Comparative dynamics of the emergence of mediation in cultural policies in Portugal and Quebec

Abstract

Since the end of the dictatorship in Portugal half a century ago, cultural policies have evolved rapidly, taking paths like those followed in Quebec, with a historical delay that was quickly filled. In this article, we trace through a retrospective of the main texts concerned the reframing that led to the emergence of artistic and cultural mediation in Portugal, less documented than in Quebec. At the end of this exercise, we observe that this dynamic, which is part of the transfer of responsibilities from the national to the local level, is carried out without counting on a new profession, due to the lack of an integrated university curriculum, and tends to mobilize the arts and culture for social purposes of inclusion and living together to provide a response to the mass inequalities induced by the neoliberal policies adopted over the past thirty years, reducing in the process the relative autonomy of artists who associate themselves with the mediation projects put in place and confining participation to the cultural sector alone.