PERFORMING ARTS CREATION UNDER INEQUALITY: HOW GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES IN SPAIN PERPETUATE THE STATUS QUO

Abstract

As economic inequality continues to deepen in the developed world, its ramifications in the social sphere are becoming more apparent. In a context of both public and private
belt-tightening, the arts have seen a general decline in terms of cultural offerings, public funding
available, and viewership and public participation. In this paper we focus on how the public sector
in the Valencian region in Spain is channeling funds to stimulate the production of cultural offerings
to make up for the deficiencies in the allocation of resources by the market. Our research focuses
on the grants allocated for creation in the performing arts by the Valencian government during the
2016–2020 period, analyzing how the various programs perform both in terms of how the money
is spent and how it is distributed, in order to ultimately gauge whether they contribute to their
stated goal of mitigating inequality and providing broader and better cultural offerings. We find
that although funding has continually risen and even doubled in a four-year period, its allocation is
highly unequal and disproportionately rewards the already large and consolidated players. This goes
against the stated goal of the policy and perpetuates the inequality of the performing arts ecosystem
at large. We conclude with some general recommendations on how to move forward in guaranteeing
a robust arts environment for artists, arts creators, and the general public.