DEVELOPING CULTURAL STRATEGY IN THE CITY OF DUBROVNIK

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DEVELOPING CULTURAL STRATEGY IN THE CITY OF
DUBROVNIK

• F A C T S S H E E T
• ANA ŽUVELA BUŠNJA
• Institute for International Relations, Zagreb

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STRATEGY DEFINED

• In the Ancient Greek military, word strategos
  defined a general in command of an army.
• By the time of Pericles in 450 BC strategos was
  used to imply overall managerial skill
• Henry Mintzberg defines four ways of thinking
  about strategy as being like
• a plan a consciously intended course of
  action
• a pattern underpinninga stream of actions
• a position a deliberate stance taken in
  relation to the environment (i.e. the world in
  which it works) and
• a perspective an all-embracing way of thinking
  about the organisation and its approach to the
  world

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CULTURAL STRATEGY GOING LOCAL

• Culture has both a material and a value
  dimension and includes a wide range of activities
  including arts, media, sports, parks, museums,
  libraries, the built heritage, the countryside,
  playgrounds and tourism. Strategies are concerned
  with establishing the agenda, setting the
  direction, making key choices, allocating
  resources, and developing monitoring mechanisms.
  A Local Cultural Strategy should be guided by a
  vision of how the local area and its culture may
  develop over the life of the strategy. It will
  cover a wide span of cultural activities in a
  specific geographical area, taking into account
  the cultural activities of the voluntary and
  private sectors and other public agencies and
  making reference to those natural and man-made
  features which help to shape the cultural
  identity of the local authority area and
  localities within that area. It should help
  strengthen and develop links between services.
  Services should be viewed in a holistic manner.
  (DCMS, 1999, italics own)

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CULTURAL STRATEGY IN CROATIA

• The draft of a single official strategic document
  on culture in Croatia was published by the
  Ministry of Culture in 2001 under the title
  Croatia in 21st Century Strategy for Cultural
  Development. The publishing of the full
  document followed in 2003.
• Little or next to nothing has been done about
  further amending and implementing the proposed
  strategy text
• Consequently, national and local of action on
  culture has not been established so far
• Provoked by the on-going delay of
  decentralisation process from both national and
  local governments, independent organization
  Clubture from Zagreb started an initiative for
  decentralization of cultural policies to the
  local levels
• Clubtures initiative has been adopted by a
  number of NGO organizations in the country which
  brought projects of developing cultural
  strategies in nine Croatian cities

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CULTURE AND THE CITY

• Cities or the local authorities are the founders,
  owners and only legislative decision-making
  bodies for local cultural infrastructure and the
  arts in Croatia
• The City Council appoints the directors, members
  of executive boards, brings statutes and other
  decrees for the cultural institutions
• Local cultural sector is administered, governed,
  monitored and to some extent managed by the
  citys departments of culture and social services

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CULTURAL SECTOR IN DUBROVNIK

• Eight public cultural institutions
• Dubrovnik Summer Festival,
• Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra,
• Marin Držic Theatre,
• Dubrovnik Museums,
• Museum of Modern Art,
• Folklore Ensemble Lindo,
• Dubrovnik Libraries
• Dubrovnik Cinemas
• Thirty two arts organizations
• Twelve annual festivals

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CULTURAL SECTOR IN DUBROVNIK cont.

• 43.770 individuals live in Dubrovnik and the
  surrounding areas
• 226 individuals are employed full time in the
  culture sector
• over 1000 individuals are employed in the culture
  sector seasonally
• 10 of inhabitants were involved as amateurs in
  work of a cultural institution (folkore ensemble
  Lindjo) and arts organizations

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CULTURAL SECTOR IN DUBROVNIK - FINANCES

• Budget of the City of Dubrovnik for 2006 39
  million
• City of Dubrovniks cultural budget for 2006
  4.5 million
• Percentage of overall Citys budget invested in
  culture 11.44
• Average expenditure on culture in Croatian
  cities 10
• Percentage of overall cultural budget allocated
  to cultural institutions 79
• Average of 90 of cultural institutions budget
  is spent on salaries and maintenance costs
• Average of 10 or less of cultural institutions
  budget is spent on artistic production and
  cultural programmes

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CITY OF DUBROVNIK BUDGET COMPOSITION
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CULTURAL SECTOR IN DUBROVNIK FINANCES cont.

• Other sources of funds for cultural institutions
• Croatian Ministry of Culture averages from 0.1
  to 30 based on individual projects
• Own income ticket sales and sponsor donations
  averages from 1 to 74

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CITY OF DUBROVNIKS OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS FOR
CULTURAL SECTOR

• Public Call for Cultural Needs Programme
  (announced every year in September for the
  following year)
• Categories of acitivities listed for eligibility
  the institutions that are already included in the
  funding scheme, museum and gallery activities,
  concerts and performances in music and drama,
  book publishing, youth, alternative and
  contemporary arts, film and audio-visual arts,
  heritage preservation programmes, interregional
  and international cultural cooperation, new
  technologies programmes, creative and innovative
  programmes connected to promotion of youth
  culture, investing in maintenance of cultural
  buildings in accordance to the interest of the
  City.
• The Programme of Public Needs in Culture (
  adopted at the beginning of every year for the
  same year)

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CITY OF DUBROVNIKS DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES

• In brief, tourism is Dubrovnik's main industry
• The Mayor of the City of Dubrovnik, Feb.2006