Cultural institutions - at least one show per year intended for people with disabilities

Access to culture is ensured for absolutely all citizens in a modern state. The Minister of Culture, Raluca Turcan, announced that he intends to submit, at the beginning of next week, in the Parliament, a proposal to amend Law 448/2006, in accordance with the guide recently adopted by the General Council of the Capital, which provides that cultural institutions have at least one show per year intended for people with disabilities. The minister declared: "I took the text of the law, Law 448/2006, and tried to bring it into line with the provisions of the General Council Decision, supported by all political parties, and to modify it so that, starting from the year 2025 , let's try that cultural institutions have at least one performance a year for people with disabilities. I strongly believe that when you start doing something new in society, it's important to pilot it first. Start from what is feasible , so that, later on, you can develop it and address it to all people with disabilities in Romania. (...) So, if I feel that there is consensus on the version that I presented to you, to supplement Law 448/2006 with the texts that already exist in the General Council Decision, on Monday I would like to submit it to the Romanian Parliament, because, after all, it must have the widest possible support in the Romanian Parliament, because that it would also ensure the awareness of the problem by as many political decision-makers as possible. Basically, that's what it's about - all parties and decision-makers are aware of a problem, after that the implementation mechanism can be created".

According to the minister, there is a fundamental difference between the accessibility of institutions and cultural activities for people with disabilities and the cultural activities carried out by people with disabilities: "If on the first aspect, let's say, things can be set in motion also from some pilot projects let's start to create an institutional behavior for all cultural institutions, on the part of cultural activity carried out by people with disabilities, I think that the base or core must be in the University of Arts, that is, little by little, let's open the doors of specialized universities for people with disabilities with disabilities. (...) The Ministry of Culture has the possibility of creating programs for urgent cultural needs, which are a percentage of the large cultural projects and in addition to one or two cultural projects that we discussed to do. Let's create this year a turning point and emergency cultural projects to be dedicated to people with disabilities, in one form or another. If there are shows, let's try to support them, to perform in cultural institutions and if there are, let's say, needs to support cultural institutions for people with disabilities, let's also be able to finance them. I think it would be, indeed, an extremely correct, healthy signal, in which we should sound the alarm on urgent cultural needs that it is an emergency and indeed a huge need of our society". For his part, the mayor General of the Capital, Nicuşor Dan, assured that the municipality will support such initiatives: "We will vote on the budget on March 1 and we have money there for cultural productions. And because this project had a unanimous vote in the General Council, it is a priority for us. I bring you certain things that I did a little experiment, which worked very well in the case of the last editions of the Christmas Fair. We dedicated, every year, a day for children with sensory disabilities. And we have the openness to do and where we don't do to find out from you what we should do". Nicuşor Dan expressed his openness to supporting independent bodies with cultural activity belonging to people with disabilities: "Because the personality of independent bodies was brought into discussion with or without legal personality to be supported by state institutions, by the Capital City Hall - we have three institutions that organize contests for independents. We have, on the one hand, ARCUB, we have the Metropolis Theater and we have the Playwrights Theater. If we need to change something in the regulations of these institutions, we are waiting for you to tell us, because openness exists. So, if you think that we need to change something in the regulations on the basis of which we organize these contests, on the basis of which we finance, we await with openness what you suggest."

Starting this year, the performance or concert institutions subordinated to the CGMB, alone or in partnership, will have to ensure the accessibility of artistic productions for at least one artistic production, of their choice, adapted from their own repertoire or hosted, after approval by the General Council of The capital of a guide in this regard at the end of last month. Making an artistic production accessible requires its adaptation for at least four types of disabilities, the necessary amounts to be provided in the annual local budgets of Bucharest, following the consultation of the performance or concert institutions subordinated to the CGMB.