Cultural institutions in Croatia are mostly public – they are founded mainly by the state and towns, and more rarely by counties or wealthier municipalities. Relevant law for cultural institutions is the Law on Managing Cultural Institutions (NN 96/01; NN 98/19), while the umbrella law also relating to their work is the Law on Institutions (NN 127/19). If an institution is founded and managing proscribed by a special law (e.g.Croatian Audiovisual Centre), the Law on Managing Cultural Institutions does not apply to said institution but the relevant founding law. The status and number of state-owned institutions has remained almost unchanged throughout the years. The legislation in force prescribes that every decision to close an institution must be approved by the Ministry of Culture and Media; a provision to preserve the existing level of cultural infrastructure. There is no detailed data that would give us a precise information whether there are many changes in the cultural infrastructure as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data in the Table 1 shows us a complex picture of the changes that occurred in the researched period.
The number of private cultural institutions is very low, whether they are of non-profit or commercial nature. An interesting example of a hybrid cultural institution is POGON – Centre for Independent Culture and Youth, Zagreb, which is based on a new model of public-civil partnership. Pogon’s founders are the Alliance Operation City and the City of Zagreb which is the main funder of the institution. In collaboration with the network of NGOs and the Kultura Nova Foundation, the Ministry of Culture and Media has applied to the European Social Fund with the project for the development of socio-cultural centres in several Croatian cities inspired partly by the example of POGON (see chapter 2.7).
Several private commercial initiatives in the cultural infrastructure can be mentioned such as “Museum of Broken Relationships”, a permanent exhibition that opened in October 2010 in Zagreb and received a number of international awards. The latter still functions at the same location. Two other private initiatives are Lauba – the House of Contemporary Art and Culture in Zagreb and the Batana Eco Museum in Rovinj. An interesting local community initiative was the opening of a museum of local shipbuilding heritage in the municipality of Tisno, in Betina.
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