In the CR, there are many projects that link various networks, governmental and non-governmental organisations, and institutions dealing with cultural heritage and individual cultural projects. Useful contacts abroad were established long before the CR joined the EU. Many organisations in the CR have been members of European and international networks since the 1990s. Cooperation continued also within the frame of the international UNESCO NGOs, such as ITI, ASITEJ, UNIMA, SIBMAS, AITA/IATA and others (see also chapter 7.2.4).
There has been direct cooperation with foreign partners on hundreds of film, theatre, dance and music festivals and literary shows. The biggest and the most interesting events are often priority events of the Ministry of Culture (MC), like the International Film Festival Karlovy Vary, the International Festival for Children and Youth in Zlín, the International Theatre festival DIVADLO Plzeň, the International Music Festival Prague Spring, the International Dance Festival Tanec Praha, the Strings of Autumn Music Festival, the Colours of Ostrava Festival, the International Prague Writer’s Festival, or the International Folklore Festival in Strážnice and many others.
Direct cultural cooperation is supported by grant programmes of the MC for cultural cooperation abroad but also by direct support from grant programmes for theatre, dance, music, the visual arts, architecture, and literature. Individual towns also provide grants; the majority of finances being provided by the capital city of Prague under its grant procedure. Visits of foreign artists to the CR are also supported by foreign cultural institutes and foreign representative bodies in the CR, such as the Czech-German Fund of the Future. The majority of such events combine financing from several sources. Financing from private sources is not very substantial outside the fields of classical music and film.
Since the start of the 1990s NGOs have been very active in foreign cooperation and building contacts within European and international networks, initially as individual members – for example, in the IETM performing arts network or in the field of cultural heritage. In recent years active cooperation has also been pursued through membership in and cooperation between networks in the CR and in networks abroad. Examples are the Association of Independent Theatres in the CR (Asociace nezávislých divadel CR) and the European Association of Independent Performing Arts, the Association of Professional Theatres in the CR (Asociace profesionálních divadel CR) and PEARLE or the Music Managers Forum Czech Republic and the Music Manager Forum.
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