{"id":126490,"date":"2019-01-28T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=126490"},"modified":"2019-01-24T08:17:37","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T08:17:37","slug":"brazil-dissolves-its-ministry-of-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/01\/brazil-dissolves-its-ministry-of-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil Dissolves Its Ministry of Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

The change is part of a rash of reforms by new Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro
(Getty Images\/ Bruna Prado \/ Stringer)<\/p><\/div>\n

10 Jan 2019 – <\/em>In the ten days since he was sworn into office<\/a>, Brazil\u2019s president Jair Bolsonaro has already enacted a rash of measures that have sparked concerns across the globe.<\/p>\n

Among his first orders of business, reports Gabriella Angeleti of the Art Newspaper<\/a>, was dissolving the country\u2019s ministry of culture, along with the ministries of sports and social development.<\/p>\n

All three ministries have been merged into a single department fronted by Osmar Terra, who served as the minister of social development under the previous government. By his own admission, Terra has little experience in cultural policy. According to Angeleti, he \u201cwas criticised by Brazilian arts leaders when he said his only cultural expertise is that he knows \u2018how to play the berimbau,\u2019 a single-string instrument played to accompany capoeira.\u201d<\/p>\n

News about the dismantled culture ministry has fallen somewhat quietly amid Bolsonaro\u2019s other reforms.<\/p>\n

Shortly after ascending to power, Bolsonaro, a far-right, Evangelical Christian, known for making degrading comments<\/a> about women, members of the LGBTQ community and Afro-Brazilian, transferred<\/a> responsibility for overseeing indigenous territories from the National Indian Foundation to the ministry of agriculture, which supports industries that hope to tap into indigenous lands. He also closed<\/a> an agency of the Education Ministry that sought to promote diversity in public schools and universities, and wiped LGBTQ concerns from the responsibilities of new human rights ministry.<\/p>\n

\u201cGirls will be princesses and boys will be princes,\u201d Damares Alves, an evangelical pastor who has been appointed Brazil\u2019s the new Human Rights Minister, said, according to the Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cThere will be no more ideological indoctrination of children and teenagers in Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n

The culture ministry\u2019s dissolution was not a surprise to experts. Artists have been a target<\/a> of Bolsonaro\u2019s supporters, and the president has zeroed in on cultural policies as part of his promises to bring dramatic changes to a country still reeling from its worst economic recession on record<\/a>. Shortly after he was elected, for instance, Bolsonaro announced<\/a> that he would review Brazil\u2019s Rouanet law<\/a>, which offers tax incentives to private entities and individuals who invest in cultural projects. He has said that the law wastes resources, Angeleti reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very sad,\u201d Brazilian art dealer Pedro Mendes tells Henri Neuendorf of artnet News<\/a>. \u201cBut he is doing exactly everything he claimed he would.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not yet clear how federally funded cultural institutions will be affected by the changes to Brazil\u2019s culture ministry, but members of the artistic community are worried about the country\u2019s new direction. As Mendes, the art dealer, tells artnet, \u201cIt\u2019s a very dark time in Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/p>\n

Brigit Katz is a freelance writer based in Toronto. Her work has appeared in a number of publications, including<\/em> NYmag.com, Flavorwire and<\/em> Tina Brown Media’s Women in the World.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 smithsonianmag.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10 Jan 2019 – In the ten days since he was sworn into office, Brazil\u2019s president Jair Bolsonaro has already enacted a rash of measures that have sparked concerns across the globe. His first orders of business were dissolving the country\u2019s ministry of culture and the ministries of sports and social development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":79339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}