Brazil puts the arts in the pockets of the poor with new cultural coupon scheme

Men concentrate on their dominoes next to a mural by street artist Speto, in São Paulo. The government hopes poorer Brazilians will use the Vale Cultura scheme to broaden their cultural tastes. Photograph: Marcos Issa/Bloomberg/Getty

Like millions of other São Paulo residents, Telma Rodrigues spends a large part of her day going to and from work. She hates the commute, and not just because public transport is packed, slow and inefficient. She finds it boring.

Now there's light at the end of the tunnel. As of last month, the Brazilian government is giving people such as Rodrigues a "cultural coupon" worth $20 a month – enough, the 26-year-old said, to buy a book to enliven her daily ride.

The money, loaded on a magnetic card, is designated for purposes broadly termed cultural – though that could include dance lessons and visits to the circus in addition to books and movie tickets. In a country still battling high levels of poverty, the initiative has won widespread praise as a worthy and yet relatively cheap project. But it has still provoked questions. Is it the state's job to fund culture? How will poor Brazilians use the money? How do you, or even should you, convince people their money will be better spent on Jules Verne rather than Justin Bieber?

"What we'd really like is that they try new things," culture minister Marta Suplicy said in a telephone interview. "We want people to go to the theatre they wanted to go to, to the museum they wanted to go to, to buy the book they wanted to read."

Although it has made significant advances in recent years, the South American nation is still relatively isolated and many of the poorest Brazilians are unsophisticated in their tastes. They pick up an average of just four books a year, including textbooks, and finish only two of them, a study published last year by the São Paulo state government showed. Almost all of Brazil's 5,570 municipalities have a local library, but only one in four has a bookshop, theatre or museum, and only one in nine boasts a cinema, according to government statistics.

When asked what they most like to do in their spare time, 85% of Brazilians answered "watch television".

The rechargeable coupon, known in Portuguese as a Vale Cultura, is available to workers who earn up to $300 a month, or about five times Brazil's minimum wage. So far, 356,000 people have signed up, and government officials hope as many as 42 million could eventually join, helped by firms that enrol their employees and companies who sign up to accept the card in lieu of cash. Several credit card firms are making and distributing the cards.State-run companies are obliged to participate, and ministers are encouraging unions to demand the Vale Cultura as part of their annual wage negotiations.

"This is innovative and cool, and no one in the world is doing anything like it," Suplicy said. "My hope is that it will be revolutionary for culture here. It provides an opportunity for people who never had it and, at the same time, has an impact on cultural production."

Such grand ideological gestures are not uncommon in Brazil, particularly under the Workers' party government that has ruled for the past 11 years. The administration's cash transfer programme, which gives monthly grants of between $15 and $125 for sending a child to school and participating in pre- and post-natal care, has lifted at least 20 million people out of poverty.

A visitor takes in an exhibition at the Banco do Brasil Cultural Centre in Brasília. Photograph: Evaristo Sa/Getty

But the projects are sometimes divisive. Although the cash transfer programme has been replicated all over the developing world – and helped the Workers' party to three consecutive election wins at home – it is seen by some as a golden trap for the poor.

Suplicy pointed out the majority of the money flowing through the Vale Cultura will stay in Brazil and give vital local support. She also stressed, however, that people need time to develop their tastes.

"The point is social inclusion," she said. "But I am under no illusions that it will happen quickly. It is a big challenge, and it is going to take time."

What the Vale Cultura could do is have an immediate impact on democratising access to culture.

At the moment, thousands of films, plays, books and concerts are dependent on corporate sponsorship, and big Brazilian companies invest $800m a year on cultural projects in return for tax breaks. But that money too often goes to the safest and most insipid ideas, said André Forastieri, a cultural commentator at one of Brazil's big TV channels. The Vale Cultura gives power directly to the people.

"The Vale Cultura is not to be celebrated as a huge step forward," Forastieri said. "But it is better than having the money invested by bureaucrats and marketing directors of big companies."

Most people acknowledge that the majority of the money will probably go on what might charitably be described as low culture – self-help books, concert DVDs, and shows or downloads by sexually explicit rappers. But like the culture minister, who thinks people will gradually become more demanding, Forastieri said the first step is getting people involved.

"Rap is considered part of the culture in the US, but 30 years ago they were trying to ban it," he said. "It's stupid to think the money will be spent homogeneously. There's no better and more democratic way than to put the money in the hands of the people to spend it as they want."

And people are seizing that opportunity. One of the most encouraging aspects of the programme is that the most enthusiastic backers are not multinationals, private banks or other big employers. Almost three-quarters of the initial signatories are small family firms, alerted to the idea by their employees.

"My workers told me about it and suggested we sign up," said Mayra Toledo, owner of a patisserie in São Paulo. "I thought it sounded interesting, so I did, and all four of my employees will get it. It's something that is good for them and cheap to do."

Other workers, who like Rodrigues are hopeful of joining the programme, said the money can help them open unexpected doors.

"There are so many ways to spend it,'' said Kath dos Santos, a 26-year-old office worker, who can afford cinema tickets but said that exhibitions and theatre out of reach.