No to Double Standards in the Arts!

NO TO DOUBLE STANDARDS IN THE ARTS!

MUST STATE ARTS INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR ARTISTS PRODUCE TV SERIES IN ORDER TO WORK UNDER HUMANE CONDITIONS?

The new incentive model announced by Mehmet Nuri Ersoy — which envisages support of $100,000 per episode for the TV series sector — is being presented to the public as "cultural development." However, the same state, the same ministry, having systematically impoverished the artists working in its own arts institutions for years, has rendered this announcement an unacceptable contradiction. When one considers how many shortfalls in the field of culture and the arts could be addressed with the support that would be given to a single series in one season, the gravity of the situation is plain to see.

Today, permanently employed artists working in state arts institutions face severe underfunding and structural economic contraction. Institutions have been unable to purchase fixed-asset instruments for years, citing insufficient appropriations or regulatory pretexts, and are forced to work with symbolic, token "micro" allocations for concert costumes and stage attire. Artists have effectively been made into institutional sponsors who personally procure their own instruments, clothing, and stage equipment.

• —Artists with 4/B status are condemned to a salary of approximately 47,000 TL,
• —Retired artists, particularly in major cities, are being reduced to a situation where they cannot even afford rent,
• —Due to across-the-board pay increases applied instead of "real raises," bonuses clearly defined in contracts and regulations as equivalent to one month's salary are being paid in shortfall,
• —As a result of this practice, each artist suffers a significant loss of income.

Moreover, today an artist with 30 years of professional seniority in a state arts institution earns approximately 83,000 TL. This figure is clearly below the poverty line for a family of three. In other words, even the most experienced artist in the service of the state has been deprived, under the current wage policy, of an income sufficient to maintain a dignified life together with their family.

With this picture in plain sight — while orchestras, operas, theatres, choirs, and performing artists who sustain public arts production are told "there are no resources" — the announcement of foreign-currency-based incentives for the commercial TV series sector is not merely a matter of preference; it is a clear declaration of policy.

We ask:

Are state arts institutions an item of austerity, while private-sector productions are a strategic investment?

Is cultural policy to be conducted by impoverishing the artist?

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

If series generating astronomical advertising revenues are "in need" of this support, is the state's own artist not in need?

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

• —The urgent need to increase budgets for state arts institutions and to immediately fill all shortfall items,
• —The need to promptly carry out the procurement of fixed-asset instruments and stage equipment,
• —The need to bring all permanently employed and 4/B artists to livable, humane wages,
• —The need to establish urgent support mechanisms for retired artists forced to live below the poverty line,
• —The immediate compensation of lost bonus payments,
• —The resumption of trainee artist recruitment in place of low-wage, insecure 4/B employment.

There can be no cultural policy that ignores the artist.

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

Respectfully announced to the public.