Thirteen cultural organizations secure the budget until 2026 with 2.8 million euros

Out of 5.2 million euros for 226 cultural organizations, the Ministry of Culture has decided to entrust the strengthening of the independent scene to 13 beneficiary organizations, to which it provides the budget for three years. Listed in the "first category", these NGOs will be distributed over 2.8 million euros, which is half a million more than for 213 organizations in the other two categories.

 Whatever it looks like with the Ministry of Culture, its policies and leadership, thirteen non-governmental organizations of what is called the independent cultural scene have a guaranteed budget until 2026. It reaches up to 300 thousand euros for three years for each organization. The budget of 2 million and 828 thousand euros will be distributed to the thirteenth of the "first category". 

On Tuesday, MKRS published the "Report of the Evaluation Commission of project proposals from the public call: 'Art, Culture and Cultural Heritage'". There are 226 projects in total that have received financial support from the state budget. Apart from the "first category", there are 40 projects in the second - with a maximum annual support of up to 23 thousand euros. In the third, up to 20 thousand euros, there are 190 projects. 

It is the first time that MKRS applies this system - which allocates a budget for three years to organizations that it has qualified as first category - an approach that has long been requested by some actors of the independent scene, justified by the Ministry as a goal for empowerment of the independent scene and not only. 

In what is listed as the "second category" - which receives support only for this year - the budget of 23 thousand euros will be distributed to 673 organizations. The "third category" is a different story. A total of 190 projects do not reach the figure of 13 organizations for anything less than 1 million euros. 

The total budget of the "Public Call: 'Art, Culture and Cultural Heritage'" is 5 million 205 thousand 325 euros. In this year's Budget Law, there are 5.6 million euros in the "Support of culture" category. 
The appeal deadline is five days, and five members were part of the Evaluation Committee that selected the 226 winners from the call closed at the end of April.

More than half of the budget for the "first category"

The thirteenth of the "first category" is led by the international documentary and short film festival "DokuFest" with 282 thousand euros for three years, followed by the "Multimedia" center with 268 thousand euros, as much as the theater "Oda" has for the annual program . On the list are also the organization "Ec Ma Ndryshe" with 257 thousand euros, "Autostrada Biennale" for its annual program receives 255 thousand euros from MKRS, both organizations operating in Prizren, as well as "Lumbardhi" with the project "Lumbardhi in transition" "supported with 187 thousand euros. "PriFilmFesti" received a budget of 215 thousand euros, "Roma Veritas Kosovo" has 150 thousand euros for three years, as much as the "Kosovo Chopin Association" for "annual program including 'Chopin Piano Fest'". The international animated film festival "Anibar" in Peja has a budget of 257 thousand euros until 2026, and the first category also includes "HardhFesti" with 182 thousand euros and "Fondacioni 17" with 172 thousand. Planning based on 185 thousand euros of MKRS can also be done by the choir "Siparantum" of Peja.   

For most of these organizations, this was the budget even in 2023, "broken down" into annual figures.

The "second category" list has 23 beneficiary organizations with as many project proposals. The annual budget of 40 thousand euros is the maximum in this category. There are four NGOs, namely projects that have received the maximum: "EtnoFest" Festival, "Integra" with the project for "Documentation of artistic heritage - the fifth edition, Shani Pallaska", the Festival of Theaters of Ferizaj for the 54th edition and for " annual activities in theaters and various public spaces, as well as the engagement of young people in cultural and artistic life, as well as "7 Arts" which has this budget for the "annual program 2024 - 2026". In the same category is the Association of Publishers of Kosovo, which received 35 euros for "Book Fairs", and the international outdoor theater festival "PrizreniFest" for its third edition received the same amount, from 30 euros. "Mural Festi", "Revolucioni Queer", "Hasi Echo", "Mitrovica International Jazz Days", as much as there is for "Prishtina Jazz Festival.  

"Third category" with 1.7 million euros for 190 organizations

In what is defined as the "third category" there are 190 organizations with the same number of annual programs and projects. In total, there are 1 million 704 thousand 325 euros that will be distributed in this category. The maximum amount in the category is 20 thousand euros. It is received by no more than 6 organizations out of 190 that are on the list of beneficiaries. From 20 for this year they will receive: "Deffy Them" for the "Gatherings Alternative Music Festival", "Prishtina Music Conference", "Stacion - center for contemporary art", "Kosova Ars" for "Mitrovica Guitar Days", "Institute for Islamic Cultural Heritage" for the project "Mosaic of Kosovo - Discovery of Islamic Art and Architecture" and "Ars Kosova Music Foundation" for the "artistic podium 'ArsKosova'". The international music festival "ReMusica" figures with 17 thousand euros for the 23rd edition, as much as "NGOM Festi" for the 13th edition and the graffiti festival "Meeting of Styles" for the 8th edition. In this category there are also projects from Tetova and Presheva, daily organizations and others.

Feedback on "technical errors"

On the other hand, MKRS at this stage has not made public the reasons for not supporting some organizations. Missing among them is "Artpolis", which organizes "FemArt" and has a resident ensemble of actors. 
The founder and director of "Artpolis", Zana Hoxha, said that this organization is among the largest, most stable and most active in the Kosovar cultural scene for 20 years. He said that the non-inclusion in the preliminary list is believed to be a technical error since they respected the application deadlines by submitting all the required documentation, "since they meet 100 percent of the required criteria". 

"I believe that this mistake will be examined with our complaint that we will submit on June 26 and not be intentional to leave us out of the deserved support. The independent cultural scene of Kosovo is not complete without 'Artpolis' and our commitment to the theater and to the community", she said. They have applied for three-year support. 

Regarding the new policies of subsidizing cultural organizations, director Hoxha said that this was the last time to follow such practices based on developed countries which affect the sustainability of large cultural organizations which are challenged every year with delays from public calls. 
"As in our case for the second consecutive year with administrative obstacles. Such categorization, however, should not create comfort and limitation for other organizations that may be at that level in other years and that should be encouraged to be supported for several years in a row", she said. He added that he believes that if the criteria of MKRS is respected that the organization's income is not completely from MKRS, the independent scene is not affected, but, on the contrary, it can inspire even smaller organizations to aim for a support of such. 

"However, I would like the regions where these organizations and artistic profiles come from to be more involved and not to be concentrated mainly in Pristina and Prizren", she said. Prizren this year takes the lead in terms of three-year support.

Infrastructure as a parallel challenge

Playwright Jeton Neziraj, who leads the "Multimedia" center, regarding the new approach of MKRS, said that it is a good step, necessary, although delayed. According to him, financial instability has been a chronic problem of the independent cultural scene, but not the only problem. 

"An equally important problem is the lack of infrastructure. Most of these organizations of the independent cultural scene - especially those in Pristina - work in improvised spaces and barely exercise their activity. While the infrastructure of the few cultural spaces in the capital is terrible", he said. According to him, as far as the theater scene is concerned, he thinks that MKRS must solve the issue of financing public theaters in other cities outside of Pristina. He said that it is really senseless not to finance the Theater of Gjilan, Ferizaj and Gjakova, when it is known that the entire cultural life in these three cities is reduced to the work and repertoire of these theaters. 

"The same cultural ecosystem, which supports both the independent cultural scene and the public one, would make sense and give hope", he said. 

As for the three-year support, he said that the list should be increased. In this case, he mentioned the Festival of Theaters in Ferizaj and the "EthnoFest". 

"So now we really need artistic solidarity and the effort of all of us, so that this three-year financial scheme is enriched with new organizations that have proven artistic commitment and professionalism in management", he said. In terms of subsidy management, according to Neziraj, what MKRS should do is to relieve these organizations of the bureaucracy and stress that incompetent officials create for them during reporting. 

"I have heard many cases when reporting turns into a nightmare, even blackmail. "Let's face it, x organization has been asked - as evidence - to print them on paper and submit the posts on Facebook about the various events that it has posted," said Neziraj. 

When the Ministry of Culture had announced and opened the public Call for "Art, Culture and Cultural Heritage", the division into categories had been broken down into several points. In fact, the Call had also a fourth category - Projects of new creators and performers - but Tuesday's preliminary list does not include the beneficiaries. 

"The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MKRS), in the field of art, culture and cultural heritage for 2024 lists among the program priorities: strengthening the role of the independent cultural scene in the development and implementation of public policies, increasing the quality of creativity artistic, the identification and support of young talents, the activation of young people in decision-making and activities in the field of art, culture and cultural heritage, networking and promotion of the local cultural product as a competitive product in the international market of the creative industry", it was written at the top of Open call in March. 

With "three-year support for organizational and programmatic development of NGOs in the field of art, culture and cultural heritage", MKRS had warned that it aims to "strengthen the independent cultural scene by building an appropriate legal environment that facilitates the development sustainable sector based on the principles of good governance, providing appropriate and easily accessible financial instruments that ensure transparency and fairness, facilitating access to the international market of the creative industry, and fostering genuine coordination and cooperation between actors in these areas". It also warned that in this category three-year support of profiled NGOs in the field of art, culture and cultural heritage, which "are well organized, have a clear vision, have contributed to the development of the culture sector in Republic of Kosovo and have proven professional and technical capacities for the implementation of their strategy". They had to meet 7 general criteria and 15 specific criteria. In the second category with one-year programs and traditional organizations in the field of art, culture and cultural heritage, MKRS, as it wrote, aims at "enlivening and enriching cultural life, as well as encouraging the promotion of cultural diversity through the support of programs that take place throughout the year and traditional organizations in the Republic of Kosovo".

The story with the old scandal

For years, the Ministry of Culture, despite the large sums it has allocated for the independent cultural scene, has also faced unusual breakdowns in this process. The "drama" itself was the publication of the results in June.

Initially, the preliminary list was published and the deadline for complaints was opened. There were 36 projects, supported with 808 thousand and 510 euros, which were supported by events and organizations leading the cultural scene in the country, such as "DokuFesti", "Artpolis", "Chopin Piano Fest" or the "Multimedia" center. He left a five-day deadline for complaints, until June 26, and it didn't take more than three days for him to examine them and out of 36 projects, 106 were made. The difference in the budget: 1.7 million euros, when from 808 thousand euros it became 2.5 million. The same day that this list was published, it was deleted from the website. After almost 24 hours, the new List with changes was published. 283 thousand and 805 euros were inflated for a fixed price. 11 projects were added. There were 106 projects on the "evaporated" list an hour after the launch. And in the new 116, plus one without serial number. 

In the new list, among the 117 beneficiaries were the center for contemporary art "Station" with 20 thousand euros, the Cultural Organization of the Young with 11 thousand euros, Sh.K. "Traces" with 10 thousand and 760 euros, the film theater house "AKT" with 25 thousand euros, the artistic cultural society "Malsori" with 27 thousand 100 euros, for "Hasi Jehon 2023", the gallery "Qahili" with 30 thousand euros, brass band "Prizreni" with 20 thousand euros, the Foundation of Kosovar Architecture with 20 thousand euros, the association "Centre of Musical Art DAM" with 20 thousand euros, and the cultural center "Pre Art" received the same amount of support. Without an ordinal number, the international theater festival "Prizren Fest" also appeared in the new list with 30 thousand euros.

The Ministry of Culture had "reopened" the wallet for some organizations, improving their numbers. 
However, for the open call in September, the Ministry of Culture had planned 500 thousand euros. But this figure had quadrupled. In the published lists, it appeared that non-governmental organizations were supported with 1 million 342 thousand 296 euros, while individual projects with 605 thousand 650. Altogether they reach the figure of 1 million 947 thousand 946 euros. It was about 186 individuals and 137 non-governmental organizations.