DGArtes announces six sustained support calls

Com a global amount of 72.84 million euros, for the four-year cycle, the six contests will cover the areas of Visual Arts, Discipline Crossing, Circus, Street Arts and Digital Arts, Dance, Music and Opera, Theatre and Programming.

In the statement published today on its website, DGArtes recalls that these competitions take place “already in the context of the change of the regime for the allocation of financial support of the State in the areas of visual arts, performing arts and disciplinary crossing and the new regulation of the Support Programs for the Arts”, which entered into force on Thursday, after publication in Diário da República.

Under these competitions, the Visual Arts will have a global financial amount of €7.74 million, of which €4.14 million will be for the biennial modality, with projects to be carried out in 2027 and 2028, and 3.6 million for the four-year modality, for projects to be carried out from 2027 to 2030.

In the area of Discipline Crossing, Circus, Street Arts and Digital Arts, there will be a global amount of 8.94 million euros, to be available as follows: in the biennial modality, 2.94 million for Discipline Crossing and Digital Arts, 960 thousand euros for Street Arts and another 960 thousand for Circus; in the quadriennial modality, for the areas of Discipline Crossing, Circus, Street Arts and Digital Arts, there will be a total of 4.08 million euros.

The competition in the area of Dance will have a total of 6.66 million euros, with 3.54 million for the biennial modality and 3.12 million for the four-year contests.

In the areas of Music and Opera, there is a total of 10.92 million euros, with the biennial modality to gather 4.44 million for Music projects and 1.44 million for Opera. The four-year modality reserves 5.04 million for Music and Opera.

The Theatre, with a global amount available of EUR 20.58 million, has 11.1 million for the biennial modality, and 9.48 million for the four-year modality.

Finally, in the field of Programming, there are 18 million euros for projects under the Performing Arts (circus, dance, music, opera and theater), Street Arts, Digital Arts and Discipline Crossing, being 9.72 million for the biennial modality and 8.28 million for the quadriennial.

Projects that receive support in the biennial modality should take place between January 1, 2027 and December 31, 2028; and in the four-year modality, from January 1, 2027 to December 31, 2030.

The notice of opening, in the short term, of the calls for tenders of the Support Programme, available at DGArtes’ website, also recalls that, in the framework of the implementation “of this support programme and other programmes” of this body, “entities cannot benefit from an annual amount exceeding €450,000.

The Decree-Law of revision of the model of support to the arts, which includes the factor of annual update of four-year support indexed to inflation, was published on Wednesday in supplement of the Diário da República and entered into force the next day.

The diploma – Decreto-Lei n.o 164-A/2026 – extends the domain 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 DGArtes, joining existing programs for Supporting Projects and Partnership Support.

In the context of sustained support, “a four-year financial support update factor” was created, which corresponds to “the annual variation of the consumer price index”, calculated by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), “for the month of September of the previous year, up to the limit of 2%”.

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

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”.