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1. FUMPROARTE 15 Years: Trajectory and Challenges of a Brazilian Fund to
Support Arts and Culture
Álvaro Santi1
This paper is intended to publicize the experience of FUMPROARTE, a local
government's institution which support small and medium-size, local-based projects in arts
and humanities, and draft a critical balance of this model, to a future enhancement. Since
its creation, FUMPROARTE allowed the implementation, in the city of Porto Alegre, of 626
cultural initiatives of local arts community, selected in a participatory process.
In 1988, by promulgating of the current Constitution, Brazil laid the foundations for
a new democratic period, after the military regime. In the following year, started in Porto
Alegre one of the first experiences of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT, the current
president Lula’s Party), on the government of a Capital.
Since the former 1990s, when the first elected president after the military regime,
Collor de Mello, had downsized the Culture Ministry into a Presidence Secretary, brazilian
local and state governments started to consider legal instruments to support the arts. Most
of them has approved tax-renounce laws to stimulate private sponsorship, which stablish
the principles followed later by the Federal Law 8313/93 (known as “Rouanet” Law). In
accordance with the “minimum-size state principle”, sometimes these laws were
conceived to compensate the lack of a public cultural policy. Nevertheless, in Porto
Alegre, after a public debate, authorities and arts community decided to create a public
budgetary fund, the FUMPROARTE. In its implementation, no other national or foreign
institution served as a model.
FUMPROARTE was created with the aim of "to provide financial support to arts
and cultural projects " or "to encourage and stimulate the artistic-cultural production in
Porto Alegre" (Porto Alegre, 1993a: Art. 1 and 4). According to IBGE2
, that year only 33
(or 0.6%) of Brazilian municipalities had established similar funds. (2007:67).
This new cultural policy tool was based in a few principles: a) Grants are
distributed only through public calls, two times a year; b) Support only private or
community initiatives, not government's; c) No distinction between natural persons,
businesses or NGOs; d) Retornable or non-retornable operations are allowed; f) Maximum
80% of government funding in each project; f) Any arts or humanities specialties are
accepted, except construction or building repair and capital goods acquisition; g) Projects
are selected by “CAS”, the Evaluation and Selection Comittee, whose members are
1
Culture Expert at Porto Alegre Prefecture, Brasil. MA in Literature, Federal University of Rio
Grande do Sul (UFRGS). asanti@smc.prefpoa.com.br.
2
Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics.

2. elected by local arts and culture-related NGOs and syndicates (2/3), or appointed by
Culture Department (1/3) and h); All projects must offer a “Public Interest Return”, defined
by law as some free public performances or the donation of any percent from the cultural
products to public institutions, as schools, libraries or museums.
The amount distributed in 1994 - the first year of operation - to 23 projects was R$
262.000. In 2008, 57 projects received R$ 1.879.000, a nominal increase of more than
600%. However, updating these numbers by the IGP-M3
, as shown in Figure 1, there is a
general trend of decline since 1995, partially reversed over the last 3 years.
19 94 1 995 1 99 6 19 97 19 98 1 99 9 2 000 2 00 1 20 02 200 3 200 4 2 005 20 06 20 07 2 008valor total corrigido
-
500 .000
1.00 0.00 0
1.5 00.0 00
2 .000 .00 0
2.5 00.0 00
va lor R$
Figure 1: Annual amount invested on projects, updated by IGP-M (1994-2008)
The share of FUMPROARTE in the Municipality budget also shows a general trend
of reduction, partially reversed in the last third of the period, after reaching the lowest point
in 2004, as shown in Figure 2.
0,00%
0,05%
0,10%
0,15%
0,20%
0,25%
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Ano
Fig
ure 2: FUMPROARTE on the Municipality total budget (1995 - 2009)
3
Market Prices General Index, an inflation indicator, published regularly by Fundação Getúlio
Vargas..

3. In some artistic areas it’s possible to quantify the participation of FUMPROARTE in
total local production. In the area of Performing Arts (except Music), between 1997 and
2005, on average 18% of premiered performances (97 of 540) received support from
FUMPROARTE, ranging widely between 8.8% (2003) and 25% (2001). During the period,
the number of performances FUMPROARTE supports annually has grown 100% (from 6
to 12), more than the total local production which grew 73% (from 44 to 76).
FUMPROARTE's participation also varied according to the type of production: between
10.1% for dance and 57.9% for street theatre.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
TOTAL
ESPETÁCULOS
TOTAL
FUMPROARTE
Figure 3. Participation in local production of performing arts, except music (1997-2005).
In the audiovisual sector, between 2000 and 2004, FUMPROARTE supported
28.6% of movies launched in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, (26 of 91). Among these 26,
24 were short movies, corresponding to 31.6% of total production of short movies (76). In
other artistic segments, there is no available data on total production.
In 2002, FUMPROARTE was one of the finalists listed by “Estadão-Serasa
Multicultural Award”, sponsored by the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo, in the
category "developers." In 2005, it was included among 20 finalists of the “Public
Management and Citizenship Award”, whose goal is to highlight "innovative practices of
state and local governments" by initiative of Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and Ford
Foundation. In 2006, FUMPROARTE was one of 30 finalists in the first edition of “Cultura
Viva” Award, created by the Brazilian Ministry of Culture with the aim “to identify,
strengthen and give visibility to initiatives that have culture as a mean of building
citizenship and social inclusion of communities" (CENPEC: 2007,10 and 21). In the
second edition of “Cultura Viva, in the following year, once again FUMPROARTE figured
among the 42 finalists. Consequently, FUMPROARTE reached some nationwide visibility
as a successful cultural policy tool.

4. Despite of this success, there are some issues to be faced by the Municipality in
the future, with a view to improving FUMPROARTE. Among them, the qualification of the
CAS and their effective representation of the artists. The mission of the CAS requires of
its members a mix of skills including some experience in arts production, notions of
aesthetics and the ability for critical analysis and writing. While the 6 representatives of
the Municipality are municipal officials, most of them graduated in arts or humanities,
there is no requirement for the 12 members elected by the community. Therefore, major
part of the responsibility on CAS members performance lies with those who elected them,
the non-governmental organizations and artists syndicates, active in cultural field and
recognized as representative of artistic class. (Porto Alegre, 1993b). However, many
artists prefer not to join any existing bodies and, in consequence, do not recognize the
elected CAS members as their legitimate representative.
In addition, the final destination of tickets and products received as “Public Interest
Return” requires more attention from the Municipality. Usually, part of CDs and books is
delivered to libraries or schools, and part is sold at cost price or cheaper. Free tickets are
distributed to individuals participating in arts workshops held by the Prefecture, but there
is no monitoring and no feedback about this performances comes to the CAS.
Another important challenge is to reduce the concentration of resources in the
central regions of the city, as shown in Figure 4. Among the proponents of projects
selected by FUMPROARTE, 73% live at the Center region, which houses only 20% of
total population. In 2000, according to IBGE, the inhabitants of this region had an average
income 70% above the overall average of the city, and approximately 4 times higher than
the average of the 6 regions that haven’t had a single project approved in the period. In
the 3 regions where family income is above 10 minimum wages (Central, Northwest and
South), which houses together a little over 1/3 of the total population, 83% of the
proponents of projects approved live. On the other hand, the 8 poorest regions, where
another third part of the population lives, received only 3% of grants. These results
suggest that although the allocation of resources is decided in a very democratic process,
the opportunity to receive it is beyond the reach of most of the population.

5. CENTRO
73%
NOROESTE
6%
CRUZEIRO
4%
CENTRO SUL
3%
SUL
4%
LESTE
3%
EXTREMO SUL
1%PARTENON
3%CRISTAL
2%
0 PROJECTS
FUNDED REGIONS:
EIXO BALTAZAR
ILHAS
LOMBA DO
PINHEIRO
NORDESTE
RESTINGA
HUMAITÁ/NAVEGANT
ES
GLÓRIA
1%
NORTE
1%
Figure 4. City region where the proponents of projects approved live
(302 projects concluded, selected from 1994 to 2005)
Considering these limits and challenges for improving FUMPROARTE, we
conclude quoting the technical report, resultant of the visiting mission to the finalists of
Public Management and Citizenship Award. Once known locally some projects in
progress and interview their participants, Maria CASTELLANO found the FUMPROARTE
"legitimate, respected and accepted by the community," emphasizing "the transparency of
the public selection process... and the great participation of the artistic community." She
also found that "existing political will and an interested and active artistic community,
similar experiences can be implemented in several municipalities, including small ones."
(2005 ,15-6)
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