The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media co-funds two of the six cross-border implementation bodies established under the terms of the British-Irish Agreement Act (1999). The instrumental use of culture in sustaining international relations is important to the Irish Government. Previous to the establishment of Culture Ireland in 2005, the promotion of Irish culture internationally was supported via the Cultural Relations Committee (CRC), a much smaller agency which was a minor sub department attached to the Department of Foreign Affairs (1948-2004.) In 2005, Culture Ireland was established as a stand alone, autonomous agency with the role of... read more →
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If you are not happy with the results below please do another searchSince 2014, there are thirty one local authorities with a total of 949 members known as councilors. Thirty local authorities have an arts office managed by an arts officer. The majority of arts offices operate at a county council level with some at metropolitan level in larger urban centres. The exception to this rule is Dublin County, which is split into four local authority areas, each with its own arts office. Most arts officers are supported by a small staff ranging from one full time staff member to up to eight for the larger local authority areas. This represents the... read more →
Intercultural education is part of the general framework curricula however no specific subject is dedicated to this issue. The main goals of intercultural education programmes are common national values and identity, world cultures, religions, and traditions in general, and more specifically the Roma integration. Yet Roma culture and history are not an integrated part of the national curricula (i.e. history lessons); instead, Roma are mentioned as a challenge in separate chapters; this caused recent debates about the curricula, which has remained on the civil level.
A most unfortunate manifestation of the dividedness of the society is the doubling of professional associations in major cultural fields like theatre and literature along political lines. The National Cooperation Fund (NEA) distributes financial support to civic organisations upon open calls.
The National Cultural Fund is the main public source for financing projects. Some of the calls target individual artists who can apply for grants for creation. The state-owned Hungarian Creative Arts Nonprofit Ltd. MANK administers over 300 studios with flats across the country, 8 recreation resorts and exhibition facilities etc. The rights collecting agencies (Artisjus, Hungart etc.) act also as funds that allocate awards and other benefits to artists.
Like everywhere in Europe, the most decisive element of private funding to culture is through citizens’ spending on cultural goods and events – see household expenditure in chapter 6.3. Individual citizens’ donations and patronage are sporadic and peripheral. Citizens can express their choice through the 1% scheme, by channelling 1% of their income tax to selected non profit making bodies. Less than 5% is allocated year by year to culture, yet most of this is addressed to groups that are little favoured by public resources. Crowdfunding shows a similar leaning but generates insignificant sums. Intermediate cases are private investments in... read more →
The Act on Performing Arts in 2008 – prepared in close co-operation with professional organisations – was considered a major achievement in cultural policy by the previous government. It regulated the conditions of access to state subsidies. Theatres and orchestras were registered in categories, the number of performances being the main criterion. A special aspect was the guarantee of at least 10% of public grants for independent, alternative, or experimental theatre groups. In 2011 substantial amendments were made: the theatre part was practically fully re-written. The categories were reduced to three: National, Preferential, and Other performing arts organisations. Several of... read more →
Hungary has moved away from the communist era when nearly all cultural actors were either civil employees or members of the monolithic artistic associations who enjoyed benefits comparable to salaried persons. Many people found themselves on the margins of the social security frameworks because they had been coerced into the position of quasi entrepreneurs instead of the more secure employee status, so that the employer (often a public institution like a theatre or a museum) could save on the social insurance fees. It is estimated that today over 75% of actors, dancers, musicians, arts organisers, technicians, designers, and other cultural... read more →
The cultural budget of the government, however, traditionally lacks transparency, which renders international comparisons impossible without additional research. In fact, due to the dispersed nature of competences for culture, one cannot talk about one "cultural budget". The budget section under the responsibility of the State Secretary for Culture contains aggregations like "public collections" (i.e. libraries, museums, archives directly supervised by the Ministry of Human Resources) to which considerable amounts are earmarked without specification or listing. As another area of opacity, a quarter of the budget of the National Cultural Fund is at the discretion of the minister: the grants from... read more →
Media pluralism is at the centre of political controversy, receiving international attention. The ruling power asserts that all constitutional and European norms are observed and claims there is a balanced offer. As to critics, some of the main arguments are as follows: All five members of the top authority Media Council are selected by Fidesz, the ruling party, and are appointed for nine yearsImportant independent media outlets have been liquidated or coerced into serving the government Public service media allow minimum space to voices other than the governmentMost advertisements by the state and its enterprises are placed with pro-government mediaGovernment advertisements... read more →