Subtipos moleculares

Silverman (1985:103) observed that cultural events have to be understood ‘in terms of the political-economic contexts’ in which they take place as these events ‘are grounded in particular social and political-economic structures, which they enter into and affect’. In Timişoara, the period of my fieldwork coincided with a period of relative political stability in city politics. Gheorge Ciuhandu was mayor of Timişoara for fifteen years from 1996 to 2012, and his support for local music and dance and events meant that the Culture House benefited from both non-monetary, and financial support from the City Hall budgets, for their activities throughout this period. This support from the local policy holders allowed those passionate about local music and dance in Timişoara opportunities for continuity and expansion of their activities at a time when their colleagues in other Romanian cities (and elsewhere in Eastern Europe) were faced

with withdrawal of funding and support.38 _{After 1989 two related changes had occurred}

that affected local cultural events; the shift from central to local funding and the change from 100% public funding to a mix of public and private funding in the form of sponsorship.39 _{This changing weight and meaning of public and private resources was}

one of the biggest issues that faced those living in the post socialist states (Kideckel, 2009:122). The shift from central to local came about with mixed fortunes for those involved, as local (micro) politics took over the role previously taken by the central administration. In the sphere of cultural activities in post-1989 Romania, and in particular activities connected with local music and dance, the most important factor was whether the mayor had an interest in such things, as the provision of local funds for cultural events is dependent on the interest of the local power holders. This situation, where the power is held by certain key local individuals is not unique to post- communist Eastern Europe. Ronström refers to a similar situation in connection with the funding of museums in the town of Visby in Gotland, Sweden, where the ‘process of acquiring funds’ and the ‘access to capital flow’ was ‘initiated and controlled by a small number of persons in leading positions’ who successfully used their ‘local, regional and global networks’ to take control (Ronström, 2005:3).

The role of networks of individuals and their social (or cultural) capital in the Romanian ensemble world, and continuities and discontinuities between, before and after 1989 will be covered further in Chapter 4. In this chapter I am mainly concerned with the relationship between the local power holders and the Culture House administrators, who work in close liaison with the City Hall to implement the Mayor’s cultural policy as outlined in policy documents available on the City Hall website.40

According to the 2008 report these policies included: financially supporting ‘local cultural events included in the cultural agenda, prioritizing good quality events with major cultural impact’, continuing the cultural events that have become ‘traditional’, and promoting ‘local traditions by organising thematic markets at Easter and Christmas’ (Ciuhandu, 2008a). Each year in early January the Culture House submits a detailed budget application to the City Hall; together with their annual report on the activities of the previous year (see Casa de Cultură a Municipiului Timişoara, 2009). By mid March they are granted their working funds for the year’s events from the municipality

38 _{For example in 2011 in Serbia the newly elected democratic party cancelled all donations to} the Cultural Arts Societies (Kulturno Umjetnicko Drustvo or KUDs) leaving them to be funded only from membership fees and private sponsorship (Rakočević, 2011a).

39 _{This situation contrasted to the Republic of Moldova where, according to Cash, the State} continued to fund ‘cultural and folkloric activity’ but ‘without an overtly articulated policy or ideology that outlines the role of culture or its relationship to the state’ (Cash, 2011:54,59) 40 _{One of these documents sets out the cultural achievements of the Municipality for the years} 2004 to 2008 (Ciuhandu, 2008b) and another the mayor’s cultural agenda for 2008 to 2012 (Ciuhandu, 2008a).

budgets. These funds cover both events that are organised under instruction from the City Hall and events proposed by the Culture House Director, as well as funds for the activities of the cultural groups that are associated with, and use the facilities provided by, the Culture House including the various sections of Timişul (adults, teenagers and children’s groups), the recreational local dance class for adults discussed in Chapter 4, the Serbian ensemble Zora (not active in the latter years of my research), the Hungarian children’s ensemble Eszterlánc, a literary circle, and a women’s choir. In addition to this, the Culture House is also the venue for Latin dance lessons and music lessons on folk instruments such as accordion, saxophone and taragot. The municipal funding for cultural events is supplemented by income from sale of permits to stall holders, and limited private sponsorship for specific events, and in the case of Timişul some additional funding from fees paid for ‘cabaret’ style private performances that are arranged through the Culture House (although it should be noted that, as I discuss in Chapter 3, when the dancers arrange these performances themselves the fees are taken by the individuals who take part). Over the last few years the financial crisis has resulted in the total cultural funding allocated by the city being reduced to around 50% of the previous allocation, although the amount allotted to the larger events such as Festivalul Inimilor and the Timişoara Ruga have remained the same. I was also told that corporate or private sponsorship had become more difficult to obtain as local businesses were struggling with the economic climate. I have attempted to enquire about the implications of these reductions in funding during my interviews but these discussions are met with the typical Romanian response ‘of course we will manage this very well, we are good managers!’. In practice, over the last two years I have observed some minor economies in the peripheral expenditure during events, for example there were no fireworks at the 2011 Ruga (see Iedu, 2011), but in general the events have gone ahead as planned and in the same format as previous years.

When the municipal budget is released it is announced in the local press and during the daily news programmes on local television, for example in 2012 the local print press reported that:

‘Of the fifty four events proposed by the Culture House in Timişoara for 2012, which were approved in plenary by Timişoara City Council, eight of these will be made without the Municipality giving money, as the money will only come from sponsorships. The majority of the budget of 200,000 lei is allocated for the world folklore festival, Festivalul Inimilor, an event that will involve teams from Europe, Asia and Latin America, the Festival of Opera and Operetta and organising the New Year celebrations for 2012-2013’ (Mîţ, 2012).

Two years before, in March 2010, I was interested to note the choice of footage shown during the news item on the local budget on TV Europa Nova (a Timişoara based television channel) as I consider this gave an indicator on what elements of the

cultural events might be considered as significant to the locals. This short item included footage taken at Festivalul Inimilor (see Chapter 7) the previous summer, including the commemoration and opening parade from several angles, Timişul as the host group performing on stage, and a visiting group Aloha from Tahiti that could be regarded as ‘exotic’.

More recently, the organisation of cultural activities in Timişoara has been further challenged by a drive from the City Hall to apply ‘western’ standards in detailed accountancy, business management, and quality control. This is in line with the situation described in other cities by Klaic where:

‘[c]ultural institutions have also been further destabilized by the mixed messages they have been receiving, especially from politicians. Politicians are telling them, “behave like a business,” but they are not businesses and although they could learn a lot from the commercial world they should not behave like it’ (Klaic, 2010:4);

or, to quote the secretary of the Timişoara Culture House ‘these procedures are not correct for us, our business is culture’. Thus, provision of funding as a monetary economy is not the only ‘economy’ at play here. Ronström, when discussing festivals in 2001 suggests three different ‘economies’ associated with such events; ‘the “normal” money economy’ in respect of funding and money generation discussed above, ‘the “symbolic” economy [...] where the currency is cultural status or value’ and the ‘attention economy’, where the currency is visibility. In Chapter 1 I introduced the concept of visibility in connection with cultural events. Ronström sees that cultural events can act as ‘exchange bureaus’ as they ‘produce great visibility for relatively low costs that can lead to high attention’ (Ronström, 2001:14-15). In Timişoara, where these events are intended for community participation, this drive for ‘high attention’ is supported by the fact that, as Vlaeva (2011:131) comments for similar events in Bulgaria, all the public events are open for everyone to attend, with no entrance fee being charged. This encourages locals to come to these events for part or all of the proceedings as part of their recreational concourses (during afternoon or evening strolls). I consider the greatest value to the Timişoara community is through Ronström’s ‘symbolic’ economy, but I consider that this is achieved through visibility. In the lead up to an event, raising public awareness (visibility) of the forthcoming event is essential, although events that reoccur on a fixed calendar basis are already within the locals’ awareness. The Culture House organisers maintain close relations with all the local media representatives with whom they liaise on a regular basis. They arrange the announcements of forthcoming events in the local press and prior to every event they organise the design, printing and distribution of posters and publicity leaflets. In their event planning they play a major part in ensuring that local music performance is

visible as a central element in cultural events in Timişoara. I would hold that this visibility plays an important role in the reinforcement of local identity by providing a reminder of what it is to a Bănăţeni or what Slobin terms as ‘validation through visibility’ (Slobin, 1993:21). An interesting point of discussion is who this visibility is aimed at. In this case of Timişul the organisers and performers are primarily concerned with visibility of the ensemble at the local, and to some extent translocal (Bennett and Peterson, 2004:8-9) levels as these events are primarily intended for the benefit of the local community, even including the case of Festivalul Inimilor.