Public cultural institutions are usually founded by the state, towns, more rarely by counties, and sometimes by the wealthier municipalities. Although the financing of public cultural institutions is not put into question, it still remains insufficient for all of the institutions’ activities, and it has to be said that in the last decade there has been an impetus that the public cultural institutions should introduce more market approach to their finances. Emphasis has been placed on the availability of funding from the European Union through different programmes, and public cultural institutions are applying to these funds with different levels of success and through different types of programmes (e.g. IPA, Creative Europe, ESF). Their success depends on their field of work as well as the internal capacities of the institutions to manage and implement EU-type project applications and programmes. However, in 2022, the Ministry of Culture and Media announced that through the Operational Program Competitiveness and Cohesion renovation of the basic cultural infrastructure will be financed in the following period. The total funding announced amounts to 80 million euros, from which energy renovation, digitization and adaptation of buildings to the needs of people with disabilities will be financed.
There was a significant increase in the number of cultural festivals and manifestations in the last three decades. In addition, there is a number of large international cultural events that have a long tradition such as: more than 70 years’ old Dubrovnik Summer Festival; Animafest – festival of animation (established over 50 years ago as a biennale, and since 2005 is functioning as an annual event); Šibenik International Children’s Festival that celebrated its 62nd anniversary in 2022; Vinkovci Autumn Folklore Event established in 1974; Dance Week Festival since 1984, Music Biennale since 1961, Pula Film Festival that will celebrate its 70th anniversary in 2023, etc. A number of these traditional events established themselves as public cultural institutions.
Partnerships between public cultural institutions and private ones (among which the most common is the cooperation of public cultural institutions with non-governmental cultural organisations or other actors from civil society) is primarily project-based and it mainly depends on the organisations’ current interests and budgeting opportunities. Such cooperation can be established through domestic projects but also through international (mainly European-based and EU funded) programmes and networks.
As elaborated in chapter 2.1, in 2020 Zagreb and Sisak-Moslavina county were hit by strong earthquakes that damaged the cultural infrastructure including many public cultural institutions. The restoration of individually protected buildings and buildings within the cultural and historical units of Zagreb, Sisak, Petrinja (and a total of 9 counties that suffered in the earthquake) are still under way. According to the Ministry of Culture and Media, by 2022, with the funds of the EU Solidarity Fund through the Ministry of Culture and Media, 295 structural renovation projects worth over 4.5 billion HRK have being implemented out of which 15 have been completed and more than HRK 900 million have been withdrawn so far.
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