State Secretariat for Culture will not participate in the Night of Museums due to lack of agreement with the producer

The Secretary of State for Culture (Sedac) announced this Thursday (4) that it decided not to participate in the 2023 edition of the Night of Museums. In a text, the folder argues that there was an impossibility of reaching an agreement, in a timely manner, to ensure the preservation of its linked institutions, its collection and the safety of the public.

Despite the negotiations forwarded by the folder, there were no significant changes in the producer’s protocols to meet Sedac’s request that the physical structure and the available teams be expanded.

The State institutions linked to Sedac that would participate in the 2023 edition of the event are: Júlio de Castilhos Museum, Museum of Art of Rio Grande do Sul (Margs), Museum of Contemporary Art of Rio Grande do Sul (MAC-RS), Casa of Culture Mario Quintana and Museum of Communication Hipólito José da Costa. Venues will have normal opening hours on the day of the event.

According to the Secretariat, other large cultural facilities have also opted not to participate in the next edition. With resources made possible through the federal government’s Cultural Incentive Law and produced by Rompecabezas Produtora, with the support of public and private institutions, the event resulted in an influx of people that the ministry considers incompatible with the structure of many of the participating cultural facilities.

After the first negotiations to improve the partnership of previous editions, Sedac states that it requested, among other measures, that the organization of the event carry out access control by withdrawing free tickets to avoid overcrowding spaces and the accumulation of people in external areas. , hiring additional security and cleaning teams and hiring chemical toilets for the vicinity of the museums. Sedac also requested that the activities end at 10 pm and not at midnight, as planned by the production. There was, however, no guarantee that the notes would be fully complied with.

“Sedac understands that isolated actions cannot improve the experience for the public and for the institutions. Although, in the previous edition, the Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul (Margs) had, for example, controlled the flow of entrance and of the number of simultaneous visitors, graffiti and poor hygiene conditions were recorded inside the museum’s bathrooms. The episode demonstrates that the event, until now, has not offered enough structure and organization for the management of the public and queue, in addition to the team (monitors and security guards) to meet the need for operation inside and outside the institutions”, says the published text.

They also cite other incidents that caused material damage to museums and galleries last year, resulting in dissatisfaction on the part of people who, due to the excess of the public, were unable to participate in musical attractions within the institutions. Among them are risks to institutional and public safety due to overcrowding and weakness in access control, in addition to the harassment of concierge teams for lack of adequate flow control and a team that organized traffic in the external area. As a result, Sedac fears, the participating cultural facilities end up having their reputations linked to problems that are beyond their control.

“Cultural equipment received recent investments from the State that brought gains in attractiveness, visibility and reach. They are visited daily and provide a space for entertainment, enjoyment of art and research, completely free of charge, for the population”, says the secretary of Culture, Beatriz Araújo. “The conditions presented by Sedac are therefore aimed at preserving a heritage that enriches the cultural scene in Rio Grande do Sul and democratizes access to art, and are fundamental to guarantee the proper functioning of a structure that has cultural programming throughout the year, which develops educational actions and promotes access to culture as a citizen right.”