Following the priorities of culture policy and in order to ensure the conditions for the diverse development and dissemination of Lithuanian culture and arts, the Lithuanian Council for Culture provides funding for culture and arts projects by means of the Culture Support Fund.
The Culture Support Fund consists of: 3 percent of the income from excise tax on alcohol and processed tobacco and 10 percent of funds received from lotteries and gambling tax.
Applications for projects funding may be submitted by legal entities registered in one of the EU or EEA Member States, excluding ministries of the Republic of Lithuania and municipal administrations. At the date of receiving funding the beneficiary is obliged to have a place of establishment or registration in the Republic of Lithuania (except for the foreign Lithuanian organizations registered and operating in a foreign country submitting applications for the program ‘Dissemination of the Idea of Global Lithuania’).
FUNDING MODEL:The Lithuanian Council for Culture provides funding for culture and arts projects through culture and arts fields and programs. The applicable funding model can be divided into several groups:
Free competitions – competition of funding culture and arts fields (architecture, design, art, photography, interdisciplinary art, theatre, dance, circus, literature, music, ethnic culture, inter-domain projects). Professional art and its dissemination in Lithuania, events and presentations, accumulation of information (archiving, documentation) and dissemination thereof, publishing, professional critical, analytical reflection, networking and mobility, and co-productions have been funded by the resources allocated for culture and arts.
Culture and arts funding programmes:
Funding measures subject to the defined operational objectives. Funded programs are related to culture of communities, dissemination of culture and arts in Lithuania and presentation of Lithuanian culture in foreign countries, promotion of international cooperation, giving meaning to historical and cultural memory. Funding is provided for such programmes as ‘Amateur Art’, ‘Education by Culture’, ‘Culture Education’, ‘Participation of Lithuanian Culture Organizations in the EU Program ‘Creative Europe 2014-2020’’, ‘Promotion of Media and Information Literacy’, ‘Art for Human Well-being’, ‘Artists' Residences in Lithuania’, ‘Memory institutions (museums, libraries, archives)’, ‘Cultural heritage’, ‘Dissemination abroad’, ‘Cultural and creative industries’, ‘Publishing of humanitarian literature’, ‘Further training’, etc.
Strategic funding – long-term funding programmes:
‘Strategic funding of cultural organizations’,
‘Strategic funding of international events’,
‘Implementation of strategic programs of art creators' organizations’,
‘International music performance art competitions are held in Lithuania’,
‘National pavilions at the Venice Biennale’.
Model of sustainable culture development in the regions:
Its purpose is to enable regions to independently decide on the implementation of important culture and arts projects, involving communities, creators, and self-governing institutions in decision-making processes. Based on this model, municipalities are encouraged to increase the scope of invest in culture or arts projects significant to the region.
FUNDING INTENSITY:The proportion of Culture Support Fund allocated to funded projects in respect to all expenditure of project activities may amount to 90%. In case of economic type of projects the proportion of Culture Support Fund allocated to funded projects in respect to all expenditure of project activities may amount to 80% or 75%.
SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS:
The funding for culture and arts projects is allocated exclusively by public tender. Two funding tenders are announced annually. The first one is in autumn, and the funding is allocated for projects of the following calendar year. The second one is announced in the first quarter of the year and is a project to be implemented by the end of the year.
