Artists warn that crisis kills culture in Spain
For the government, it's a target for crisis taxes and cutslike any other: the subsidised arts sector. For actors, artists and audiences,it's Spain's moral lifeblood, bleeding away in the recession. The artsin Spain -- including the big film sector that gave the world PedroAlmodovar -- is in peril from a sharp rise in sales tax that will drive awayaudiences, top cultural figures say. "They are generally killing thecultural activity in this country," said one of the country's best-knownactors, Oscar-winning Javier Bardem, as he joined in a street protest in Madrid.
"It's a country that produces great culture and is verywell recognised outside our frontiers, but what they are doing is to reallyminimise the cultural industry in this country," he said. ". Spanishschools and hospitals have been suffering for months from budget tighteningmeasures aimed at lowering the public deficit, which have drawnhundreds of thousands of protestors onto the streets. The government insistsits austere reforms will strengthen the economy in the long run, but economistswarn measures such as the rise in sales tax from September will hit consumptionand depress the economy further.
Spaniards have already been curbing their spending oncultural pursuits and the industry warns the tax rise will be the final blow. "Igo out much less," said Cristina Rial, a Madrid resident of 28.Unemployed, like one in four Spanish workers, for the past year, she has cuther weekly outings to concerts and shows down to virtually none. "I haveto eat and live. Everything else is a luxury," she said. "Itshouldn't be, but it is."
Artists say the subsidy cuts threaten the intangiblelong-term benefits of culture in a country still marked by its 1936-1939 CivilWar. The war saw one of Spain's greatest poets, Federico Garcia Lorca,shot dead by Francoist soldiers. The next four decades of dictatorship andcensorship drove its most influential film maker Luis Bunuel into exile. "It'slike going back in history," said Carlos Iglesias, 56, an actor and filmdirector, at the Madrid protest.
