Culture Ministry Hosted Expert Discussion on Arts Support Fund

Bratislava, 14 September (TASR) - A pilot expert discussion on the functioning of the Arts Support Fund (FPU) took place at the Culture Ministry on Monday, reported director of the ministry's communications department Petra Demkova, adding that representatives of the cultural community were joined in the discussion by Ministry State Secretary Tibor Bernatak, head of the ministry's arts, creativity, media and copyright department Peter Bencurik, and other Culture Ministry officials. "The meeting provided a forum for an open and objective discussion on the functioning of FPU, its support for individual areas of culture, as well as the experiences of representatives of the cultural community with the system for providing support," said Demkova, adding that the discussion also addressed issues of transparency and the setting of conditions for support. The ministry's state secretary also emphasised the importance of the fund's systemic framework. "The functioning of FPU hasn't been ideal in the past, and we still see room for improvement today. However, our aim is not to apportion blame, but to systematically reorganise the fund's operations so as to eliminate as many contentious issues and shortcomings as possible, which in practice lead to uncertainty or dissatisfaction," added Bernatak. The Open Culture platform announced on Monday morning that, despite having been invited, it wouldn't be taking part in the discussion, regarding the invitation as political and media manipulation, which is also linked to the campaign ahead of the October local elections and the dissatisfaction of municipalities, towns and regions with the failing support for culture in the regions. "[Culture] Minister Martina Simkovicova [a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee] needs to create the impression that she's succeeding in appeasing the cultural community and that she's moving towards rectifying the fund's shortcomings," stated representatives of the platform. "So far, however, she hasn't taken any specific steps to acknowledge and rectify her mistakes," added the platform. The Open Culture platform conveyed its position on the situation through representatives of the 'Antenna - Network for Independent Culture'. On its website, the network announced that it had accepted the invitation to Monday's meeting, but had done so "to remind the ministry that, for over two years now, we - together with other organisations - have been drawing attention to all the destructive measures and consequences caused by the 2024 amendment to the Arts Support Fund Act". am