Support to the arts is being updated annually by inflation

O diploma – Decreto-Lei n.o 164-A/2026 – extends the mastery of the artistic areas in which the entities supported exercise activities, joining comic books, traditional arts and crafts and digital arts to the list that already included architecture, plastic arts, design, photography, new media, contemporary circus and street arts, dance, music and theater.

New creators and first works, External Cultural Action and the Portuguese Contemporary Art Network (RPAC) are also the target of new programs managed by the Directorate General of Arts (DGartes), under the decree-law, joining the existing programs of Supported Support, Project Support and Partnership Support.

The programme for new creators and first works aims at “providing and encouraging entry into the professional artistic sector or the start of a career or professional project in the artistic field” for natural persons who “are in an early stage of professionalisation” and have academic or professional training in the artistic field, among other criteria.

Support for External Cultural Action “is intended to promote and disseminate the arts through multilateral cooperation, the international circulation of cultural goods, cultural exchange through participation in international networks and platforms, transnational mobility of cultural agents and dialogues with other cultures”.

The modalities of this support, in general terms, aim at “artists or national and foreign entities of recognized artistic merit” and “art projects developed by artists or entities established in countries” of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries.

In the context of RPAC, support is directed to the areas of visual arts and disciplinary crossing, with the aim of “fomenting the creation, production, dissemination and public enjoyment of contemporary art”, spreading the existing art spaces in the country, “promoting the articulation of contemporary art with other sectorial areas and valuing artistic enjoyment as an instrument of correction of territorial asymmetries and human, social, economic and cultural development”.

In the context of sustained support, “a factor for updating financial support in the four-year period is created, seeking to respond to the need for greater financial stability of the supported structures”, which corresponds to “the annual variation of the consumer price index”, established by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), “for the month of September of the previous year, up to the limit of 2%”.

The model of support for the arts, which came into force in 2021, already provided for the possibility of renewal of four-year support, in the Support Program, for the same period, but without this updating factor, long claimed by the sector.

As it enters into force today, it covers the structures supported in cycle 2023-2026: the transitional standard states that the update at the inflation rate applies “from 2027 onwards to all support supported in the renewed four-year mode [...], regardless of the date of its contractualisation”.

Of the 135 entities that received support in this cycle (2023-2026), 125 will receive it again in 2027-2030, as DGArtes announced in November. The amount allocated to these renovations has not been disclosed.

For the year 2026, the transitional standard sets the financial limit of EUR 450,000 “of cumulation of support, per beneficiary entity, allocated by DGArtes”.

The new scheme also allows “the setting of global amounts available or a minimum number of support to be allocated per territorial area in order to promote a more balanced distribution of support and contribute to territorial cohesion”.

In the allocation of support, the new model also “values positive actions for the conclusion of employment contracts for an indefinite period, as well as the adoption of practices that prevent violence and harassment in the workplace”.

At the end of May, Minister Margarida Balseiro Lopes admitted that the process of reviewing the model of support for the arts, which the tutelage intended “to complete as soon as possible”, could “have a reflection on the calendar initially foreseen for the opening of competitions”.

According to DGArtes' Annual Declaration 2026, published in January, by the end of June the two-yearly competitions (2027-2028) of DGArtes' Support Programme, which have an amount of EUR 39.2 million available, almost four million more than in the previous cycle, were to be opened.

Decree-Law No 164-A/2026, which was in public consultation until 9 July, was approved in Council of Ministers on 23 July, promulgated on Wednesday by the President of the Republic and published on the same day in supplement of the 1st Series of the Diary of the Republic, with annexes and transitional rule.