The Croatian cultural industry development characteristics
Croatia attaches great importance to the development of cultural industry and the cultural industry policy, and to the advancement of cultural economic policies and the legal system. The Ministry of Culture regularly co-operates with other ministries in fields in which the competencies of those ministries are involved, such as the protection of cultural heritage (with the Ministry of the Interior) or conservation and protection of historical town centres (with the Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning). Together with the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts, the Ministry of Culture started a programme for the support of SME’s in the field of culture and creative industries.
Some important areas of culture, however, do not fall fully under the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture, such as a part of arts education, research and minority cultural groups. For example, while the Ministry of Education and Science formally takes the lead role regarding curriculum and formal education, there is a shared responsibility for research of cultural matters between these two Ministries. The Ministry of Culture and the Government Office for Human Rights and Rights of National Minorities share responsibility for ethnic minority cultural groups. The strict sectoral division of activities hinders prospects for closer inter-ministerial co-operation. The most important links are financial and economic, i.e. the budget and economic growth. There are a number of trans-sectoral strategies that contribute to better coordination between different ministries and various levels of government. Co-operation between national, regional and municipal levels of government continues to be a very important segment of cultural policy, particularly when it comes to investment projects in renewing old institutions or building and setting up new cultural institutions such as libraries, archives, museums and theatres.
On the state level, cultural creativity is supported – both directly and indirectly – in three ways: a) support from the budget through annual public competitions in all fields of culture (theatre, film, publishing, music etc.), all basic cultural activities (creativity, reproduction, transmission etc.) and supplementary cultural activities (support for cultural management education, information technology support etc.); b) payment of retirement and health contributions for independent artists; c) possibility for support from the Ministry’s reserve of budgetary funds for projects that have already ensured one of the two abovementioned supports. From 2008, the Ministry of Culture announces a public call for proposals for entrepreneurship programme in culture. Areas of culture encouraged by the public call are: a) publishing and bookselling; b) performing arts; and c) visual arts; d) audiovisual activities.
Cultural activities – Artistic creativity and cultural and creative industries
The Ministry of Culture is responsible for regular funding of activities in the segment of culture, events and projects of interest for the Republic of Croatia. The programmes and projects of interest are those that put the Croatian culture into the European context, encourage intercultural dialogue and development of the civil society, and those that are based on knowledge with a high level of quality and that are cost-effective, well-profiled in relation to the core activity of their organisers and continually implemented.
A continuous support is provided to the programmes of the Croatian theatre, music and dance scene which secures to them stability, development and support. The stability of artistic institutions and organisations is the key link in the strategy concerning the implementation of dispersion and for the availability of the cultural content in the entire Republic of Croatia. The stable support provided to the national festivals (Dubrovnik Summer Festival (Dubrovačke ljetne igre), Split Summer Festival (Splitsko ljeto), Šibenik International Children’s Festival (Međunarodni dječji festival Šibenik – Hrvatska), Pula Film Festival (Pulski film festival), Varaždin Baroque Evenings (Varaždinske barokne večeri), Osor Musical Evenings (Osorske glazbene večeri) and International Folklore Festival (Međunarodna smotra folklora Zagreb)) and national theatres (Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Osijek and Varaždin) ensures their continuous activity, international collaboration, creation of co-production projects and development of new works of art.
Audio-visual activities and media
The Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and the Agency for Electronic Media takes care of the improvement of the audio-visual activities and media. Their joint work and collaboration encourage development of audio-visual activities and promote audiovisual creativity on the international level, preserve the values of the national cinematography and establish and develop a system that supports the development of audio-visual activities, protection of rights and interests of viewers, as well as the creation of conditions for co-production.
The European Union Programme – Creative Europe
The European Union Programme – Creative Europe (2014 – 2020) is a seven year programme intended for the cultural and audio-visual sector, which includes two separate sub-programmes – Culture and MEDIA.
Creative Europe – Culture
The Culture sub-programme is intended for the cultural and creative organisations, and it provides the funding for projects with a European dimension the goal of which is a cross-border exchange of cultural contents.
The funding possibilities cover a broad scope of programmes: collaboration projects, literal translations, networks or platforms, and the goal of the supported activities is to enable promotion of the European topics and project partners that participate in the activities related to the Creative Europe Program.
The Culture sub-programme is coordinated by the Creative Europe Desk on the national level. The Creative Europe Desk is a part of the Ministry of Culture. The new Ordinance lays down the criteria and the procedure according to which the Ministry of Culture will co-finance the project partners in all categories of the Culture sub-programme – the collaboration projects, literary translations, European networks and platforms. Pursuant to this new Ordinance, the Ministry of Culture secured financing of a larger number of beneficiaries of the Creative Europe. In 2018, a total of 58 projects was funded, which was twice as much as in 2017.
Creative Europe Desk – MEDIA
MEDIA Office of Croatia is an office responsible for the promotion and provision of information about the MEDIA sub-programme of the European Commission that offers a range of opportunities for funding of film and television projects, video games and activities, from education and development to distribution on film fairs, shows and festivals. Since September 2008, it has been a part of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre. It provides advice and responds to the inquiries of the Croatian film and television professionals and video game designers by explaining them different funding strategies and eligibility criteria. It also organises workshops, info days and lectures.
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