The Board of Slovak Arts Council adopted changes to the Statute on Wednesday, March 12th, after months of debate. Despite the revisions, representatives of cultural organizations and municipalities have voiced objections to the changes. The Network for Independent Culture Anténa and the Open Culture platform consider the adopted version an improvement over the original draft but still see shortcomings. Laco Oravec from the Anténa network highlights ongoing contradictions between the new statute and the Council’s other regulations."A lot of internal regulations will need to be revised. The emphasis is now on supporting primarily Slovak culture, which could be restrictive for certain activities. Additionally, committees are expected to justify the projects they recommend for support, which is impossible due to limited capacity and funding," said Oravec.
According to proponents of the changes, who were nominated by Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová, certain groups of creators have previously been given preferential treatment in the allocation of subsidies. Matúš Oľha, who was approved as the new chair of the Slovak Arts Council by the Board, supports these reforms. "I expect that the flow of money from the fund to the cultural community will be more transparent, that passions will subside, and that those who have not received money from the fund for years will be entitled to it."
However, representatives of cultural institutions and municipalities remain concerned. Peter Kadlic, Chair of the Culture Section of SK8—the association of Slovakia’s eight self-governing regions—warns that many institutions are unable to plan their activities due to delayed subsidies. He also questions the reliability of the expert assessment process. “We have already seen cases where the evaluation committees' opinions are respected, but at other times, the board overrules their decisions. Additionally, local and regional cultural institutions, as well as municipalities, have no representation on the Council’s board," Kadlic noted.
As a result, Anténa – Network for Independent Culture and Open Culture are calling on the Ministry of Culture to rectify what they claim is an illegally elected board composition. The Ministry has yet to respond but has previously denied any dysfunction within the fund, emphasizing that applicants do not have an automatic right to subsidies. Its statement reads:
"Neither local authorities nor other applicants can automatically expect to receive funding simply because they have been awarded it in the past," the statement reads.
On March 28, the mandate of the current head of the council, Dušan Buran, will come to an end. He will be succeeded by the current vice-chairman, Matúš Oľha, a relatively new member of the council who was nominated by the Minister of Culture.
Source: Anna Lačoková, Slovenský rozhlas
