No to Double Standards in the Arts!

NO TO DOUBLE STANDARDS IN THE ARTS!

MUST STATE ART INSTITUTIONS AND ARTISTS REALLY SHOOT TV SERIES TO EARN HUMANE WORKING CONDITIONS?

The new incentive model announced by Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, which foresees support of 100,000 US dollars per episode for the television series industry, is being presented to the public as "cultural development". Yet the fact that the same state and the same ministry have systematically impoverished the artists working in their own art institutions for years turns this announcement into an unacceptable contradiction. When one considers how many gaps in culture and the arts could be closed with the support to be given to a single series in one season, the gravity of the situation is plain.

Today, the permanent artists working in the state's art institutions face severe underfunding and structural economic contraction. Citing insufficient allocations or regulatory excuses, institutions have for years been unable to purchase instruments as fixed assets, and are forced to work with symbolic, token "micro" allocations for concert costumes and stage attire. Artists have effectively been turned into their institutions' sponsors, supplying their own instruments, clothing and stage equipment.

• —Artists in 4/B status are condemned to a salary of roughly 47,000 TL;
• —Retired artists, especially in the big cities, are being pushed to the point where they cannot even pay rent;
• —Because across-the-board increases are applied instead of a "real raise", the bonuses equal to one month's salary that are clearly defined in contracts and legislation are being underpaid;
• —As a result of this practice, every single artist suffers a serious loss of income.

What is more, the salary of an artist with 30 years of professional seniority in the state's art institutions today is roughly 83,000 TL. This figure is clearly below the poverty line for a family of three. In other words, even the state's most experienced artist has been deprived, under the current wage policy, of an income sufficient to sustain humane living conditions with their family.

Against this backdrop, announcing foreign-currency incentives for the commercial series industry while telling the orchestras, operas, theatres, choirs and stage artists who keep public artistic production alive that "there are no funds" is not merely a preference; it is an open declaration of policy.

We ask:

Are the state's art institutions a line item for savings, while private-sector productions are a strategic investment?

Is cultural policy to be conducted by impoverishing the artist?

Is the artist's labour not as valuable as tourism promotion?

If series earning astronomical advertising revenues are "in need" of this support, is your own artist not in need?

Art is not merely exportable content; it is a public right. The state's primary duty is first to secure the dignity, labour and living conditions of its own artists, and only then to announce support models.

• —An urgent budget increase for state art institutions and the immediate completion of missing line items;
• —The purchase of instruments and stage equipment as fixed assets without delay;
• —Humane, liveable wages for all artists, both permanent and 4/B;
• —Urgent support mechanisms for retired artists forced to live below the poverty line;
• —Immediate compensation of the underpaid bonus losses;
• —The reinstatement of trainee-artist recruitment in place of low-paid, precarious 4/B employment.

There can be no cultural policy that ignores the artist.

We will not stay silent in the face of this injustice.

Respectfully announced to the public.