:::crossborder:::

Here you find some short insider views of cultural policies in some countries and regions of the world. These texts have been edited and presented at the European Diploma for Cultural Administration Session 2006 in Delphi. If you want to tell us your point of view or share your experience in your country/region/area, feel free to add a comment or an article.
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AUSTRIA

The innovative, contemporary art and culture scene in Austria has developed a substantial structure since the 1970s with the help of state subsidies and investments. Over 400 cultural initiatives in the cities and non-urban communities serve to impart contemporary art, conduct socio-cultural work with young people, and provide a platform for critical confrontation.

Since February 2000, a coalition government comprised of the right-wing FPÖ and the Christian democratic ÖVP has been in power in Austria.
The current cultural advisor to Jörg Haider, head of the government of the Austrian province of Carinthia, already wrote in 1980: "Scientists and artists, who represent the German Nation through their work, should receive increased promotion. Genuine German endeavors should be supported throughout the entire sector of art and culture. Foreign and supplanted elements, though not to be declared bad as such, should be increasingly identified as non-German."
Jörg Haider has already proposed that any critical voices in Austria should be prosecuted fiercely and without mercy
This background illuminates Jörg Haider's decision to for example refuse to contribute financially to the international Ingeborg Bachmann Prize for Literature, and to create a promotion prize for Carinthian authors instead.

The interventions of the ruling government aim at undermining cultural promotion for critical organizations and institutions as well as destroying their structures.

The current political developments in Austria have become particularly blatant with concern to the situation of the media.

If one dares to reflect upon the next step in the current dealings of the FPÖ and the ÖVP in the name of cultural promotion, if the government only supports that which is in favor of itself, then why should there be continued support for the parties in opposition?

Cultural managers, artists and cultural workers expect the countries of the European Union to make a qualified contribution that is fitting to observe and counteract to the antidemocratic developments in Austria.

copyright by Jessica

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PHILIPPINES

- In two years there will be an election
- Change of government means new administration and the whole management of the cultural sector may remain the same or it may change utterly. Priorities also shift but like in any country when one is pertaining to culture, this sector may take in many different forms (i.e. folk dances, showcasing of indigenous culture/s, traditional and/or contemporary Filipino arts or the Western oriented disciplines)
- Change of government is a continuous cycle in my country, which usually gets worst. We are culturally very rich, represented by a diverse community living in its 7,100 islands – but extremely poor in prioritizing (determining) and recognizing the strengths that we posses.
- 2 – 5 years will not make much difference at home
- At the moment, the Philippines is witnessing the birth and establishment of several independent art centres or artist initiatives that function with limited funds. These artists’ run spaces/initiatives are becoming more and more active (acknowledged) in the cultural scene, which was not as common when I was back home 5 or 6 years ago. Since young individuals continuously seek for opportunities manage them, they are slowly finding their way into the international circuit. In 5-10 years, although funds may remain scarce, international exposure may open up several opportunities for international artistic collaborations – which will then lead to national recognition.
- In my country, generally, legitimacy is very, very important. By this, one has to have connections (the right one), acquired by birth (pedigree) and practice (artistic/academic).

- Issues
- Continually changing political climate
- Non-existence of Cultural Ministry (may be good or not so good)

- As much of the importance is stressed on “going abroad” – it may be ideal for Filipino artists to be managed by an international cultural manager who can link them to the Filipino communities that are living overseas

copyright by Vanini
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“GREATER REGION” – Luxembourg (LU), Lorraine (FR), Wallonie and the German speaking Community of Belgium (BE), Rheinland-Pfalz (DE), Saarland (DE)

The Analysis:
1. The Administrations:
• No common, interregional cultural policy
• But at least cultural administrations and the regional governments are working together for many years.
• Every 18 months is a summit meeting of the Presidents of the actual governments to outline further initiatives, but culture is only a minor part of the Charta.
• Cultural administrations created from the 1995’s on, a “cultural Work Group” consisting of homologues at the ministerial level. This Work Group has dissolved in 2004 and merged into the Cultural Capital 2007 Initiative.
• The governments are supporting a “House of the Greater Region” which consists of representatives of the governments and which is mainly dealing with economical questions. There is no or only little exchange between these activities on a public level.
• All of these people involved are NO CULTURAL WORKERS OR EVEN MANAGERS! There are pure administrators and/or civil servants. Project and goal oriented thinking (sometimes necessary to make things evolve!) are far away. Political interest (the party) and short-term priorities (the next election) are literally disabling visions.

2. The cultural operators:
Cultural operators are cooperating (more or less) and are professional (more or less):
• Cooperation still depends very much on the individual operators and their personal contacts and ambitions.
• Since a few years, cooperation between associations of cultural sectors, for examples museums, music-schools, filmmakers and producers, artist associations, etc. are mushrooming and leading to not only interregional networks but to the creation of interregional (= international) associations with a legal status. It seems to be THE trend of the Greater Region.
• However, the “professionalism” of these associations in terms of cooperation management is often not very well developed. Many issues are a result of intercultural conflicts, different approaches – and very often a lack of international managerial skills. The best examples are still projects which have received subsidies through European programmes. However, the difficult funding situation due to a vague legal status endangers the sustainability of theses initiatives. Internal conflicts (mainly envy!) are making things not easier.

The Super Issue: “The Year 2007 Bug”:
At the moment, the cultural world in the Greater Region is very disturbed because of the upcoming “super event” of the cultural capital year 2007. The idea in itself is good: expanding the capital event on an entire region in order to foster cultural cooperation. BUT: the negative side effects of cultural capital years are threatening the diversity and richness of the current cultural offer. It’s mainly due to the concentration of funding on 2007 projects and the resulting “desertification” of the entire cultural sectors or individual operators which are not or do not want to be involved in the “Mega Event”. Many cultural operators will go through a very difficult year 2007, because literally every cent has been put into the 2007 event. On top of that, many cultural operators are discouraged to cooperate, because their proposal for 2007 was refused. Once again, the lack of professionalism in terms of international management skills led to failure. One could almost say

Short term vision: a turning point for the Greater Region
For me, the next 1 1/2 years will be crucial for cultural cooperation in the Greater Region. It will depend very much on the success of that year. The cultural administrations are actually planning the creation of a “cultural fund” supporting cooperation. The ideas are very vague and there is no open debate (also very typical), but only gossip and unstructured reflecting. The Director of the cultural capital initiative, Robert Garcia (LU), is spreading his idea of a “cultural agency for the Greater Region”. It should organise events and is imagined as a kind of a perpetual cultural capital. He foresees a budget of several million Euros per year… easy to stage something with that! The coordinators of the partner regions are against this plan – too expensive and not appropriate to the needs of the regions. These are more attracted by the idea of a light, small and flexible structure (a “secretary”) that coordinates and fosters cooperation initiatives in order to encourage the creation of cross-border associations, events etc. References to the Nordic Fund model could be made. This idea seems to me more sustainable and more appropriate. But it is also more difficult to promote, as it is relatively new to decision makers.

Long term vision: You cannot stop water from running downhill

It depends very much on the outcome of the year 2007. The lack of money could lead to more innovative and entrepreneurial solutions. The time of fat subsidies are so over (even in Luxembourg) that creative and modern solutions are “de rigueur” for the culture in the Greater Region. The importance of cultural administrations (AKA ministries of culture) will decrease. Some of them will almost for sure disappear, for instance in Saarland. The cultural operators, however, are much more dynamic. The importance of cross-border associations will increase.

If the regions are open and entrepreneurial enough to vote for modern and innovative structures in their cultural sectors, they could be at the top of European cultural cooperation. Probably, they could become a role model to other cross-border areas in Europe. In 10 years, this could lead to the merging of not only cultural operators but also to the more intensive and sustainable cooperation between the administrations.

But one fact is sure: no one will stop the networking and cooperating effects in the Greater Region. There are only the questions: who will be shaping the process? Does this process need shaping?

copyright by Frank
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GREECE

Cultural management in Greece is a “mystery” in people’s mind, as it deals with management, which unavoidably is linked with huge amounts of money ran by multinational companies, and with culture, which immediately raises the question, what kind of culture? The folk one, which is part of our everyday life, therefore needs no management and professionals dealing with it, or the “other”, the art, which is unclear why it needs professionals, as it refers to a minority of people anyway.

However, the study of cultural management appeared in universities the past few years, giving theoretical studies (usually as part of a wider and more general postgraduate degree) to those students interested in it, but no practical experience or no assistance as where to look for one and subsequently for a job.

Those already involved with it, they usually come from a different academic background or experience, be it business management, arts practice or theory or an academic career at university.

Still, considered to be “a waste of time”, cultural management is still unclear in what it manages and how it should do it, it is not registered in the tax payment system as such, and it has no legal organization or foundation supporting its professionals.

Still, some “dreamers” choose to be actively involved in it, carving their own professionals path, and therefore proving actively that cultural management is all about making it yourself, without following pre-described ways and methods, but using all your creativity and intelligence to make the best of what you have dreamt of.

copyright by Christina

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CROATIA

• In the dance sector in Croatia professionalism hardly exist. Because of the lack of higher dance education, the dance scene is not only suffering from the absence of higly educated dancers, choreographers and dramaturgists, but suffering from insufficient professionalism on all levels.

Cultural Manager, marketing and PR freelancer hardly exist in the dance sector, but only organisations and agencies which have good contacts to journalists and the media.
The technical sector (so called “technical mafia”) is run by the theatres and is working rather slow and insufficient.
Therefore Professionalism and decentralisation of institutions (e.g. theaters) in the dance sector are urgently needed as well as the defined and recognised collaboration and transparency between theatres and independent companies. The lack of basic services such as technical services which should be taken for granted could cause problems in Zagreb.

It seems like professionalism is replaced by “the law of personal contacts” which exists in most of the countries of South-eastern Europe as well in Croatia. Only the main key-players are getting into business because of these personal connections. It seems like it is more important to have business talks while having a beer or a coffee instead of having a professional e-mail communication.

• On the local and regional level the following trends and wishes can be observed: Decentralisation of the cultural sector, cooperations between the independent cultural scene and already existing institutions, sectorial coordination and partnerships between them, strenghtening the civil society, raising the aspect of culture in tourism industry, capacity building, searching for new models in education and the need for more local, regional and international cooperations.

To establish Cultural management as a discipline (with a particular focus on film production issues) at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb is still a “work in progress” project.

• History: The Croatian dance scene (and the whole cultural scene) grows timidly in the shadow of the historical conflict in the struggle for national independence and the strife to join European culture.
The post-war (World War II as well as the most recent War) re-initiations of history, with their brutal uprooting, proved to be the most fatal.
In recent times there is a more systematic approach to fill up the culturological “black holes“ in the history of Croatian modern dance and to increase the interest on all levels of the cultural scene giving a reason for more optimism.

During the “Tudjman era” (90s) the whole cultural scene has has evolved into a completely new structure separating from public state authorities. The different actors formed an independent cultural scene in Zagreb and started to create collaborations in their own parallel network.
This way from restriction to solidarity and diversity created new powers in the whole cultural scene and a new critical mass well as a greater technical know-how. The scene is dispersing into a number of initiatives and new interest or art grouping and projects.

Now the challenge for the independent sector is to further the professionalisation of own work, while also being actively involved in the reforming of the Croatian cultural policy, without committing to any of the political parties.

• Because of this extreme historical changes in the dance scene there is a great potential for improvement of the young dancers and choreographers. Contemporary dance is growing in the city and the region, the needs for further professionalism and training are present.

copyright by Gordana
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LUXEMBOURG
The Cultural Life In Luxembourg
(small résumé translated from french in english ou of my Marcel Hicter Report)

Luxembourg was before 1995, year in which Luxembourg was for the first time “Cultural Capital of Europe”, rather a desert regarding cultural life. The cultural activities were limited on a few theaters which had a weak influence in the the population. There existed no musicvenues and most of the “rockshows” were organised in crappy sporthalls.

After this cultural “highlight” in 1995, the luxembourgish state was investing astronomical budgets to build prestigious buildings to host cultural activities. Centre Culturel De Rencontre Neumünster (ouverture en 2004), La Philharmonie (2005), Rockhal – Centre de Musiques Amplifiées (2005), Musée d’Art Moderne (will open in july 2006), Théâtre National de Luxembourg are only a few of them. But the political decision makers didn’t evaluate the potential market for cultural activities in Luxembourg and defined inadequately the content of the buildings. Luxembourg still doesn’t have a cultural policy and it is quite difficult for cultural operators to follow concrete guidelines.

The situation nowadays is precarious with a lot of venues, a big offer and often a very small audience, result of a “competition” between the different cultural venues.

Le terrain culturel au Grand-Duché

La Kulturfabrik est en 2006 plus que jamais en phase d’évolution vers un “centre de création”, essayant de trouver un équilibre entre des productions propres à la maison et des accueils dans les différents domaines. L’équipe artistique a la volonté et l’ambition de faire de la KULTURFABRIK non seulement un lieu d’accueil mais aussi un lieu de résidence et de création inter- et transculturel ouvert à toutes les formes d’art (musiques, théâtre, expositions, danse, cirque, soirées littéraires, films, fête du livre, …), ainsi qu’un lieu de formation et de rencontre avec les publics (conférences, actions pédagogiques, rencontre avec les artistes, ateliers jeunes publics…).

Cette évolution de vouloir s’orienter plus vers les créations réside de mûres réflexions, analysant le terrain culturel luxembourgeois. Avant 1995, année dans laquelle le Grand-Duché de Luxembourg figurait pour la première fois en tant que Capitale Européenne de la Culture, le pays disposait à cette époque d’une vie culturelle se limitant à quelques théâtres qui n’avaient pas d’impact majeur sur le plan régional. La Kulturfabrik, active sur le terrain depuis 1981, avait une place importante sur le plan culturel alternatif.

Après 1995, l’Etat luxembourgeois a sérieusement accéléré le développement culturel en investissant d’énormes sommes dans de grands complexes: Centre Culturel De Rencontre Neumünster (ouverture en 2004), La Philharmonie (2005), Rockhal – Centre de Musiques Amplifiées (2005), Musée d’Art Moderne (2006), Théâtre National de Luxembourg (2005) et les Centres Culturels Régionaux (Kulturhuef à Grevenmacher ayant ouvert ses portes en 2001, le CAPE à Ettelbrück en 2000 et le Centre Culturel à Mersch en 2005). N’oubliant pas les acteurs et institutions qui existaient déjà sur le terrain, privés, étatiques et communaux: les musées, le Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg, l’Atelier – salle de musiques amplifiées, les divers organisateurs privés de concerts de musique classique et actuelle, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain (ouverture dans le contexte de l’année culturelle 1995),….etc.

Mais les décideurs politiques n’ont, au préalable, qu’évalué les besoins réels et le niveau de public potentiel et se sont peu questionnés sur les contenus. Le Grand-Duché ne dipose à ce jour d’aucune politique culturelle clairement élaborée: ainsi il est difficile pour les responsables politiques et les acteurs de terrain de suivre des lignes directrices.

Certains centres de dimension nationale (Rockhal), régionale (CAPE ou Kulturhuef) ou communale (Mersch) fonctionnent avec des ressources humaines réduites et il est très difficile et fatigant de garantir une programmation exigeante et régulière. Dans une époque où les budgets culturels risquent de diminuer il est douteux que les décideurs politiques trouvent une solution rapide à ce malaise.

Avant 1995, il existait un manque au niveau du divertissement culturel, alors que de nos jours le public est confronté à une surenchêre de spectacles de tous genres. Ce qui engendre qu’une majorité de salles ont de sérieux problèmes de se remplir malgré une excellente programmation. Les salles programment trop et les publics se plaignent que les rendez-vous pullulent. Souvent les prix d’entrée sont élevés et demandent un budget conséquent aux spectateurs afin de visiter un minimum de représentations par mois. Sachant que la moyenne des salaires au Grand-Duché est élevé par rapport aux habitants dans la Grande-Région est que politique des prix devrait respecter ce fait. C’est au théâtre que l’offre est actuellement la plus concurrentielle, au point qu’il ait des représentations auxquelles n’assistent qu’une demi-douzaine de personnes. En octobre 1995, 140 représentations théâtrales ont eu lieu à Luxembourg-Ville (80.000 habitants). Ceci donne une moyenne de 5 représenations par jour sur un terrain restreint.

Au lieu de programmer moins, différemment et en tenant compte de la particularité de chaque salle, les différents acteurs culturels ne cessent d’offrir une programmation concurrentielle, et ceci à haute fréquence. Ceci promet de sérieux problèmes pour l’année culturelle en 2007.

Des premières initiatives essaie de faire face à ce problème: il existe une fédération des théâtres qui essayent de coordonner les calendriers des diverses institutions. Le succès est plutôt moyen vu que peu de programmateurs ont envie de freiner leur enthousiasme. Une remise en cause collective pourrait remédier à ce bouillonnement culturel.

copyright by René