Czech Republic

Last update: March, 2023

One of the tasks for implementing the State Cultural Policy of the CR 2009–2014 was to create the Culture Account of the CR. This task was assigned to NIPOS, a state contributory organisation of the MC. The objective of creating the Culture Account is to map all the financial flows into culture from various sources and just as effectively map the financial flows out of culture. The account should also show the level and effectiveness of management in individual areas, the extent of labour and investment resources used, the level of wages, and finally, with the aid of financial indicators, display the weight of culture in the economy.

In September 2011 the results of the first, pilot Culture Account of the CR for 2009, prepared jointly by the MC, NIPOS, and the Czech Statistical Office, were presented. Since then the results have been published each year. The latest results were released in 2022 for the year 2020. Given that the methodology and scope of data observed since the Culture Account was initiated changes each year, it is at present difficult to compare the Culture Account results in a time series.

In conformity with available international documents (EUROSTAT, UNESCO, OECD) the account distinguishes the following branches of culture labelled ‘O. 11 – O. 19’ (categorised according to CZ - NACE):

• cultural heritage – O. 11 (91.01, 02, 03; 47.78, 79)
• performing (stage) arts – O. 12 (90.01, 02, 04)
• visual (fine) arts and crafts – O. 13 (74.10, 20; 90.03, part of section C)
• periodical and non-periodical press – O. 14 (58.11,13; 63.91; 74.30; 47.61, 62)
• audio-visual and interactive media – O. 15 (58.21; 59.11, 12, 13, 14, 20; 60.10, 20; 47.63; 77.22)
• architecture – O. 16 (71.11)
• advertising – O. 17 (73.11)
• arts education – O. 18 (85.52)
• management and support of culture – O. 19 (a part of 84.11, a part of 12; 94.99.2)

In 2020, the total sum of resources that flowed into the culture sector reached CZK 261.5 billion. After six years of annual increases in culture spending (3.8% per year on average between 2014 and 2019), it decreased by 4.8% in 2020 (CZK 13.1 billion). This decline can be attributed mainly to a significant year-on-year reduction in household spending on culture (by CZK 5.3 billion) and lower income of business, mainly private, entities from cultural activities (by CZK 14.7 billion). This decline in cultural funding was significantly affected by the closure, inability to hold cultural events, etc. during the lockdown in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2020, 46.7 billion CZK of public budget resources went to culture, which is 3.7 billion CZK (8.6%) more than the year before. This sum comprises consolidated expenditures relating to operations and investment provided by the state, regional administrative authorities, and state extra-budgetary funds (the Fund for Culture and the Fund for the Support and Development of Czech Cinematography) based on budget performance.

Out of the total sum of expenditures, more than 37.7 billion CZK was designated for operational purposes and 9.0 billion CZK for investment. In terms of the volume of public resources, the most resources – both for operations and investment – spent on culture were from regional budgets (35.72%) and municipal budgets (33.8%), mainly in the areas of cultural heritage, the performing arts, and arts education.

The total sum of resources devoted to culture in 2020 amounted to 2.5% of public budget resources.

Indirect state assistance for culture cannot be quantified, in part because some of this support may derive from the expenditures of households and businesses (donations to cultural institutions, which are tax deductible).

Indicator no.1: Public culture expenditure per capita in 2020

As of 31 December 2020, the CR had a population of 10 701 777. The uniform exchange rate of the Czech National Bank for 2020 was 26.50 CZK for 1 EUR. Public budget expenditures on culture at every level of public administration in 2020 were equal to 4368 CZK or 164.83 EUR per capita.

Indicator no. 2: Public expenditures on culture as a percentage of GDP in 2020

Public expenditures on culture as a percentage of GDP^[1] was 0.82% in 2020.

Indicator no. 3: Public expenditures on culture as a percentage of total public expenditures in 2020

The share of expenditures on culture out of total public budget expenditures in 2020 was 2.5%. 

[1] GDP in 2020 CZK 5 709.1 billion

Last update: March, 2023

Table 8. Public cultural expenditure by level of government, 2020

Source (NIPOS based on data from the Ministry of Finance of the CR, Prague 2022).

Last update: March, 2023

Table 9.1: Direct state cultural expenditure: by sector, 2020, in 1000 of national currency

Source(s): NIPOS based on data from the Ministry of Finance of the CR, Prague 2022.

Table 9.2:    Direct expenditures on culture at the regional and local level by sector, 2020, in thousands of CZK

Source(s): NIPOS based on data from the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic, Prague 2022.

Last update: March, 2023

Creative work is indirectly supported in the field of film under the Programme of Support for the Film Industry (since 2010). 

Support for individual artists and cultural workers is very limited compared with the support for cultural institutions –the Ministry of Culture’s grant/tender competitions are usually open only to individuals who have a trade licence in the field of culture, or support is given indirectly, for instance in the form of a grant to support the publishing of literary works, where the grant applicant is a publishing house and a fee is then passed to the author.

The only direct support for artists is in the form of awards and creative and study scholarships. The Ministry of Culture Awards are allocated for exceptional artistic creative or interpretative work or for long-term artistic merit in the field of the visual arts, architecture, theatre, music, product design, cinematography, and the audio-visual sector. Contributions for creative or study purposes or state scholarships have been provided since 2008 according to the Act on Some Kinds of Support. Creative scholarships can be provided for a period of 6 months to 2 years with the possibility of extending this to 1 year. The outcome must be the creation of an artwork in conformity with the Copyright Act. The study scholarship includes a study residence for at least one month at a significant art, science, or other specialised workplace. The study scholarship is offered to people up to the age of 35.

Two contributory organisations of the MC are offering competitive grants in support of so-called short-term mobility in the form of individual trips. One is NIPOS, which offers grants for amateur artists and amateur groups, and the other is the Arts and Theatre Institute (ATI), which offers grants for artists and cultural workers in every field of the arts (except the film industry) and for other experts in the arts such as curators, programme directors, etc. Support for the travel expenses of individuals in the sphere of literature is provided by the Czech Literary Centre. Both the ATI and the Czech Literary Centre support artists through arts residencies.

Arts residencies are a form of support that is generally used by private cultural institutions and foundations – available opportunities can be accessed, for example, here.

In 2020 and 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a special programme was introduced to support individuals who are self-employed and work on the basis of a trade license in the culture with support in the form of a financial allowance/grant. Individual artists or technical professionals working in culture who were awarded this allowance/grant were given a one-time payment in the amount of 60 000 CZK (1 EUR = 26.223 CZK – 2 288 EUR). In total, this support could be used in three consecutive programmes.

In 2022, calls under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan for the Culture Component are gradually published, which are also aimed at strengthening the capacity of individual actors in the cultural and creative sectors. The bulk of the funding will be distributed over the next three years.

Last update: March, 2023

The transformation of cultural funds to foundations occurred in 1993 and 1994; it was based on the Act on the Transformation of Cultural Funds, whereby they were denationalised. These included the Czech Literary Fund Foundation, the Czech Music Fund Foundation and the Czech Art Fund Foundation. Foundations obtain their money from estate yields (immovables), from donations and from sponsor subsidies. The Czech Literary Fund Foundation is currently one of the few alternatives for supporting new valuable works of original literature and translation, theatre, film, journalism, science, radio, television, and entertainment. The foundation allocates grants for publishing or creating non-commercial literature, theatre, science and film artworks, and periodicals. It grants financial allowances/grants] for the production of new art and science projects and it gives annual awards.

The Czech Music Fund Foundation supports the development and promotion of Czech music culture and it offers grant programmes. The foundation has also established two public benefit organisations, the Music Information Centre and the Czech Music Fund.

The Czech Art Fund Foundation underwent a more unrestrained process of denationalisation. In 1997, it established the autonomous Czech Architecture Foundation and in 2008 it changed its name to the Czech Visual Art Foundation. It supports visual arts projects through grants and it organises and co-organises exhibitions. It also grants scholarships to the best students of sculpture. The Czech Architecture Foundation supports projects focusing on exhibition and publishing activities in the field of architecture and it facilitates foreign architecture exhibitions in the Czech Republic (CR). The foundation does not organise its own projects and it does not contribute to the operation of architects' professional activities or architecture schools.

On the state level the Ministry of Culture founded two new funds – the Czech Republic's State Fund for the Support and Development of Cinematography (now the Czech Film Fund) and the State Cultural Fund (see also chapter 1.2.2. or 3.5.3.).

There is no one fund that collects the revenue from library licensing fees and so-called levies; copyright collectives receive payments.

In connection with efforts to address the consequences of the pandemic in the culture sector proposals for new arts funds have emerged in the arts community. Some call for the transformation of the existing or the creation of a new State Cultural Fund that would be more flexible and able to respond to the needs of the culture sector, and others call for the creation of funds by genre – for existence, a state music fund. 

Last update: March, 2023

The Ministry of Culture hands out 17 awards each year, two-thirds of which are for artists. The State Award for Literature and the State Award for Translation amount to 300 000 CZK, which is not subject to taxation. The awards are precisely defined in the Government Regulation on Awards in the Area of Culture Announced by the MC No. 5/2003 Coll. New state awards that have emerged since 2015 include the ‘Knight of Czech Culture’ (Rytíř), ‘Dame of Czech Culture (Dáma), and ‘Patron of Czech Culture’ (Mecenáš). The title of Knight or Dame of Czech Culture is awarded to artists who have made a significant contribution to the development of intellectual, ethical, and cultural values in consideration of the courage of their views and their life fate. Persons and institutions that have contributed considerable support to arts projects and monuments may be awarded the title of ‘Patron of Czech Culture’.

There are hundreds of other awards handed out by cultural institutions, professional associations, foundations, and other agencies. Many of these awards are intended for young artists. They include the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, the Critics' Award for Young Painters, the Václav Chada Award, and the Igor Kalný Award of the Zlín Salon of Young Artists or the Věra Jirousová Award for critics. Information about the wide spectrum of awards can be found here. 

Scholarships are supported under the State Programme for the Support of Creative and Study Scholarships (see also chapter 7.2.1.). Many other subjects like the Czech Music Fund Foundation, the Arts and Theatre Institute (for all fields of art), the Czech Literary Fund Foundation (literature and theatre), MeetFactory (visual arts), the Centre for Contemporary Arts Foundation (visual artists and curators), Tranzit (visual artists and curators), and others have their own scholarship programmes connected with residencies. A list of residency opportunities is available here. 

The conditions of grant procedures at the level of the state and the municipalities are modified every year. Recently, topics focused on interdisciplinary projects (in the field of art and music) have emerged. The state grants for supporting exhibition projects focus on young artists, theoreticians, and curators up to the age of 35 years. The capital city of Prague has a similar programme offering one-year grants for young artists in all fields of art.

Last update: March, 2023

Professional arts organisations are founded mostly in the form of associations that are able to execute their own activities in the Czech Republic (CR). Some of them are supported by grants from the Ministry of Culture. The majority (except for writers' associations) are financed only on a project basis. The Czech Writers' Guild and some other associations in the field of literature are rarely financed on an annual basis. There is no special endowment instrument for their support in general and their survival is dependent on the contributions of their members.

There are fifty different professional organisations in the CR in every branch and area of the arts. A number of new such organisations have been established in recent years – for example, the Czech Association of Festivals, the Association of Independent Theatres, and the Music Managers Forum in the field of non-classical music.

There are also branches of UNESCO’s international NGOs operating in the CR, such as ITI in theatre, UNIMA in puppetry, and ICOM in the museum sector, etc. These centres largely function as platforms for the particular cultural or professional sphere they are focused on, bringing together representatives of other professional organisations and individuals.

A specific shift occurred in connection with the COVID-19 crisis in terms of how professional artists organise themselves in associations and platforms, as the crisis immediately gave rise to several new professional associations that are largely devoted to the work of cultural advocacy. These include, most notably, the Czech Music Community, the ambition of which is to unite the music industry, which has been rather disunited up to now, and there are also some associations on the regional level, such as the Moravian-Silesian Association for the Culture Sector.

Some professional organisations are also members of what are known as ‘cultural tripartite’ (the state, employers, and professional organisations in the culture sector). These are primarily found in the areas of theatre and classical music.

Although improvements have been observed in recent years in how well organised artists are into professional associations, there remain gaps, and these are especially noticeable in the area of the visual arts. This negatively impacts the ability of visual artists to secure support and protection in their profession.