Difference between revisions of "Ministry of Culture"

Revision as of 23:29, 24 October 2013

The Ministry of Culture is responsible for regulating those matters in the sphere of culture which are in the public interest. These include: involvement in the coordinated cultural development of Slovenia; protection of the cultural heritage; ensuring the plurality of the media landscape; providing suitable conditions for the creation; communication and accessibility of cultural assets; guaranteeing the special cultural rights of minorities; international cooperation in the sphere of culture; and the promotion of culture at home and abroad.

Background

The Ministry of Culture was founded in June 1991 on the basis of the Organisation and Competence of the Republic Administration Act. Under this Act, the existing Republic Secretariat for Culture continued its work as the Ministry of Culture and took over its functions and staff. The existing Republic Secretary for Culture became the Minister for Culture. After Slovenia's proclamation of independence, the Republic of Slovenia gained its first Minister for Culture on 28 June 1991, the day the Act entered into force.

In February 2012 the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport was established, merging the Ministry of Education and Sport, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Culture. In March 2013 the Ministry of Culture has been re-established.

Tasks

It is the task of the ministry to provide suitable opportunities for cultural creation and the protection of the cultural heritage. To this end, the Ministry works on the basis of the three main principles of cultural policy: quality, accessibility, and diversity. Undoubtedly the first task of the Ministry is to provide suitable opportunities for top-level creativity in cultural spheres. Equally important is the guaranteeing of the greatest possible accessibility of cultural assets, since the right to culture ranks among fundamental human rights. Closely connected to these two principles is the attention that the Ministry of Culture devotes to cultural diversity. Additionally, the Ministry protects the right to freedom of expression in the media and ensures the media pluralism.

Funding

Where funding of public institutions is concerned, there are special calls for archive institutions and libraries, for movable cultural heritage institutions (mostly museums), for unmovable cultural heritage projects (investments in infrastructure) and for audio-visual programmes. All public state cultural institutions are required to present their following year's programmes to the Ministry of Culture, which then decides on their annual subsidy according to the annual budget.

For non-governmental organisations, the Ministry announces (usually in Autumn) a call for public cultural programmes and projects. From amongst applicants in various disciplines 42 cultural programme organisers and producers were selected to sign 4-year contracts for the period 2010–2013, most of them professional support organisations or the producers running a venue or festival platforms. In addition there is a bid for the 4-year author projects and an annual bid for artistic projects in all art disciplines, which is open also to smaller organisations and individual artists.

Every year there is also a special call for cultural activities by the Italian and Hungarian ethnic minorities, the Romany community and other ethnic minority groups and immigrants in the Republic of Slovenia.

Funding related to literature and publishing has been performed by the Slovenian Book Agency, while the national cultural programme in the sphere of film is implemented by the Slovenian Film Centre.

The ministry supports a few specialised digital web platforms: next to Culture.si also Sigledal.org - Slovene theatre portal and Sigic.si - information on Slovene music, the national aggregator for Europeana National and University Library and its DLib.si - Digital Library of Slovenia.

International co-operation

International projects and festivals are supported through the programme and project public calls for producers. There are also some additional special public calls related to international co-operation. One is open to creators to bid for short-term residency in apartments owned by the Ministry in New York City, Berlin, London and since 2011 also in Vienna. Another determines the operator of the EU Cultural Contact Point Slovenia, the Mediadesk.si and the international cooperation portal Culture.si. Other calls are for the organisers/curators of the Venice Biennale and Venice Biennale of Architecture.

Ministry of Culture supports participation of Slovene young talents in the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO).

Membership in international organisations

The Ministry of Culture collaborates on a regular basis with the Council of Europe and other European bodies (Attaché for Culture and Audiovisual affairs at the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Slovenia to the European Union). Slovenia is a member of European Audiovisual Observatory.

The ministry has its representative in the Slovenia National Commission for UNESCO and contributes into the International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD). It has cooperated also with the European Cultural Foundation and the Asia Europe Foundation (ASEF).

The Ministry is a permanent guest of the EUNIC Slovenia network of the European Union National Institutes for Culture in Slovenia, and the member of the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA).

Survey the Economic Contribution of the Copyright-Based Industries in Slovenia

In 2010 the Ministry of Culture together with the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) funded a Survey the Economic Contribution of the Copyright-Based Industries in Slovenia. The study is based on the WIPO methodology and has been available online since 2011. The survey offers a complex comparative quantitative analysis of the contribution of specific sectors based on the statistics from 2002 and 2007. It reveals that the copyright-based industries contribute 5.1 % to GDP and secure 6.8 % jobs on the national level.

External links

Gallery

Ministry of Culture, 2009

The touring exhibition The History of Europe – told by its theatres was presented by theatre institutes/museums in Warsaw, Copenhagen, Vienna, Munich, and London. In Ljubljana it was set in the entrance hall of the Ministry of Culture in 2016.

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 * [[Department for State Ceremonies, Ministry of Culture|Department for State Ceremonies]]
 * [[Office for Religious Communities, Ministry of Culture]]
- Služba za sodelovanje s civilno družbo co-operation with civil society
 * [[Project Unit for the European Cohesion Policy Implementation, Ministry of Culture|Project Unit for the European Cohesion Policy Implementation]]