After co-directing the Avignon Festival, with Vincent Baudriller, from 2004 to 2013, Hortense Archambault, 53, has been at the head of the Maison de la culture de Seine-Saint-Denis (MC93), in Bobigny, since 2015. President of the Association of National Stages from 2020 to 2023, she discusses the threats weighing on the creative sector in live performance, following the announcement, at the end of February, of the reduction of more than 200 million euros on the budget of the Ministry of Culture – announcement tempered, a few days later, by the announcement that 70% of the requested effort would be taken from the credits put in reserve, without the arbitrations having, to date, been returned.
The government’s announcement at the end of February of budget cuts for culture seemed to overflow an already full vase. What is the history of this fragility of the live performance sector?
Like all public services, those of art and culture have been facing, for around ten years, a situation of stagnant resources, which are not increasing at all at the same level as inflation. Having to successfully square the circle was already our lot. What we must understand is that we cannot earn a lot of money with our own revenue (ticketing or sponsorship). If we increase ticket prices, we fail in our public service mission, which is to make theater accessible to everyone. And the show attracts little patronage, which develops more in the visual arts or music, areas more easily seen as allowing the communication of personalities. We find ourselves facing an increasingly glaring hiatus.
What do you mean ?
Parallel to this erosion of resources, we are seeing an incredible development throughout the territory in the number of companies and venues, and in the desire for culture and shows. There are seventy-eight national stages in France, and elected officials are always asking for more. But, in concrete terms, the means have not at all matched this development. All places today are at the end of a process, carried out for several years, to rationalize their management and operation. We are caught between a need for activity, a very strong social desire, and limited means. Local authorities, which at one time subsidized culture a lot, also have problems, and have frozen or even reduced their funding. Here, in Bobigny, we have the same funding as nine years ago, when I arrived, which is already a notable effort. But this implies a mechanical erosion, since there is no indexation of public subsidies to inflation, as is the case in Belgium, for example.
You have 73.84% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.