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January 2013 Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the U.S. ‘EL SISTEMA’ AND CULTURAL PROMOTION IN VENEZUE...

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January 2013 Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the U.S.

‘EL SISTEMA’ AND CULTURAL PROMOTION IN VENEZUELA In recent years, Venezuela has gained worldwide attention for its successful System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras and Choirs, often simply called “El Sistema” (The System). The publiclyfunded program has provided hundred thousands of underprivileged children with classical music education as a route to empowerment and community-building. El Sistema has since been replicated in U.S. cities such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, Detroit and Los Angeles. Its most famous graduate, the conductor Gustavo Dudamel, is the Grammywinning leader of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and the LA Philharmonic. His “Mahler Project” in February 2012 brought the two orchestras together to perform over 40 hours of symphonies for audiences in Los Angeles and Caracas.1 An article about Dudamel in the New York Times stated that El Sistema is “becoming one of Venezuela’s finest exports.” While El Sistema may seem like an anomaly to some, its recent success is in fact part of a broader renaissance in Venezuela, whereby investments are being made in arts and culture – in addition to other areas of social life like education, health, and housing – in order to promote human wellbeing and values such as peace and solidarity. This ideal was expressed by El Sistema’s founder, José Antonio Abreu, who explained his own motivation by saying: “My struggle is for a society in which art is not just an aesthetic dimension of life. It is a primary instrument for the development of individuals and societies.”2 The groundwork for Venezuela’s cultural renaissance was laid in the 1999 constitution, a document that was drafted with citizen participation and approved in a national referendum. It highlights the need for “respect for intercultural relations under the principle of equality of cultures” and extends social security benefits to cultural workers like musicians “in order to provide them with a dignified life.” The Venezuelan constitution also establishes a role for the government in promoting cultural expression by working with artists, citizens, and the media to foster and disseminate artistic production.

Gustavo Dudamel and graduates of “El Sistema” perform in Caracas

According to article 99, the state guarantees “the protection and preservation, enrichment, conservation and restoration of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and the historical memory of the nation.” Article 101 states that: “The media have the duty to assist in the dissemination of traditional folk values and the work of artists, writers, composers, filmmakers, scientists and other cultural creators of the country.”3 Venezuela now has a cultural policy that is broad and inclusive, and its effects are already being seen. For example, in the last six years, 99 films have been made in Venezuela with government support through the program La Villa del Cine (Cinema City), which provides young and established filmmakers alike with infrastructure, equipment and training. Recent years have seen a boost in government funding for El Sistema through the Fundación Musical Simón Bolívar. Last year alone, lawmakers in Venezuela approved $38 million for the program. Its roots go back to the year 1975, when the musician and economist Dr. José Antonio Abreu brought together a small group of students in an abandoned lot in Caracas to begin teaching them how to play music together. This was the first local núcleo, or nucleus, of classical music training. Now, there are close to 300 of them throughout Venezuela, each with several different orchestras and choirs, and a total of about 370,000 students – some as young as two or three years old – are currently participating.

Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela - 1099 30th Street, NW - Washington, D.C. 20007 - (202) 342-2214 - venezuela-us.org

Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the U.S. According to the book Changing Lives by Tricia Tunstall, it is difficult to know exactly how many young people are being reached because “the Sistema is growing literally by the day. What is clear is that there are núcleos in the hills of the Andes, núcleos in inland cities and núcleos in seacoast towns, and that hundreds of thousands of children and young people across Venezuela are playing and singing classical music every day for hours.”4 The reason El Sistema has become so successful in Venezuela and has inspired people in so many other countries is that it is about more than just music; while offering free instruments and instruction, it also teaches students to work hard, believe in themselves, and collaborate with one another. According to its website, El Sistema is about “loving children first and loving music second. Emphasis is placed on creating a community… graduates leave with a sense of capability, endurance and resilience, with the confidence to take on enormous challenges in their lives.”5 An estimated 50 to 70 percent of the young people enrolled in El Sistema come from low-income families, and their involvement helps them get ahead. Maestro Abreu has often said that music is a way to defeat poverty and the anonymity that poverty can engender. This is also a central value of El Sistema USA, the network of related projects that have been developed throughout the United States. They are prioritizing what Abreu has called “an affluence of the spirit” as a route to overcoming poverty and adversity. As Abreu has written, “music creates happiness and hope in a community.” By promoting this and other types of cultural expression, Venezuela is investing in positive social change and providing a powerful example for the world. The Venezuelan government is also promoting arts and culture through its diplomatic offices around the world. In 2003, the embassy in Washington, DC, inaugurated its “Bolivarian Hall,” which is one of the largest cultural spaces at any Latin American embassy in the U.S. capital. The venue, renovated in 2010 with support from Citgo Petroleum Corporation, is a gathering place for the local Venezuelan community, friends and afficionadoes of Venezuelan culture, and artists and other types of cultural producers. Events hosted here have included concerts, art exhibits, film screenings, dance workshops, chocolate tastings. For more information, please visit the “cultural events” section of our website .

SOURCES: 1. “Fighting Poverty, Armed with Violins”, Daniel J. Wakin, New York Times, February 15, 2012. www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/arts/music/ el-sistema-venezuelas-plan-to-help-children-through-music.html 2. Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema and the Transformative Power of Music, by Tricia Tunstall (W.W. Norton, 2012), p. xi. 3. See the constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela: venezuelanalysis.com/constitution 4. Changing Lives, p. 36. 5. See the website of El Sistema USA at elsistemausa.org

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Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela - 1099 30th Street, NW - Washington, D.C. 20007 - (202) 342-2214 - venezuela-us.org