Implementing the principle of openness declared from the very establishment of the institution, the Lithuanian Council for Culture will make public, starting next year, not only the database of cultural and artistic experts evaluating applications, but also the personal composition of individual working groups.
This decision of the Lithuanian Council for Culture of the new term is in response to the need of the cultural community that has been expressed more than once in the public space. From next year, the public will have access to lists of experts who have evaluated applications submitted for specific competitions for funding. This issue was also discussed with the representatives of the cultural community and politicians during the LKT Forum held this spring. The issue of the publicity of experts was also discussed for a long time with former and current experts of the Lithuanian Council for Culture. 71% of nearly 300 cultural and artistic experts surveyed this summer agreed with making public the working groups. Only 4 experts decided to withdraw from the current database of experts of the Lithuanian Council for Culture due to changing publicity standards.
Asta Pakarklytė, Chairwoman of the Lithuanian Council for Culture, is pleased with the maturity and openness of the country’s cultural community: “98% of the experts present in the current database have delivered their written consents to the disclosure of their identities as members of the working groups. I really did not expect such astonishing results, so I am extremely proud of the experts of the Lithuanian Council for Culture, who highlighted the maturity of the cultural community, expressed openness and trust, especially in these times when the public space and social networks seem to be dominated by distrust”.
The personal composition of the expert working groups of the Lithuanian Council for Culture will be announced starting 2022. According to the generalised experience and practice of foreign cultural and artistic councils, the expert working groups will be made public three months after the publication of the funding results. From 2022, the expert database will be updated annually.
Since its establishment in 2013, the Lithuanian Council for Culture has been guided in its activities by the principles of transparency, trust and openness. The Lithuanian Council for Culture, which functions as a self-government of the cultural community, is constantly looking for solutions and forms of communication that best meet the needs of cultural organisations and art creators. Thus, making public the personal composition of the expert working groups is a logical step following the publication of the expert database three years ago. Currently, the database of experts of the Lithuanian for Culture includes 190 culture and art professionals.
