Cultural schools will receive lower budgets next year in half of the country’s municipalities, according to a new report from the interest organization Cultural Schools Council.
In the municipality of Salem, south of Stockholm, the budget is halved and several parts of the business are forced to shut down. 19-year-old Filippa Garpefält, who dared to sing thanks to private lessons at school, is now forced to stop.
– As a country, we risk losing our music tax, she says to TV4 Nyheterna.
It’s the end of private lessons when the Culture School in Salem’s municipality gets its budget cut in half next year. Staff layoffs and a smaller range of courses have led to both protest lists and hundreds of phone calls.
– There have been such strong reactions from parents who said “this has ruined my child’s life”, says Pernilla Söderblom, head of the cultural school in Salem municipality.
– It is such feelings that are uprooted because it is so important that this is in their children’s lives, she continues.
Filippa is forced to quit
For six years, 19-year-old Filippa Garpefält has been singing at Kulturskolan. She dared to sing thanks to private lessons, but now that they are disappearing, she has been forced to stop.
– When I was younger, I had very low self-confidence, especially when it came to singing. I didn’t dare start in a choir because I thought I would drag the whole choir down, she says.
– So I started here at the culture school for private lessons. And it has felt very rewarding, she continues.
“Significantly tougher”
According to a new report from the interest organization Kulturskolerådet, where 200 of the country’s 283 municipalities with cultural school operations have responded to a survey, 46 percent state that the financial resources will decrease next year. Only 6 percent receive increased resources.
– It looks much tougher than we had thought. Even the municipalities that have the same budget as before, also receive cuts in practice. Because costs for wages and premises, and things driven by inflation, create more costs, says Torgny Sandgren, secretary general at the Cultural Schools Council.
The Minister of Culture answers
The municipalities cannot count on additional support from the state.
– Right now we have announced that there are one hundred million kroner in development grants that will be available from 2024 to 2026. That is the announcement I can give at the moment, says the Minister of Culture, Parisa Liljestrand (M).
Filippa Garpefält believes that the cut is a hard blow to Swedish music.
– Some children like football and some like singing or dancing. Sweden is known for being one of the world’s biggest music exports, to some extent because of the culture schools, which have given many children the chance to keep up with music, she says.
– If you don’t get it, we as a country risk losing our music tax.