The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania approved the Model for the implementation of sustainable cultural development in regions. The purpose of the model is to enable the regions to decide autonomously regarding the implementation of culture or art projects relevant for them, engaging communities, creators and municipal authorities in the decision-making processes. On the basis of the model municipalities will be encouraged to invest more in cultural or art projects relevant for the specific region.
According to Daina Urbanavičienė, Chair of the Lithuanian Council for Culture the decentralisation of the financing of culture by relying on the model of sustainable cultural development, will enable the regions to take autonomous decisions and be responsible for the culture processes in their respective areas. The Minister of Culture Liana Ruokytė-Jonsson noted that the new financial mechanism will help ensuring the accessibility of culture an its diversity in regions, bridge the divide between the metropolitan areas of Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda and other regions, and strengthen the local cultural identity.
The mode for the sustainable cultural development was further elaborated in the course of public consultations with the society throughout May. The Lithuanian Council for Culture in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture examined and analysed the different proposals and comments received from a range of culture and art organisations, and private individuals. The Sustainable cultural development model was adjusted taking into account the received comments, that involved specification of the descriptions of the organisation of the work of culture councils and their functions, and providing that each municipality constituting a county shall delegate one representative to the regional Council for culture, thus involving representatives of Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda city municipalities. Some adjustments were made to the procedure of calculation of financing quotas for counties.
With a view to ensuring transparent implementation of the model the final version of the model provided that all members of the Council will be required to sign the declarations of objectivity and confidentiality, and that the activities of each regional council will involve one member of the Lithuanian Council for Culture. The regional culture councils shall be required to agree their funding priorities not only with the Lithuanian Council for Culture, but also the Regional Development Council; the performance of the regional councils for culture will be continuously monitored by the Monitoring and Analysis Unit of the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
With a view to comprehensively informing the cultural society about the new financing mechanisms designed for regions and the new opportunities for implementing regional culture projects, in cooperation with the Lithuanian Council for Culture in June-July 2018 the Ministry of Culture will be hosting meeting-discussions in Lithuanian counties. The audience invited to attend the meetings includes the culture administrators at municipalities, and representatives of culture institutions and non-governmental organisations engaged in cultural activities.
