Czechia 1.1
Jul 31

Czechia 1.1

  • July 31, 2019

Objectives:

The State Cultural Policy for 2015–2020 had 5 priority objectives:

  1. Supporting identity, cultural diversity, and intercultural dialogue.
  2. Developing creativity through support for cultural activities and the creation of cultural goods, the provision of cultural services, work with the public, support for access to culture, and advancing a participative culture to facilitate social integration.
  3. Preserving cultural heritage as an environment conducive to the development of creativity.
  4. The use of cultural heritage and cultural activities, services, and goods to develop the economy, increase competitiveness, and support mobility.
  5. Creating a more effective environment for the support of cultural activities, the provision of public cultural services, the development of cultural goods, and the conservation of cultural heritage.

Main features:

The final vision of the future state of support for culture laid out in the State Cultural Policy for 2015-2020 (with a View to the Year 2025) was based on the presumed successful management of priorities, objectives, and measures laid out in the government’s official programme (government regulation no. 96 of 12 February 2014):

  • state expenditures on support for culture will reach 1% of state budget expenditure;
  • the cultural sector will not become the weak spot in society’s development in the sense of lagging levels of education and culture among the population and insufficient use of cultural heritage as a developmental resource in the global economic environment;
  • a culturally diverse society will focus on fostering innovation and on using tangible and intangible cultural heritage in the framework of diverse social groups at the regional level and in local associations, while emphasising support for individual cultural expression;
  • Czech culture will become an active agent in the European cultural space, international cultural cooperation will be promoted, and European and international awareness of Czech culture will increase;
  • an understanding of culture will be promoted that sees it as an economic factor and an important component of the state’s economic policy. Art and culture and the use of cultural heritage through cultural and creative industries will be elements that have a dynamic and modernising effect on the sectoral structure of the national economy;
  • there will be increased participation of citizens in cultural events, and private, public, and state institutions will contribute significantly to the support, organisation and funding of the development of cultural services;
  • the state will universally support the influx of extra-budgetary resources into cultural life and will use economic, regional and tax policy to stimulate an active role for culture in the development of society;
  • the state will support cultural values that lead to the cultivation of humanity, cooperation, compassion, and the sustainability of human society; support for education will play an essential role in this;
  • new legislation in the field of heritage conservation will establish the foundations for the sustainable use of this area of national culture;
  • the latest scholarly findings and information and communication technologies will be used towards protecting cultural heritage and facilitating access to culture;
  • the cultural environment of communities, regions, and landscapes will be universally supported through the coordinated cultural and regional policy of the state and through tools of regional planning as the basic foundation of the quality of life of the population and the development of related economic activities;
  • full use will be made of the resources of the operational programmes (most notably the Integrated Operational Programme, the Enterprise and Innovations Operational Programme and the Operational Programme Research, Development and Education) set up for this period.

Background:

In our modern history, the sector of culture has been closely tied up with the sector of schooling and education, and in this the Czech state is continuing a tradition that dates back to the time of the Austrian Monarchy (MinisteriumfürCultus und Unterricht). The Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment was founded on 14 November 1918 and existed by this name until 15 June 1942, when it changed its name to the Ministry of Education and Edification of the People. After 1945 the Ministry of Education and Enlightenment and the Ministry of Information became the authorities responsible for culture. 

In the time of the First Republic, culture was primarily associated with enlightenment, which was pursued on the level of voluntary associations, not the state. Activities aimed at enlightenment were coordinated in Czechoslovakia at that time initially through the Enlightenment Union and from 1925 through the Masaryk Institute of Public Education (Masaryk ovalidovýchovnéhoústavu). At that time there was no state cultural policy, and it was only through legislation that the state exercised an influence on cultural (educational) activities. Some of the most important pieces of legislation in this area were the Act on Organising Civic Education Courses for the Public, the Act on Public Municipal Libraries, and the Act on Municipal Chronicles.

After the Second World War, the territory of Czechoslovakia, as it was then called, fell under Soviet influence. This was one of the main reasons why the Communists seized power for 50 years after the ‘February Revolution’ in 1948. In 1960, the state changed its name to the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Methods of totalitarian power and economic problems sparked ever-growing resistance, which culminated in the Prague Spring of 1968 and general liberalisation in all fields including the field of culture. All these efforts were suppressed in August of the same year with the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops. This unsuccessful attempt at democratisation was followed by so-called normalisation after 1969, which can be described as a period in which all individuals and activities that were opposed to the Soviet occupation were persecuted by the state. Many important Czech figures in the fields of art and culture were persecuted at that time. At the beginning of the 1980s, pressure for democracy started to grow more intensively, which led to the ‘Velvet Revolution’ in November 1989. This process brought essential political, social, and economic changes to Czechoslovak society and changed the shape of culture in the Czech Republic (CR).

In 1993, the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic split into two independent states – the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic – after mutual agreement by both federations. The Czech Republic (CR) joined the European Union on 1 May 2004 following a referendum. Czechoslovakia was one of the founding members of UNESCO and, following the separation of Czechoslovakia the independent CR became a UNESCO member state in 1993.

Until 1989, there was a dense network of ideologically controlled and endowed cultural facilities – libraries, cultural centres and houses, cinemas, theatres, museums, monuments, observatories etc. This network was centralised in the 1950s and structurally reorganised in the 1970s.

At the beginning of the 1990s, this network underwent mass privatisation and denationalisation. All state institutions, such as book publishers and music industries, film studios, circuses, and art agencies, were privatised. Some state ideological cultural institutions were closed. State funds like the Czech Music Fund and others were transformed into foundations in conformity with the new Act on Foundations (see also chapter 7.2.2).

The denationalisation of cultural facilities was a very important step in the process of democratisation. This process is also very closely connected with the Territorial Reform of Public Administration in the CR. The Act on Municipalities released the local authorities from organisational subordination to the state and it allowed them to establish cultural institutions. Many cultural institutions – theatres in particular – were transferred to their jurisdiction from the state level.

The first stage of territorial reform ended with the establishment of new higher territorial units. These 14 regions were created on the basis of Constitutional Act No. 347/1997 Coll. The regions started operating on 1 January 2001, following the introduction of the Act on the Regions. In the second stage of reform of territorial public administration, dozens of museums, galleries, and libraries were transferred to the regions on the basis of the Act on the Transfer of Certain Objects, Rights and Liabilities of the Property of the CR.

The first strategic document in the field of culture was drawn up in 1996 for the Ministry of Culture of the CR in the form of a White Book – a study that clarified the relation of the state to culture and presented examples of cultural policies from other European countries. It also included a proposal for modernising the grant system of the Ministry of Culture.

The first government policy on culture in the history of the CR was ratified by Government Decree of the CR No. 401 of April 1999 and it was called the Strategy of Effective Cultural Support.

In 2001, the government issued Decree No. 40 approving the Cultural Policy in the CR 2001-2005. Provisions connected with the membership of the Czech Republic in the European Union and the reform of public administration ranked among the main topics of cultural policy.

In November 2008, the government issued Decree No. 1452 approving the National Cultural Policy 2009-2014. This is a document that focuses on understanding culture as a discipline in which it is useful to invest time, energy, and human and financial resources.

In January 2013, with the introduction of Resolution No. 7, the government adopted the Updated State Cultural Policy for 2013 and 2014, with a View to the Years 2015 to 2020. The update provides information about the discharge of individual tasks laid out under the state cultural policy, including tasks fulfilled or cancelled by Government Resolution No. 823/2011 on the updating of the Plan for the Implementation of the State Cultural Policy for 2009–2014.

In April 2015, the government passed Resolution No. 393, which acknowledges the State Cultural Policy for 2015-2020 (with a view to the year 2025). The Ministry of Culture drew up a plan for the policy’s implementation. In early 2020 work began on the preparation of a new state cultural policy.