National Programme for Culture 2004-2007
On 23 October 2003, the Government adopted a draft resolution on the National Programme for Culture 2004-2007. This is a strategic document that, by defining cultural policy priorities, aims and measures, provides the conditions for sustainable and integrated development of Slovene culture. The programme defines the general priorities of cultural policy and responds to key development problems in individual spheres of culture, as highlighted by the Analysis of Conditions in Cultural Spheres and Proposed Priority Objectives, dating from 2002, which is the professional basis for the programme. The National Programme for Culture derives from the historically achieved position of Slovene culture, taking into account its advantages and weaknesses, and with general priorities of cultural policy and through aims and measures in individual spheres, it provides the conditions for the preservation and development of Slovene culture in the context of the dangers and opportunities with which it will be confronted in the coming period.
The National Programme for Culture thus establishes a balance between preserving the Slovene cultural identity and its development. It ensures the conditions for the balanced development of culture in the common Slovene cultural space, conditions for raising cultural creativity, for increasing the accessibility of cultural goods and creativity and the conditions for stimulating cultural diversity. Cultural policy will also play an active role in creating the future regional arrangement.
The challenges of European integration processes demand from Slovene cultural policy a considered and future oriented strategy of development planning that ensures a balance between the preservation and the development of Slovene culture, mainly through nurturing the Slovene language and language culture, openness to cultural diversity which, in the wider concept of European association, is conceiving culture as an indispensable factor of development and stimulating the creativity of the individual at a time of globalisation and commercialisation, which also impact on the field of culture.
The National Programme for Culture is bound to all strategic government documents, especially to the Strategy of Economic Development, the National Development Programme, the Strategy of Spatial Development of Slovenia, the Strategy of the Republic of Slovenia in the Information Society, the National Programme of Higher Education etc.
General priorities of cultural policy in the period 2004-2007
1. Preservation and development of the Slovene language
The aim is to ensure the preservation and development of the Slovene language within the framework of the European Union, and this requires coordinated care for its cultural, political and economic dimensions. The European Union advocates on a declarative level the idea of multilingualism, respect for and development of linguistic diversity. However, this idea is throughout confronted with the question of a lingua francha and the division into official, working and regional languages, which requires from each state a considered language policy not only in its restrictive dimension but above all in the sphere of education and stimulative measures. Realising the aim thus depends on implementing an active language policy, which will connect all sources and all those actively involved in this sphere. In the narrower area of culture, the Ministry of Culture will give priority support to programmes and projects that demonstrate or stimulate the development of the linguistic culture.
2. Stimulating cultural diversity
An important aim of cultural policy is stimulating cultural diversity, the pluralism of creativity and cultural goods. This is one of the aims that is enshrined in the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997, on which the idea of European association is based and which is also described in the UNESCO document Our Creative Diversity (1993). The openness of cultural policy to other cultures, international exchange, the cultural rights of national communities, minority communities and vulnerable groups, and the cultural activity of Slovenes outside the Republic of Slovenia, make an important contribution to the development of cultural identity. From this point of view, the creation of programmes including the European dimension and which will apply for funds from international sources, will also be important for the realisation of this aim. This is especially important from the point of view of the common Slovene cultural space, since Slovene culture has long been known for its rich internal diversity.
3. Ensuring the accessibility of cultural goods and conditions for creativity
This aim derives from the cultural dimension of human rights and is directed at stimulating all types of accessibility to cultural goods and creativity (physical, regional, informational, social etc.). The accessibility of culture must not be essentially conditioned on the social status of the individual, and similarly not on regional factors, so this aim is among the priorities in all spheres of culture. Realisation of this aim is to a large extent dependent on measures that enable further development of traditional cultural centres throughout Slovenia and will be based on supplementing national and local funds.
4. Cultural education as creative education and as education for creativity
One of the key priorities of numerous European cultural policies is stimulating programmes and projects that link cultural, educational and scientific spheres and the media sphere and which stimulate learning the learning population of all age levels, both in understanding culture and in being themselves creative. Cultural literacy will thus be raised, which is one of the aims of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Cultural education is the combination of creativity in all spheres of culture, from traditional to contemporary artistic kinds, including popular culture and the media, a combination of teaching about culture, reflecting on it and being creative. The essence of cultural education is not in adding a new content, but in interweaving all curricular fields through innovative pedagogic and didactic approaches. So realisation of the aim is primarily bound to preschool, primary school and secondary school education of the young and is directed not only at creating future "consumers of culture" but also future "creators of culture", and in an analogous way also includes study and adult education programmes. Realising these priority tasks is to a large extent dependent on coordination with education policies and on ensuring the accessibility of cultural goods and possibilities of creativity. The aim is directed at raising the share of content relating to children and young people within programmes and projects financed by the Ministry of Culture.
5. Education for professions in culture
Cultural policy is taking a more active role in moulding and implementing school programmes that provide education for professions in culture. At the same time, cultural policy gives priority to nurturing education for those professions in culture that are not part of the school system. Realising the aims requires coordination with educational policies.
6. Culture as a category of development: culture as a generator of economic development, human resources, quality of life and social cohesion
The restricted cultural market and, similarly, limited funds that national and local budgets devote to culture is a reason for considered policies in fields in which cultural goods are also market goods. Incentives for the "cultural" or "creative industries", as stimulation to creativity and stimulation of the accessibility of culture, are important instruments for developing human resources, social cohesion, for quality enjoyment of free time and the quality of life (Culture at the Heart, Council of Europe, 1997). Precisely for this reason, the economics of culture in the spheres of the cultural or creative industry is composed of both public sources and funds from the private sector. The task of cultural policy is to create the conditions for greater investment of the economy in culture and to encourage their synergy and thus to increase the share of gross domestic product devoted to culture. From this point of view, tax policy is an important instrument of cultural policy.
7. Direct support for creators
In conditions of a restricted market and modernisation of the public sector, ensuring stimulating conditions for the work of creators in all spheres of culture is among the priority aims. This aim contributes to raising the creativity of individuals and providing greater accessibility to creating, and it encourages cultural diversity.
8. Information activities in culture
In accordance with the "Strategy of the Republic of Slovenia in the Information Society" information activity in culture is defined as a priority task of cultural policy. The aim is to improve accessibility to culture, increase the accessibility of comprehensive information about culture and to provide higher quality professional and scientific evaluation of culture. The aim is realisable by linking various information systems operating in cultural fields, and this linkage will find a common point in the national cultural portal.
9. Modernising the public sector in culture
The Realising the Public Interest in Culture Act legislated a series of mechanisms in the field of administration, managing and financing public institutions and regulating employment relations. A legal basis is thus provided for modernising the public sector in culture in the direction of its greater effectiveness, openness and autonomy.
Key importance is given to education, science, information activities and partnership with the economy, whereby the priority treatment of all programmes and projects that involve cooperation with the economic sector is stressed. Special attention is devoted to stimulating the functioning of cultural markets, which can become an important generator of human resources. Among the priority guidelines is also support for the development of cultural tourism. In 2006-2007, an increase in funds for culture is anticipated, mainly on account of explicit development guidelines.
The proposed National Programme for Culture provides the conditions for the balanced development of culture in Slovenia, conditions for raising cultural creativity, for increasing accessibility to cultural goods and creativity, and the conditions for stimulating cultural diversity. The programme responds to the key problems of Slovene culture and thus provides the conditions for its preservation and development at a time of integration processes. With it, cultural policy becomes more dynamic and responsive, and thus more to the measure of culture that is ever less merely a matter of one ministerial responsibility and becomes all the more a government category.