The main institution allocating grants for Lithuanian artists is the Lithuanian Council for Culture. The Council awards two kinds of grants: individual and educational grants. Individual grants are awarded to support individual artistic activities of culture or art creators in the amount of 600 EUR per month and may be awarded for a maximum of 2 years. Education grants are awarded for improving the professional skills of culture or art creators, in particular for participating in traineeship programmes, courses, conferences, symposiums and other activities for building up professional skills. Education grants may also be used for covering the costs of creative residencies or master classes. The grants amount to 3 600 EUR and may be awarded for a maximum of 6 months.
Table 44: Individual grants for artists by field of arts, distributed by the Lithuanian Council of Culture in 2014–2022
| Forms of art | Number of grants distributed | Amount allocated in EUR |
| Circus | 82 | 164 747 |
| Architecture | 126 | 276 191 |
| Museums | 143 | 210 470 |
| Film | 106 | 253 421 |
| Libraries | 174 | 244 995 |
| Traditional Arts | 272 | 621 344 |
| Dance | 293 | 598 965 |
| Cultural Heritage | 290 | 676 225 |
| Design | 344 | 876 783 |
| Photography | 294 | 879 435 |
| Literature | 695 | 1 993 430 |
| Theatre | 809 | 1 615 887 |
| Interdisciplinary Arts | 668 | 1 892 549 |
| Visual Arts | 1 048 | 2 843 276 |
| Music | 1 372 | 3 070 697 |
| Total | 6 716 | 16 218 415 |
The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania gives annual awards and prizes for outstanding achievements in arts and culture. The most important award is the Lithuanian National Award for Culture and Arts. The award was established in 1989. It is granted for outstanding achievements in culture and arts and has been awarded annually in six categories since 2006 (between 1989 and 2006 there were nine categories). The prize is formally bestowed on February 16, when the decorations and diplomas are presented to the laureates at the Presidential Palace, commemorating the anniversary of the 1918 Act of Independence of Lithuania.
The Lithuanian Government Awards for Culture and Arts were established in 2006 and aim to promote art creators, performers, musicians, film makers etc. for their merits to Lithuanian art. Up to 12 awards are granted by the Lithuanian Government annually to Lithuanian cultural and artistic creators and actors.
The most significant works of professional theatre creators and outstanding professional achievements in the fields of drama, opera, operetta and musical, ballet, dance, puppet and object theatre, as well as children’s and youth theatre, are awarded with prizes conferred by the Ministry of Culture – the Golden Stage Cross and the Borisas Dauguvietis Earring. The award ceremony is held on World Theatre Day – 27 March.
In order to encourage and appreciate the creators, translators and critics of literature, the Ministry of Culture has been annually awarding premiums for the best works: the Armchair of the Translator of the Year (in cooperation with the Lithuanian PEN Centre), St. Jerome’s Prize (in cooperation with the Lithuanian Association of Literary Translators), as well as the Yotvingian Prize and the Young Yotvingian Prize (in cooperation with the Association “Druskininkai Poetic Fall”).
The Ministry of Culture organises the Dalia Tamulevičiūtė Competition for Lithuanian Authors of Performing Works of Art – a winner is selected from the sketches/extracts of performing works of art submitted to the Ministry of Culture from professional performing arts theatres according to the established procedure, to whom funding is allocated for the production of a play or one-person play.
The Balys Buračas photography award is annually granted to Lithuanian photographers for the most significant work or series of works that analyse, document or interpret Lithuanian culture.
The Bronius Savukynas award was established in 2010 by the Ministry of Culture. The award is granted annually to authors of publications and chief editors of cultural publications for the purity and correctness of the Lithuanian language, and the dissemination of humanistic values, analytical thought, and intellectual culture in periodical cultural publications.
The Young Artist Prize is awarded annually by the Ministry of Culture. Nominees for the prize may be either young artists (14 to 35 years old) or teams of young artists.
The Martynas Mažvydas Premium for merits to the Lithuanian language, history of writing and book art is awarded for the best research achievements in Lithuanian literature, language history, culture, and book science.
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