Private players such as foundations and sponsors play a significant role in the Swiss cultural sector when compared to other European countries. According to Swiss Foundations, there are six times more foundations per capita in Switzerland than in the USA or Germany, more than 13 000 charitable foundations, with total assets of just under CHF 100 billion.[1] Around a quarter of all Swiss foundations support cultural projects, with up to half a billion CHF per annum directed towards cultural purposes. Swiss foundations also play a role in the international field of art. For example, the Roswitha Haftmann Foundation Prize, worth 150 000 CHF, is the highest endowed European art prize.[2]
As mentioned in the Culture Dispatch 2021-2024, in addition to the charitable foundations, private companies support culture to the sum of about 370 million CHF annually, with sponsoring accounting for about 50 per cent of the total amount.[3] One of the country’s most important private promoters of culture is Migros, Switzerland’s largest retail company, which – to put it simply – dedicates one per cent of its turnover to cultural purposes (Migros Culture Percentage). In 2020, 142 million CHF were spent on projects in the areas of culture, society, education, leisure and business.
The importance of the private sector’s commitment to the Swiss cultural landscape is also evident in the museum sector, with the anchoring in private and local structures giving museums added legitimacy. According to the Federal Office of Culture[4], the main funding bodies of Swiss museums (almost 1 100 museums in 2018) are evenly distributed between public and private actors, with cities and municipalities on the one hand and associations on the other being the most important funding bodies.
The data on the quantitative share of the private sector in the total volume of cultural promotion is insufficient: according to estimates, approximately every sixth to seventh CHF for cultural promotion comes from the private sector. Keller, Rolf. Kulturpolitik der Schweiz. In: Kompendium Kulturmanagement. Verlag Franz Vahlen, 2011. p. 130). A study (sample survey) on cultural policy in the cantons of Zurich, Glarus, Schaffhausen, both Appenzells, St. Gallen, Thurgau and the Principality of Liechtenstein, in the period from 2008 to 2018, showed only minor shifts over time in the financing structure of institutions and projects: the share of public funding for supported cultural institutions was between 40 and 47 per cent, and between 33 and 40 per cent for projects. (Schwenkel, Christof; Ritz, Manuel; Stamm, Mélanie; La Mantia, Alexandra (2020): Entwicklungen in der Kulturförderung in der Ostschweiz und im Fürstentum Liechtenstein seit 2008, Interface Politikstudien Forschung Beratung, Luzern.)
Many other associations, professional organisations of cultural players and foundations, influence cultural matters. In all cultural sectors, there are organisations that represent professional cultural workers and advocate for their interests. These organisations can be supported by the Confederation with structural contributions on the basis of a call for proposals. Realigned in the 2016-2020 funding period, support has since focused on organisations of national importance (e.g. representation of language communities) that work to improve the working conditions of their members. With the newly considered discipline “Interactive Media”, 12 organisations are currently supported in the funding period 2021-2024:
Support for professional cultural organisations (March 2021)
(total annual amount CHF 2 451 000)
- A*dS Authors of Switzerland
- ARF/FDS Swiss Association of Film Directors and Screenwriters
- DS Danse Suisse Professional Association of Swiss Dance Professionals
- GSFA Swiss Animated Film Group
- SBV Swiss Stage Association
- SDA Swiss Design Association
- SGDA Swiss Game Developers Association (annual contribution of CHF 11’900.-)
- SMV Swiss Musicians’ Association
- SONART Musicians Switzerland
- SSFV Swiss Syndicate Film and Video
- t. Theatre Professionals Switzerland
- Visarte Professional Association of Visual Arts Switzerland (CHF 383 100.-, highest annual contribution )
With operating contributions to third-party networks, the Confederation promotes nationally oriented, nationally and internationally networked Competence Centres, which have been defined as follows since 2018: A network provides nationally and internationally recognised expertise services for the benefit of other cultural institutions in the areas of cataloguing, preservation or communication of cultural heritage. (Culture Dispatch 2021-2024, p. 3210)
The networks supported by the Confederation on this basis in the period 2021-2024 include:
- Thematic networks
- Association of Museums in Switzerland (supported since 2014)
- the Swiss Museum Pass (supported since 2014)
- the Alpine Museum of Switzerland (supported as a network since 2019).
- Audiovisual heritage networks
- the Swiss Foundation for Photography (Fotostiftung Schweiz) (photo foundation, supported by the Confederation since its foundation in 1971)
- the Association for the Preservation of the Swiss Audiovisual Heritage – Memoriav (supported since 2010)
- SAPA – Swiss Performing Arts Archive (supported by the FOC since the merger in 2017, although the predecessor institutions – the Swiss Dance Archive and the Swiss Theatre Archive – were already supported by the Confederation).
- New is the support of the association “Bibliosuisse” from 2021 in the area of librarianship
[1]https://www.swissfoundations.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Stiftungsreport-2020_D_Web.pdf
[2] Federal Office of Culture: Culture in Switzerland – Pocket Statistics (2020).
[3]Federal Statistical Office: Kulturfinanzierung durch die Unternehmen, Neuchâtel 2003, p. 32ff.
[4] Federal Office of Culture: Culture in Switzerland – Pocket Statistics (2020).
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