Cargando...Abel Prieto Jiménez, director of the Marti Program Office, stressed on Tuesday the importance of a coherent cultural policy, because when the market dictates the rules it is mediocrity that triumphs.
The former Minister of Culture commented, in reference to decree 349, referring to the implementation of cultural policy in public spaces, that a sad opinion has been created about this regulation, and recalled that in Cuba, from the famous Words to the intellectuals of Fidel Castro, cultural policy has at its center the creator and supports his freedom of creation.
Prieto Jiménez denied the idea that is being promoted around this new decree, that the artist will be a kind of institutional employee, and that to write, film or paint, must be subordinate to the staff of an institution, or controlled by it.
The writer reported that this does not speak of a control of artistic content a priori, as is usually thought, but to prevent professional intrusion that undermines quality.
Those who might be concerned are not the great artists, said the former Minister of Culture, insisting that what it is about is that there is no contract without the prior presentation of quality and institutional endorsement, so as not to displace the real professionals in the sector.
Since 1997, one of the main demands of the country’s intellectuals and artists, he emphasized, is that there should be a coherent cultural policy in all public spaces, in sectors such as gastronomy, tourism, and this type of claim gave rise to decree 226, the antecedent of the current one.
Prieto Jiménez explained that the country changed since then, diversified, modernized technologically and with the new reconfiguration of society from the updating of its economic model, new options have been created, which leads to the search for coherence in all public spaces.
He stated that, in his opinion, there has been a particular interest in this becoming an international issue and that there have been malicious or confused people, promoting this type of protest.
He commented in response to this that the current Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso Grau, has put to work in the elaboration of the complementary rules of the decree both young artists and the main creators and intellectuals of the country, in order to clarify any possible error of interpretation.
All creators are being listened to, and even the Ministry’s strategy has been made public through the media, argued the Cuban intellectual, who also emphasized the fact that in our country the alliance between the artistic and intellectual vanguard, with the institution, is essential for the implementation of cultural policies. (Taken from Cuban News Agency)
