We, curators, artistic and organizational directors of theaters, venues, residencies, festivals and events, theater and dance programmers involved in the contemporary Italian scene, with the ultimate goal of emphasizing a new concept with which live performance can and must be conceived, realized, and monitored, and with the specific aims of promoting greater respect for the dignity of the work of companies, encouraging the development of new talent and providing concrete support for a ‘pact between generations’, voluntarily signing this project platform and declare that we share the following general principles:

1. The objective of the design of our spaces will be above all to create contexts for the development of the contemporary scene, with reference to theater, dance, music, and performing arts;

2. Our facilities will be designed to be open to relationships with the communities and geographical areas in which we operate, in dialogue with the facilities, operators, and artists working in the area, also connecting them with the national and international scene;

3. We are committed to considering the public as the necessary horizon for our cultural action, developing ways of listening, proposing, and involving them;

4. We want to consider the artist as the generator of our work processes, taking care of the quality of our relationships and critical dialogue with them, creating conditions of attention and transparent relationships.

To promote all this, and specifically to create fruitful relationships with artists, we are committed to respecting some simple practical measures, which in some cases seem obvious, but are not always taken for granted.

It is hoped that this assumption of responsibility will be shared by public and private theaters and by as many operators as possible, or that they will adopt the general and specific rules and adapt them to their own prototypes, even more stringent ones, until it becomes so obvious that it is superseded by facts.

• Our theaters, venues, residences, festivals, and events are committed to transparent relationships with companies, for example by indicating in their communications, and specifically on their websites, the name of the person responsible for planning, providing their contact details. It is important to be clear about the timing and methods for sending material, as well as the timing and methods by which the person responsible will communicate (or not communicate) to companies whether their proposal has been accepted.

• Those responsible for planning our spaces are committed to opening a dialogue and critical discussion with companies, should they themselves request them to send materials.

• Our venues are committed to treating all companies with dignity and respect, undertaking to maintain a balance between the treatment and remuneration offered to the companies hosted. The conditions of hospitality offered, the agreed fees, and any unexpected reductions in those fees are conditions that the artists hosted must be made aware of in order to create a virtuous and transparent management of working relationships.

• The planners of our spaces are committed to promoting the free circulation of works, fostering collaboration, co-production, and relationships with other entities, in order to ensure the healthy growth of artistic projects, with a view to promoting maximum circulation and avoiding the practice of requesting exclusivity. In

any case, we are committed to not considering exclusivity as a right of the planner nor as an imposition, but only as an element of negotiation with the companies

• In the event that our facilities produce their own shows and also receive public funding for programming, those responsible for them undertake to ensure that their productions do not fill the program in an invasive, let alone exclusive, manner, but rather favor a plurality of performances.

• In the event that our facilities produce their own shows, those responsible for planning are committed not to encourage the policy of exchange and, on the contrary, to take every measure to combat this practice.

• In the event that our facilities receive public funding for planning, those responsible for them undertake to safeguard, in the balance of costs, a significant portion to be allocated to the artistic budget, in order to activate

hospitality and work projects with companies, without management costs committing the entire budget.

• In the event that our facilities do not receive public funding for planning and companies are offered a share of the proceeds, we are committed to ensuring that agreements and conditions are transparent, with a view to ensuring that the business risk is shared equally between the guest company and the host operator.

• Our theaters, venues, festivals, and events are committed to providing companies that agree to come on a pay-per-performance basis with at least decent accommodation. It is desirable that travel expenses also be reimbursed. In any case, when there is an invitation to perform on a pay-per-performance basis, we are committed to considering it the responsibility of the theater, venue, festival, or event to inform the guest companies of the promotional and communication activities that will be carried out.

• Basic promotion and press office services are the responsibility of the host organization and must be agreed upon in advance with the guest company, including any specific promotional activities that may involve additional costs. Enpals (the Italian social security agency for performers) is the responsibility of the companies. In the case of box office programming, Siae (the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers) fees are deducted from the total gross box office takings.

• From a technical standpoint, we are committed to providing artists with the best conditions to carry out their work, seeking to establish a mutual and clear relationship with them, starting with the technical specifications requested, and in any case guaranteeing at least one technician for the assembly and disassembly period.

• From an accounting perspective, we are committed to compiling payment slips for each show and requesting performance permits for all guest companies.

• With regard to payments to be settled, we are committed to communicating clearly and complying with payment deadlines and methods.

• In general, the programmers of our venues, exhibitions, and festivals are committed to maintaining a balanced relationship between the number of artists hosted and the agreed remuneration, favoring the development of a cultural policy that tends to prioritize the quality of the relationship established with artists and the public, rather than the quantity of the proposal.

• The signatories of this document bind themselves to publish it on their websites, with a commitment to publicly disclose any critical issues that emerge.

This statement is to be considered binding for all operators, curators, and structures that agree to share it, and is intended to be preliminary to the formulation of a comprehensive Code of Ethics which, in addition to this assumption of responsibility by curators towards artists, will concern an equal sharing of responsibility by artists towards spaces, by structures towards their employees and/or collaborators, and by

structures towards other structures.

The signing and compliance with this declaration has the value of an internal resolution and is binding for membership and continued membership of C.Re.S.Co., both for member organizations and for individual operators with responsibilities as planners and curators.

The following are 113 signatures of all C.Re.S.Co. members as of 24 November 2012