The Ministry of Culture ( es, Ministerio de Cultura) of

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

is a ministry of the national executive power that oversees the government's public policy on the

culture of Argentina The culture of Argentina is as varied as the country's geography and is composed of a mix of ethnic groups. Modern Argentinian culture has been influenced largely by Italian, Spanish, and other European immigration, while there is still a les ...

. The culture portfolio was first established in 1973 during the presidency of

Héctor Cámpora Hector () is an English, French, Scottish, and Spanish given name. The name is derived from the name of Hektor, a legendary Trojan champion who was killed by the Greek Achilles. The name ''Hektor'' is probably derived from the Greek ''ékhein'', ...

as part of the responsibilities of the Ministry of Culture and Education; the first minister responsible was Jorge Alberto Taiana. The ministry existed only briefly before being demoted to a Secretariat. It would remain under the scope of the broader Ministry of Education until 2014, when it was re-established by President

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner (; born 19 February 1953), often referred to by her initials CFK, is an Argentine lawyer and politician who has served as the Vice President of Argentina since 2019. She also served as the President o ...

. Its current minister is, since 10 December 2019 and in the cabinet of President

Alberto Fernández Alberto Ángel Fernández (; born 2 April 1959) is an Argentine politician, lawyer and professor, serving as president of Argentina since 2019. Born in Buenos Aires, Fernández attended the University of Buenos Aires, where he earned his law ...

Tristán Bauer Tristán Bauer (born 22 June 1959) is an Argentine film maker, screenwriter and politician. Since 10 December 2019, he has been Argentina's Minister of Culture in the cabinet of President Alberto Fernández. He breakout film was the 1991 drama ' ...

History

The culture portfolio was first established as the Ministry of Culture and Education on 25 May 1973 upon the accession to the presidency of

; the first minister responsible was the physician and

Justicialist Party The Justicialist Party ( es, Partido Justicialista, ; abbr. PJ) is a major political party in Argentina, and the largest branch within Peronism. Current president Alberto Fernández belongs to the Justicialist Party (and has, since 2021, serve ...

politician Jorge Alberto Taiana. Taiana remained in office through the resignation of Cámpora, the interim presidency of

Raúl Lastiri Raúl Alberto Lastiri (11 September 1915 – 11 December 1978) was an Argentine politician who was interim president of Argentina from July 13, 1973 until October 12, 1973. Lastiri, who presided over the Argentine Chamber of Deputies, was promot ...

, the brief third presidency of

Juan Domingo Perón ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, ...

and part of the presidency of

Isabel Perón Isabel Martínez de Perón (, born María Estela Martínez Cartas, 4 February 1931), also known as Isabelita, is an Argentine politician who served as President of Argentina from 1974 to 1976. She was one of the first female republican heads ...

, and was succeeded by

Oscar Ivanissevich Oscar Ivanissevich (5 August 1895 - 5 June 1976) was an Argentinian politician, physician and footballer. He belonged to Peronist Party and is considered the co-author of the Peronist March. He served as Minister of Education in two terms design ...

in 1974. During the last military dictatorship (1976–1983) the issue of culture and education was left, for the most part, in the hands of civilians. Upon the return of democracy in 1983, President Raúl Alfonsín mandated the creation of the Secretariat of Culture as a dependency of the Ministry of Education and Justice; the first Secretary was

Carlos Gorostiza Carlos Gorostiza Rodríguez (; June 7, 1920 – July 19, 2016) was an Argentine playwright, theatre director, and novelist. His seminal work ''El puente'' debuted in 1949 and he garnered numerous awards for his proceeding works. He later was Se ...

. In 2014, President

announced the establishment of a ministry dedicated exclusively to culture, with singer-songwriter

Teresa Parodi Teresa Adelina Sellarés, best known as Teresa Parodi, (born December 30, 1947) is an Argentine singer and songwriter. She held the inaugural post of Minister of Culture of Argentina from May 6, 2014, to December 9, 2015. She was a deputy to the ...

being appointed to the new position. The ministry was again demoted to a Secretariat under the Ministry of Education with the cabinet reorganization imposed by President

Mauricio Macri Mauricio Macri (; born 8 February 1959) is an Argentine businessman and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 2015 to 2019. He has been the leader of the Republican Proposal (PRO) party since its founding in 2005. He previo ...

in September 2018, but this would be undone by the new administration of President

upon its arrival to power in 2019.

Attributions

The attributions and responsibilities of the Ministry of Culture are specified in Article 23, section 5 of the current Law on Ministries (''Ley de Ministerios''), published in 2019. According to this law, the Ministry is in charge of assisting the

President of Argentina The president of Argentina ( es, Presidente de Argentina), officially known as the president of the Argentine Nation ( es, Presidente de la Nación Argentina), is both head of state and head of government of Argentina. Under the national cons ...

and the

Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers The Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Argentine Nation ( es, Jefe de Gabinete de Ministros de la Nación Argentina; JGM), more commonly known simply as the Cabinet Chief ( es, Jefe de Gabinete) is a ministerial office within the governmen ...

in all matters pertaining to culture, as well as designing and executing public policy, planning, programs and projects to stimulate and favor culture; elaborating and promoting policies that strengthen Argentina's cultural identities, promoting policies destined to the development of the economic activity of the cultural industry, directing policies of conservation and protection of Argentina's cultural heritage, promoting policies that safeguard cultural diversity, among others.

Structure and dependencies

The Ministry of Culture counts with a number of centralized and decentralized dependencies. The centralized dependencies, as in other government ministers, are known as secretariats (''secretarías'') and undersecretariats (''subsecretarías''); there are currently three of these: *Secretariat of Cultural Development (''Secretaría de Desarrollo Cultural'') *Secretariat of Cultural Administration (''Secretaría de Gestión Cultural'') *Secretariat of Cultural Heritage (''Secretaría de Patrimonio Cultural'') The Secretariat of Cultural Heritage, through the National Directorate of Museums, is tasked with overseeing and maintaining all of Argentina's national museums, such as the National Museum of Fine Arts, the National Historical Museum, the

Sarmiento Historical Museum The Sarmiento History Museum ( es, Museo Histórico Sarmiento), located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Belgrano, is a museum dedicated to Argentine history, and in particular to the Generation of '80 and the life of President Domingo Faustin ...

, the National Bicentennial House, the Historical House of Independence, the National Cabildo Museum, among others. In addition, a number of decentralized institutions depend on the Ministry of Culture, such as the

National Library of the Argentine Republic The Mariano Moreno National Library ( es, Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno) is the largest library in Argentina. It is located in the barrio of Recoleta in Buenos Aires. The library is named after Mariano Moreno, one of the ideologists of the M ...

, the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, the

National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts The National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts ( es, Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales, INCAA; also referred to as the Argentine National Film Board) is an agency of the Government of Argentina. It promotes the Argentine ...

(INCAA), and the National Institute of Music.

Headquarters

The Ministry of Culture is headquartered in the Casey Palace, a residential manor originally built for the

Irish Argentine Irish Argentines are Argentine citizens who are fully or partially of Irish descent. Irish emigrants from the Midlands, Wexford and many counties of Ireland arrived in Argentina mainly from 1830 to 1930, with the largest wave taking place in 1 ...

businessman

Eduardo Casey Eduardo Casey was an Argentine born of Irish parents in 1847 in Buenos Aires. In 1880 he purchased of land in Santa Fe Province and founded there the present-day city of Venado Tuerto, named after a one-eyed deer that alerted early settlers to at ...

. The building was designed by the United States-born architect Carlos Ryder and finished in 1889. It is located at the intersection of Alvear Avenue and Rodríguez Peña street, in the Buenos Aires ''

barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish word that means " quarter" or " neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city, usually delimited by functional (e.g. residential, commercial, industrial, etc.), social, a ...

'' of Recoleta.

List of Ministers

References

External links

* {{authority control

Culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

Argentine culture 2014 establishments in Argentina