Brazil's state-controlled oil company Petrobras will introduce today in Brazilian capital BrasÀlia the Petrobras Cultural Program (PPC), for public selection of projects for sponsorship.
The program has a total budget of US$ 37,3 million (80 million reais), US$ 28 million of which will be turned to public selection of projects in various cultural segments. The remainder is aimed at projects to be appointed directly by the Petrobras Cultural Board.
For two years now, Petrobras travels to Brazilian capital cities to announce the criteria for project selection. The goal is to foster cultural production in all regions of the country.
Lectures will be free of charge and open to cultural producers interested in enrolling projects in the program. The presentation in Brasília will be held in the morning at Sala Funarte Cássia Eller. At 2 pm, the Petrobras Cultural Program will be presented in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba, at Museu Oscar Niemeyer.
In the first edition of the program (2003/2004) 68% of the winning projects in the public selections were from Rio and São Paulo. In the following edition the number of Rio/São Paulo projects fell to 43%. In the 2005/2006 edition the participation of the São Paulo-Rio axis dropped even more, to 41%.