The Lithuanian Council for Culture completed the allocation for funding for culture and art projects for 2018. This year the funding is allocated to projects in 1,602 different areas and genres that have been launched since the beginning of the year in different Lithuanian cities and towns, as well as in foreign States.
In 2018, the Lithuanian Council for Culture allocated total EUR 15,350,000 from the Culture Support Fund for a range of culture and art initiatives. Funding was granted to 942 projects during the first period, and 660 projects received funding during the recently ended second stage in funding.
Due to the received funding different projects of private, non-governmental, public or local government authorities will be implemented in 419 locations in Lithuania. Cultural events and other initiatives will be mostly launched and hosted in Kaunas, Panevėžys, Utena and Vilnius counties. Further, total 203 projects will be implemented in 54 countries of the world. The most popular locations for the presentation of Lithuanian art and culture abroad are Germany and Poland.
This year the largest increase in funding was recorded in arts and the interdisciplinary areas and programmes ‘The implementation of strategic programmes of associations and umbrella organisations in culture and and art areas’, and the ‘Centennial of the restoration of the Lithuanian State’. The Lithuanian Council for Culture met the Centennial of the restoration of the Lithuanian State in cooperation with implementers of a little more than seventy projects dedicated to the occasion. The projects in a range of culture and arts areas that started preparing for the occasion last year in 2018 were spread in more than sixty different locations in Lithuania. Throughout the year, in cooperation with the Lithuanian Council for Culture the Office of the Government presents to the society projects inviting the society to cooperate, volunteer and take pride in own country.
The largest beneficiaries of funding this year were music and theatre areas. As compared to the previous year, some increase in funding was recorded in the areas of cultural heritage and photography. There is an observable increase in the demand for funding in the applications for interdisciplinary projects in the areas of museums, circus, libraries and dancing. The demand for funding in the applications filed in the areas of architecture, archives, design, ethnic culture and literature has somewhat lowered.
Staring from 2018, the public theatres and concert organisations can file to the Lithuanian Council for Culture applications for educational projects, thus some independent theatre and music initiatives benefited from a larger share of funding from the Culture Support Fund. The plans for this year includes the creation and presentation to the public no less than 88 theatre performances in different genres, and some 74 concerts of professional music.
The tenders for funding of culture projects in 2019 will be launched this September. The second term Lithuanian Council for Culture started the new funding cycle having formed the new strategic directions introduced to the society on the LCC forum. The 2019–2021 financing cycle will specifically highlight diversity, education and the increase of the availability of culture. The identified financing priorities will focus on the programmes entailing strategic and long-term funding of culture and art projects; the programmes provide for sustainable financing of successfully operating independent culture organisations and continued international events. Furthermore, the Equivalent culture development model designed to facilitate funding of culture in regions will be launched this autumn; the model will bring about more extensive cultural diversity, promote the engagement of the country's residents in the cultural processes, and increase satisfaction in cultural services.
The members of the Lithuanian Council for Culture are its Chairwoman, culture manager Daina Urbanavičienė, actor Vytautas Anužis, a representative of national minorities, music pedagogue Ema Silvija Bojadžian, art critics Virginijus Kinčinaitis and Agnė Narušytė, an architect Rolandas Palekas, a theatre critic Ina Pukelytė, an ethnologist Radvilė Racėnaitė, an art critic Skaidra Trilupaitytė and the heritage protection specialist Ingrida Veliutė.
