Objectives:
State cultural policy is the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture (hereinafter referred to as the MC). In recent years the concept in force focussed on supporting identity, intercultural dialogue, access to culture, and mobility support. Cultural heritage has been emphasized the most as it has been the main topic of all state cultural policies so far. In 2019, the new Minister of Culture was appointed and began to prepare a new strategy; he also spoke about the new vision of culture in the Czech Republic (hereinafter referred to as the CR). The preparations for the new strategy were interrupted by the Covid-19 crisis that has dramatically changed the paradigm and influenced the course of cultural policy. That is why the latest cultural policy was not adopted until September 2021, when the term of office of the Minister of Culture was already ending. This strategic document the State Cultural Policy 2021-2025+ focuses on the development of live art, the development of cultural and creative industries, increasing the availability and accessibility of culture, strengthening its role in society, as well as efficient cultural heritage care. The aims also include brand new topics associated with the consequences of the impacts of the pandemic crisis, such as the introduction of the non-existent Status of the Artist, dealing with the climate crisis in culture, and strengthening inter-ministerial cooperation.
The strategy is presented as a fundamental change in the approach to culture, creativity, and arts. The general goal is a broader concept of culture and creativity among sectors, which is an integral part of society and the economy. The need for this transformation was underpinned by the current pandemic that hit the cultural and creative industries extremely hard. To recover the previous state, the role of the Ministry has to be extended as it can be a good manager of the whole sector and not its part only. Strategies aim at linking culture and creativity with business, regional development, the social system, the education system, and healthcare. For the first time new cultural policy has been also developed partly with a participative method.
Main features:
The State Cultural Policy 2021-2025+ (Ministry of Culture, 2021) sets out six strategic objectives. The first three focus on the more traditional areas of the Ministry of Culture’s remit. The other three develop new areas and increase the capacity of the MC to manage the cultural and creative sector effectively and efficiently.
Objective 1_focuses on increasing the availability and accessibility of culture. This includes, for example, digitisation, free access to the most important state cultural institutions to compensate for the loss of income from admission fees, making public spaces more cultural (an obligation to invest 1% in the creation of an artwork from the overall finances of the largest public procurement projects) and to support the development of cultural and creative centres in the regions under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
Objective 2 is effective care of cultural heritage, where it will ensure the coherence of legislative, financial and systemic instruments for the protection of cultural heritage. It will further develop the Integrated System for the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage and the technological modernisation of cultural heritage institutions. Although the MC is not the managing authority of the operational programmes of the EU Structural Funds, it will support the preparation of projects at their earliest stage in order to ensure effective use of funds for the cultural and creative sector.
Objective 3 focuses on the development of the live arts. Key initiatives include, in particular, the provision of artists and the development of their second careers. The MC will submit a legislative proposal introducing the status of the artist. It will further develop systematic tools to support networking, skills development and internationalisation of Czech culture. It will also support interdisciplinary collaborative projects in live art and cultural heritage as well as research in these areas.
Objective 4 is the development of cultural and creative industries. The potential of culture and the cultural and creative industries for the economy in the CR is not yet sufficiently taken into account and exploited. With the help of the Strategy for the Development of Cultural and Creative Industries (Ministry of Culture, 2020), the MC will advocate the creation of an environment for their systematic development at the national level. The State Cinematography Fund will be transformed into the State Audiovisual Fund. The MC will prepare an amendment to the Act on Some Kinds of Support, which will be enriched with new instruments to support the cultural and creative sector.
Objective 5 will focus on cross-sectoral cooperation. The MC will become a more active partner for key actors. This will make support for the whole cultural and creative sector more effective beyond the Ministry’s support materials and instruments. The Ministry will continue to support research in the cultural and creative sector and will submit the NAKI III research programme for 2023-2030 to the Government for approval.
Objective 6 is key to the implementation of the State Cultural Policy as a whole. It is about transforming the MC to increase its capacity to promote a broad understanding of the role of culture and to be able to effectively support the whole cultural and creative sector. Capacity building and efficiency gains will be made in particular through the digitisation of the subsidy system, the introduction of an analytical unit and the establishment of a cultural and creative sectors unit. Furthermore, an evaluation of the instruments for supporting the cultural and creative sectors under the responsibility of the MC will be carried out. The State Cultural Fund of the CR should also be transformed so that it becomes an effective instrument for supporting culture.
Background:
1950-1960
After the Second World War, the territory of Czechoslovakia fell under Soviet influence, culture in the country was nationalized and culture was degraded to a state propaganda tool. The regime also intentionally isolated cultural activities from the West and all Czechoslovak democratic traditions, and attempted to define the principles of new “socialist culture”.
1960-1970
The form of the communist regime kept changing. The 1960s meant easing in society and culture and international success of the arts. Liberalization in society experienced its peak in 1968 when it was violently suppressed by the Warsaw Pact invasion.
1970-1980
The regime was reinforced again, dubbed as normalization. The defining criterion of normalization culture was popularity and consumerism in TV pop culture under the supervision of the state, censorship, and persecution of unwanted artists and cultural workers.
1980-1990
The 1980s are known for gradual easing. The year 1989 brought the involvement of artists in the signing of Václav Havel’s petition Several Sentences and the Velvet Revolution in November 1989. The democratic transformation of culture had started.
1990-2000
All state institutions underwent mass privatisation and denationalisation. In 1993, the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic split into two independent states. The first strategic document in culture was elaborated in 1996 and in 1999 the first Strategy of Effective Cultural Support was adopted.
2000-2010
In 2001 the Cultural Policy in the CR 2001-2005 was approved. Provisions connected mostly with the new membership of the CR in the EU and the reform of public administration. In 2008 the National Cultural Policy 2009-2014 was approved, which focused on understanding culture as a discipline in which it is useful to invest time, energy, and human and financial potential.
2010-2020
In 2013 another document was approved – the Updated State Cultural Policy for 2013 and 2014 with a View to the Years 2015 to 2020, and in 2015 the State Cultural Policy for 2015-2020.
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