The modernisation of the public sector in culture has been a declared priority for many years but until now nothing substantial has happened in this regard. To date, there are few inspiring examples of successful collaboration between culture and business. Some events have attracted considerable private funds (e.g. festivals) and are the first step in creating an environment for co-operation. There are some examples of “good practice” in this area such as the regional cultural centre “Festival Seviqc Brežice” dedicated to making the early music experience available to the wider public. In 2007 it attracted almost 40% of its turnover through innovative models of cooperation, donations and sponsorship. Logically, the business model in 2014 had to be adjusted to the changed business environment (with smaller pronouncement on private funds) yet it remained innovatively oriented in its marketing strategy, combining national and local public and private financing, the latter contributing to the lower price of the tickets (as announced in the business plan of 2014) and receiving specially designed sponsor packages (Source: http://www.seviqc-brezice.si/index.php/za-sponzorje/). Considering its non-commercial orientation, the invention of new forms is based on the personal activism of the leading figure of this festival. His work inspires artists, business people, diplomats and local leaders.
Another interesting example is the regional cultural centre “Narodni dom Maribor” with its most successful project, a two-week long multicultural Summer Festival Lent which mostly takes place at several different open-air stages, along the riverbank, south of the old city centre. In 2007, it attracted not only an incredible concentration of cultural events (402) and around 500 000 visitors, but also the greatest number of sponsors that contributed 80% of the festival budget (2 million EUR). Similary as with Festival Seviqc, the changed business environment due to the financial crisis changed also the responsiveness of private sponsors. Nevertheless, in 2014 they managed to attract approximately the same number of visitors as in 2007 (about 500 000) and organised even a significantly higher number of events (486) Source: http://www.festival-lent.si/info/statistika/.
This successful festival formula comprises classical concerts, ballet performances, jazz concerts with jam sessions, singer-songwriter concerts, chansons and ethno-music concerts, folklore evenings, street-theatre performances, and performances for children, called “Children’s Lent”, and, finally sports events. It raises the profile of the second biggest city in Slovenia and reflects the regional pride in having the biggest festival in the country.
The biggest cultural centre in Slovenia, Cankarjev dom (CD), both a cultural and congress centre. In its cultural operation it presents, produces, co-produces, organises and provides cultural and artistic events, state ceremonies, exhibitions and festivals. Since CD is mostly a cultural centre, over two thirds of the available halls are annually reserved for culture and the arts. Nevertheless due to its key role as a central Slovene congress centre with the highest number of international congresses and a mobile group of professional congress organisers in other Slovene congress venues, it contributes more than 20% to the cultural budget. Taking into account sponsorship and marketing of cultural events (public funds participate less than 60% of its turnover in 2013. Cankarjev dom is not an example of private public partnership, but a successful mixture of cultural and congress activities with the latter as a factor in its financial sustainability (Source: http://www.cd-cc.si/sl/katalog-informacij-javnega-znacaja/, http://www.cd-cc.si/media/PoslovnoPorociloCD2013.pdf).
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