Background[1]
Due to the centuries-long occupation of the country by various foreign powers, culture and cultural policy are not based on a linear tradition. With the State acting as a manager-conservator for a long time, an evolution came only towards the second half of the 1970s with a definite acceleration from the 1990s onwards, the European Capitals of Culture of 1995 and 2007 playing a substantial role in this regard.
1939-1974: the first concrete act of cultural policy in post-war Luxembourg was the approval of the UNESCO convention in 1947[2]. The State also opens the National Museum of History and Art and the National Museum of Natural History, it creates in 1971 a service of historical monuments, but hardly undertakes other major policies apart from the distribution of subsidies and encouragement.
1974-1990: emergence of the New Cultural Policy which revolves, in particular, around cultural animation and the democratization of culture. In a context of notably budgetary stagnation, the 1980s saw the establishment of a National Cultural Fund (see points 4.2.1 and 7.2.1.), the development of patronage, the development of the audiovisual sector and the reorganization of the State cultural institutions.
1990-2013: in the 1990s, following in particular the lack of cultural infrastructure observed during “Luxembourg-European Capital of Culture 1995”, politics invested heavily in major construction projects of new buildings for culture. But Luxembourg 1995 also had a lot of influence on cultural life in general. In 1999, a first law to support artists was voted: it provided two specific systems of financial measures in favour of the professional actors of the artistic and cultural scene, gave a definition of the independent professional artist and the intermittent worker, and also introduced scholarships and the so-called “aménagement artistique 1%” (Kunst am Bau/art in building). The development of the cultural and creative sectors is also accelerating with the second European Capital of Culture in 2007, and internationalises through the establishment of export structures intended for audiovisual and musical production.
2013 until today: the presidency of the Council of the European Union (2015) marks an important step in terms of the country’s international cultural policy. At national level, the organisation of the first « Assises » in 2016 and the subsequent elaboration of the Cultural Development Plan 2018-2028 (KEP) constitute an essential base for the discussion on the development of a number of cultural policies.
Main features
Luxembourg’s cultural landscape is intrinsically linked to the country’s specificities, in particular:
- Its surface area of 2.586km2, making Luxembourg the second smallest EU member state
- Its geographic situation at the heart of Europe, crossborder territory par excellence
- Its turbulent history, condensed reflection of European history that led the country to its catalysing role in modern Europe’s construction process
- A significant annual population growth rate (+74% since 1981)[3] and a significant immigration (47.2% of the total population[4]) leading to the coexistence of more than 150 nationalities
- The presence of three official languages (Luxembourgish, French, German) and multilingualism experienced on a daily basis
- A small market in an economy that is dependent on international trade and a rate of 73% of foreign and cross-border labor[5]
- The highest median per capita income and purchasing power in Europe [6]
These characteristics, that are very specific to the country, have an influence on the main concepts that underlie the evolution and constant development of the cultural landscape of Luxembourg. Cultural policy thus equals with pluralism, interculturalism, diversity, cultural democracy, cooperation, promotion, exchange, preservation, openness.
Objectifs
The objectives of the cultural policy are defined according to the different governments and their respective program, based on the developments of the national cultural scene and the concrete requests of the cultural and artistic community. In general, the frameworks and concepts are more or less implicit, resulting from the measures taken, or appear more clearly when new legislation is passed or when legal texts are revised. The current government’s priorities cover a wide range of areas, focussing mainly on cultural heritage protection and the setting up of measure in favour of professional artists and creative stakeholders.
[1] Kulturentwécklungsplang eBook 1.0 – Septembre 2018, Volume 1, pp.34-36
[2] Kulturentwécklungsplang eBook 1.0 – Septembre 2018, Volume 1, p.35
[3] Statec (2021) La démographie luxembourgeoise en chiffres, p.5
[4] Etat au 1.1.2021, Statec (2021) La démographie luxembourgeoise en chiffres, p.5
[5] Luxinnovation (2019) Economie du Luxembourg, p.8
[6] https://www.cc.lu/dossiers-thematiques/leconomie-luxembourgeoise
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