Promoting participation in culture and the consumption of cultural services and products forms Objective 1 under Goal 4—“to strengthen national and civic identity, increase the reach of culture, and enhance society’s creativity”—of Lithuania’s National Progress Plan 2021–2030. The objective demands to encourage residents to take part in cultural activities and contribute to cultural development.
To address this objective, the Plan provides for: increasing access to high-artistic-value, diverse and inclusive cultural content; investing in the digitisation and accessibility of cultural resources; implementing the Lithuanian Capital of Culture project; ensuring the continuity of amateur arts activities and traditional culture and the operation of the Lithuanian National Culture Centre; ensuring the continuity of the Song Festival tradition; supplying libraries with up-to-date information and documents; implementing the strategic directions of public information policy and initiatives to develop society’s critical thinking and media and information literacy; carrying out media and information literacy competence-building activities in libraries; conducting feasibility studies, evaluations and research in the field of culture; and ensuring funding for the Culture Pass programme. For all these measures, the planned allocations are EUR 52 069 000 for 2025, EUR 54 991 000 for 2026, and EUR 46 873 000 for 2027.
Some of the measures listed under Objective 1 were already being implemented earlier, before the National Progress Plan was approved in 2020. In 2018, the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, launched a programme for schoolchildren called Culture Pass (Kultūros pasas). The aim of the measure is to improve access to cultural and educational projects and events, develop cultural awareness and experience of schoolchildren by providing appropriate cultural and artistic services. The measure provides each pupil with an amount of money that could be used for visiting performances, concerts or exhibitions offered by various cultural organisations and selected by expert groups according to the needs of different age groups and other criteria. Depending on the age group, the pupil attends cultural and artistic events either with their class or individually. The range of services that can be chosen per year depends on the price of the service. The whole list of services is published on the Cultural Education System portal. From 1 January 2023, an account is created for each pupil in the Cultural Education System for the calendar year, to which funds are assigned for paying for Services. The amount of funds for a pupil is calculated based on the number of pupils in the Pupil Register as of 1 January, by allocating to each pupil an amount obtained by dividing the earmarked state budget funds intended to finance Culture Pass Services by the number of pupils.
Since 2008, following the contest of European Capital of Culture, the contest Lithuanian Capital of Culture has been organised. Under this programme, the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture organises a contest and selects one Lithuanian town (except for the capital Vilnius) each year as the Lithuanian capital of culture. The town is selected after experts evaluate the Capital of Culture projects submitted by the municipalities. The contest is organised every three years, and cultural capitals for three consecutive years are announced as a result. Selected projects receive partial financial support from the Ministry of Culture. The programme seeks to promote the cultural activity and creativity of the residents of Lithuanian regions, develop culture, arts, and creative industries, and expand access to culture. Each nominated municipality implements cultural programmes, organises music and theatre festivals, exhibitions, and provides educational workshops for children and young people. In general, the project has vitalised the activities of local communities, schools, arts and culture institutions, stimulated cultural participation and become an important factor for local and regional development.
In 2015, another competitive project – The Minor Lithuanian Capital of Culture – was initiated and started by the Ministry of Culture and the community of Naisiai village. The Minor Lithuanian Capital of Culture competition is announced and organised by the Union of Rural Communities of Lithuania. It is a project that stimulates small towns and villages to be involved in cultural life and creative processes. The Lithuanian Council for Culture runs a special funding programme “The Minor Lithuanian Capital of Culture” which is dedicated to the projects of villages and small towns.
In 2006, in order to promote reading and help improve reading skills, the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture approved the Reading Promotion Programme. The Programme supports various reading promotion initiatives and projects: the election of the Book of the Year and the early reading programme Book Start (organised by Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania), the Top 12 Most Creative Books competition (organised by the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore), the summer reading action Summer with a Book, and the event Lithuania Reads (coordinated by the Lithuanian Publishers Association) organised on 7 May, the Press Recovery Day.
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