Serbia/ 7. Cultural institutions and new partnerships  

7.2 Status/role and development of major cultural institutions

According the Law on Public Interest in Culture, there were 22 national cultural institutions (including those located in Vojvodina and Kosovo) covering all sectors of culture. Now there are 25 institutions (Museums in Jagodina and Sirogojno gained the status of National Institutions, while the only ex-federal cultural institution: the Museum of the History of Yugoslavia became a "Serbian" one).

The National Museum, National Archive, National Library and Republican Institute for Heritage Protection perform a key role in the overall system of cultural institutions. They also organise professional education and training and they provide monitoring and evaluation services. All these institutions are over-staffed and still lack new professional competences / skills in PR, marketing, fund-raising, human resource management, strategic planning, etc.

Provincial institutions in Vojvodina perform a similar role and have similar problems as the national cultural institutions. They are both large and dependent on public budgetary allocations (90%).

City and municipal institutions represent the largest network of public cultural institutions in Serbia. They are basically financed from the city or municipal budget even in those cases when, by their activity, they cover an expanded territory of several neighbouring municipalities. For example: the City Museum of Kragujevac is in charge of research and collecting the objects in five surrounding municipalities, yet, it is solely financed by the City of Kragujevac. City cultural institutions are more and more motivated to address the market.

For cultural organisations, the amount of budgetary subsidies as a percent of the total income can vary between 30% and 80% depending on the kind of activities. In 2004, budgetary subsidies represented 80% of the total income of museums, galleries, archives and libraries; 50% of the total income of performing arts organisations, 35% of the total income of heritage protection organisations etc. On the other hand, the share of different kind of revenues from the business sector varies from 2.5% (archives) to 40% of total income (preservation of cultural inheritance and sights).

Private cultural institutions were already created at the beginning of the 1980s, including galleries, film production groups and theatres. Now they exist in all cultural fields and are eligible for project funding. This has been an important development as private bookshops, for example, were not allowed to exist prior to 1990 (however, the first small book stand, as a private bookstore, had been opened in 1985 as a café-bookshop within the Yugoslav Drama Theatre). Private cultural businesses must pay taxes, similar to any other commercial enterprise.

Owners of private cultural institutions started creating associations to lobby for their new and specific position in the market, but legislators still do not recognise the necessity to create a specific status for private non-profit institutions, which would give them tax deductions or other advantages.