Porto Santo Charter:  Promoting Civic Participation in the Cultural Landscape 

By: Rachell Peña

Earlier this year, in April 2021, the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU organized the Porto Santo Conference titled, “From Democratization to Cultural Democracy: Rethinking Institutions and Practices.” The two-day hybrid (in-person and online) event brought together major European cultural networks and non-governmental organizations to generate policy recommendations focused on advancing and strengthening democracy at the nexus of arts, culture, and education. 

Part of the objective was to publish and officially launch the Porto Santo Charter, a document containing a series of policy measures and principles that are undergirded by the civic values of accessibility, inclusion, diversity, as well as freedom of expression and participation within the cultural landscape. 

Building the Text: What is included in the Porto Santo Charter? 

The overarching purpose of the Charter is to “promote and reinforce the importance of Culture, Arts, Heritage and Education sectors for the resilience of democracy and a full cultural citizenship.” Created out of collaborative process and vision, the final text is divided into three main parts: the preamble, five main principles, and a list of recommendations. 

The Charter, as stated by the Preamble, provides a working paradigm to achieve cultural democracy in Europe. Conceptualized during the global pandemic, the Preamble also highlights the impact of COVID-19 in exacerbating already existing barriers to full cultural participation, advocating for a more inclusive and equitable cultural platform.

Below, I have summarized the five main conceptual frameworks guiding the paradigm: 

  1. The Health of Democracy and the Role of Culture: Establishes that models of democracy should be evaluated to intensify the peoples’ participation in legitimizing institutions and decision-making processes. Defines democracy as a dynamic social methodology that reflects the interests and needs of the people while valuing and respecting diversity and dissent. 

  2.  Democratisation of Culture and Cultural Democracy: Contextualizes, clarifies, and defines the terminology and language guiding their paradigm. Specifically, Cultural Democracy refers to a participatory and collaborative approach in the production and preservation of arts and culture; engaging people across the individual and institutional dimensions of society. 

  3. Difference and Complementarity Between the two Cultural Models: Towards full Cultural Citizenship:  Establishes that cultural democracy predicates the end of inequity and exclusion. Cultural organizations should examine their power in terms of access and resources, actively refusing to sustain and invigorate social hierarchies. Full Cultural Citizenship is the ability and freedom to partake in the cultural democracy.

  4. Cultural Citizenship and Digital Territories:  Digital territories or technologies are a pathway to broadening participation and creation in the cultural democracy. Removing the barriers to digital access is part of the goal of promoting cultural citizenship. It is also important to address digital territories as arenas for discrimination and misinformation. 

  5. Cultural Citizenship and Education:  Educational policies are integral in promoting cultural citizenship. Greater access to artistic and cultural experiences, enabling equitable participation in cultural institutions, facilitating open discussion, as well as welcoming critique and dissent, are all part of generating a cultural democracy—which happens most effectively when people are engaged, empowered, and informed. 

The Charter concludes with a total of 38  recommendations addressed to agents of the cultural ecosystem, including European policymakers, cultural and educational organizations, and European citizens at large.  The Porto Santo Charter is available on their website in English and Portuguese. 

The Future:  Civic Participation and Cultural Citizenship

An important component of the Porto Santo Charter is that it is not a closed, binding document, but the beginning of dialogue for social institutions to examine their approaches in actively engaging people within the cultural, art, and educational sectors. Arts and culture are avenues of personal agency, inspiration, and collective mobilization in communities. Strengthening and building the groundwork for an equitable cultural ecosystem enables creative young people to be directly involved in catalyzing social change in ways that are informed by their lived experiences and narratives.  

For decades, artists, educators, and community organizations have been working towards developing programs of cultural citizenship. In Educating for cultural citizenship: Reframing the goals of arts education, scholar Paul Kuttner (2015) asserts, “Not only can arts education serve as a space for developing and claiming cultural citizenship; we can think of arts education in general as a process of developing cultural citizens.” Put differently, arts education can function as a vehicle for civic engagement, as well as civic education. 

Kuttner’s (2015) concept of a “justice-oriented cultural citizen” underscores the relationship between civic participation and creative social transformation. The justice-oriented cultural citizen utilizes their artistic and cultural practices to advance social justice and dismantle oppressive power structures. 

A summary of Kuttner’s article is available here. 

What Can You Do with the Charter to Enact Cultural Citizenship?

In order to create the conditions for meaningful participation, not just merely consultation, arts educators and cultural practitioners can utilize Kuttner’s (2015) guiding questions: 

  •  What kinds of cultural citizens are we educating? 

  •  What are we teaching about who can be an artist, and what the arts are for?

  • How might education in the arts support young people as they seek to be recognized as full citizens? 

Then, if you are based in Europe (or really anywhere for that matter), you may reference the Porto Santo Charter and its endeavor to unify the Culture, Arts, Heritage and Education sectors for the resilience of democracy. 

To achieve a resilient democracy, we must bring our sectors together, and develop unifying programs which work towards developing cultural citizens in the next generation. What can your role be? Start with one step —which may be reading this very blog.