Irene Papas, Anna Synodinou, Melina Mercuri (Quoting: “I want my marbles back!”), Kostas Kazakos, and more recently Mrs. Mania Papadimitriou, the government has not made significant efforts to improve the cultural and creative sectors. The country’s heavy industries, culture, and tourism have been the main contributors to financial stability during the global financial crisis, yet these sectors have received limited support. In 2018, only 0.35% of GDP was allocated to these sectors, making the environment vulnerable to exploitation by strong interests.
The National Theatre, the National Theater Teachers’ Association, and all professional artists associations and unions in Greece are fully supporting the fair struggle of performing arts students. The occupation of private and state-owned facilities and buildings continues, and if PD 85/2022 is not withdrawn by February 8, 2022, the unions and the Arts Teachers Association are threatening mass resignations of teachers.
-As the article was being published today, a majority of the Art Teachers had resigned.-
Article 16, paragraph 7 of the Greek Constitution, (the equivalent of which does not exist in other constitutions abroad) is dynamic and active, and just as every constitutional provision, the article requires:
The “higher” education of drama schools must be treated as higher by the state, especially when the state itself is the one that grants professional rights. When the Greek state passes a national qualification law, at the legislative level, it is prohibited by the Constitution to leave higher education ungraded.
Otherwise, the state unconstitutionally disables and annuls Article 16 paragraph 7 of the Constitution outside of legitimate democratic procedures. This renders Presidential Decree 85/2022 unconstitutional.
The Greek government needs to increase transparency in its cultural financial management and spending on the arts, cultural, and creative sectors by publicly presenting data on actual spending, Arts contribution to GDP, and distribution of funds, as well as following models and practices. The government should also provide information on the methods used to distribute funds fairly to cultural and creative actors, and last but not least answer questions from international analysts and researchers about the state of these industries in Greece.
Below is the Higher School of Dramatic Art of the National Theatre of Greece statement.
We ask for the support of the European and international artistic and theatrical community.
TO THOSE WHO HEAR US: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES/FRAMEWORK OF
OCCUPATION
The occupied Higher School of Dramatic Art of the National Theatre of Greece is self-organized
by its students.
In Greece, 2023, the State Justice System continues to acquit class-privileged rapists and murderers,
cover up governmental wiretapping scandals, facilitate the collapse of the National Healthcare
Service, be responsible for leaving refugees to drown in the Aegean Sea, and orchestrate the
complete privatization of Public and Free Education. At the same time as state-sponsored racist murders
are being committed and the economic misery and impoverishment of citizens are rapidly intensifying, our education is once again suffering from its complete degradation. A degradation that was sealed by a
Presidential Decree that equates us to unskilled high school graduates. While the government
downgrades our studies, it upgrades the Police Academy, all in a climate of increasing police brutality
and abuse.
We have no doubt that the current government as well as the previous ones are completely unaware
and unconcerned about the reality of Performing Arts Education, in particular in understaffed,
under-equipped public drama schools like our own. As students, even though we have a super-intense,
compulsory course of study (amounting to 10 hours a day) and are under governmental supervision, we
are deprived of all the rights that students have in higher education, such as board, accommodation,
state scholarships, free textbooks and discounts on public transport. This exclusion from the student
benefits that all other public tertiary institutions enjoy, makes our studies impossible for those who
struggle financially.
The intensity of our studies makes it impossible to work after classes, creating the need for an
immediate solution to the issue of accommodation and board. This is a major problem that the Ministry
of Culture and governments choose to completely ignore, making exclusion based on class an integral
part of Performing Arts studies.
Moreover, our school has recently received an NSF program to upgrade its curriculum, creating a very useful, yet highly demanding schedule, to which students have responded, while struggling, at the same time, to overcome their survival issues. So our question is: how are we supposed to attend this
program knowing that the Presidential Decree officially downgrades our studies? How does a state
institution receive European funding to upgrade its curriculum while the same state contradicts itself by
establishing this decree?
This decision comes as the last straw in the complete devaluation of the modern Performing Arts
discipline. The abolition of the professional license, unpaid rehearsals, and the existing labor exploitation are institutionalized and are just some of the manifestations of this devaluation.
What this Presidential Decree does, however, is cement our equation with high school graduates, and
even more so while, for years, the Unions of our sector have been requesting the founding of a Higher
Academy of Performing Arts. We are opposed militantly to this degree and demand the return of our
qualification status to the one existing before 2003 with the simultaneous establishment of new public
and academic Performing Arts Schools throughout the country with the aim of providing public and free
education to all interested students.
The unofficial announcement made by the government on Monday 9/1, tried to absorb the aftershock
caused by the mobilizations of students and professional unions, giving false promises regarding the
upgrade of Performing Arts studies. The Student’s Association of the Higher School of Dramatic Art of
The National Theatre of Greece is responding to this move by continuing the occupation of the building.
We continue our struggle seeking an immediate solution.
We continue the occupation of our school as one of the most powerful means of assertion. We intend to
join the rest of the artistic and student movements against the policies of the government by
interrupting our classes and their regularity and we reach out to the Artistic Directorate of The National Theatre of Greece and all institutions involved in theater and the arts, support our just demands in
practice.
We, the students of the School of The National Theatre of Greece, wish to become an active part of the
militant student movement. We express our support to the student movements throughout the world as well as our opposition to any practice of racism, sexism, fascism, abuse, homophobia, transphobia,
and misogyny -phenomena that plague the entire society.
We stand in solidarity and join with the corresponding demands of the other schools of artistic
education.
Our demands:
1. The IMMEDIATE withdrawal of Decree 85/2022
2. The IMMEDIATE solution to the issue of upgrading our degrees: Inclusion of our degrees in
Technical Education for positions in the public sector. Technical Education branch for ALL
graduates of art schools and conservatories (as was the case for diploma holders until 2003).
Inclusion of all graduates from 2003 onwards.
3. The provision of food, accommodation, free textbooks, state scholarships, and student
allowances to the students of the schools supervised by the Ministry of Culture and Sports
4. The further staffing of all Public Schools of Performing Arts
5. The establishment of an Academy of Arts with branches throughout Greece
6. The opportunity of QTS certificate/teacher Certification for graduates of higher art schools
after qualifying examinations and one year of study in a University of Performing Arts.
This is a cry for help to the world: We stand against any kind of degradation of art institutions.
We stand against the exploitation of art workers and we ask you to stand with us!
Please, read the students’ announcement in the following languages:
À VOUS QUI NOUS ECOUTEZ : LE COMBAT CONTINUE / LE CONTEXTE DE L’OCCUPATION DE
AN EUCH, DIE IHR UNS HÖRT: DER KAMPF GEHT WEITER /
A VOSOTRES QUE NOS ESCUCHAN: LA LUCHA SIGUE / MARCO DE
Other sources:
Drama School of Patras Students Union (Image)
Higher School of Dramatic Art of the National Theatre of Greece (Protest)
Panhellenic Federation of Performing Arts (Spectacles) – POTHA
National Theatre of Greece (Image)
UNCTAD’S CREATIVE ECONOMY OUTLOOK
EU COMMISSION CULTURE AND CREATIVITY
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on Culture and Creative industries
CISAC International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers
