concept for more efficient support of the arts in 2007–2013 - Divadlo.cz

Part A
AN ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT SITUATION
1. Recent Basic Developmental Trends
and Their Evaluation
Since 1989 the arts have experienced dramatic changes in connection with the general
post-Communist transformation of society and the accompanying processes of the restitution
and privatisation of property, the transformation or dissolution of artistic organisations, and the
essentially spontaneous formation of a new infrastructure through civic initiatives and business
projects, all of which occurring within a new legislative framework. At the start of the 1990s cultural
heritage was made a priority, in particular the conservation of cultural monuments, which
at that time were in a derelict state, and the arts were largely guided by efforts to annul and eliminate
8 the administrative obstacles to artistic work. Without anything arising to replace them,
the monopolistic bodies and regulatory mechanisms that until 1989 had provided the financial
resources for reinvestment and for financing of projects within the integrated and centrally controlled
systems of individual artistic sectors were abolished.
The Rise of Civic Associations
A key turning point in the sphere of culture and the arts was the introduction of the new
Act No. 83/1990 Coll. on the Association of Citizens, which laid the foundations for the establishment
of a civil society and made it possible for cultural and artistic civic associations to be
founded. An important step towards “de-nationalising” culture and the arts was the emergence
of private legal entities in this sphere, whose activities are regulated under Act No. 455/1991
Coll. on Small Business (the Small Businesses Act), as subsequently amended, and Act No.
513/1991 Coll., the Commercial Code, as subsequently amended.
The Demise of Artistic Unions
One of the first major changes to occur as part of the transformation process in the field
of the arts was the dissolution of federal and national artistic unions, membership in which had
– in some branches – been considered a requirement in order for an artist to obtain professional
status. After 1990 new professional organisations began to emerge, some of which drew on and
revived a pre-war tradition of existence as an organisation, e. g. the Society of Architects (Obec
architektÛ), or renewed their activities by being founded anew, like the Czech Film and Television
Association (Unie âeského filmové svazu a âeského televizního svazu, FITES), whose predecessor,
the Union of Czechoslovak Film and Television Artists (Svaz ãs. filmov˘ch a televizních
umûlcÛ, also FITES), had been abolished in 1970. The largest artistic community was that of the
visual arts, which transformed itself – at a conference and later a special meeting (1990) of the
Union of Czech Visual Artists (Svaz ãesk˘ch v˘tvarn˘ch umûlcÛ, SâVU) – into a federation of associations,
i. e. professional associations defined by field, region, or interest. The legal successor
to the SâVU was the Union of Visual Artists (Unie v˘tvarn˘ch umûlcÛ, UVU, today UVU âR);
this organisational succession included the transferral of membership in the International Association
of Art IAA/AIAP (UNESCO). By agreement with the Slovak Union of Visual Arts (Slovenská
v˘tvarná unie, SVU) the federal Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists (Svaz ãs. v˘tvarn˘ch
umûlcÛ, SâSVU) was dissolved. Initially the visual arts community encompassed the fields of
architecture, art restoration and restorers (craftsmen), and art theorists and art historians, which
added up to ten thousand people in total. The Union embraced a total of 70 associations, and
today about one-half of the artistic community is associated under it. Soon after these changes a
process of individualisation and disintegration set in that has continued to date.
In 1992, when the process of establishing a democratic society was already under way,
the principle that began to become apparent in the arts was that it is not the state or any individual
artistic or cultural institution that are sovereign in the artistic sphere but rather the individual
that cultural assets are intended for. 9 The principle of “de-nationalising” culture was based on
the simple conviction that the state should not be running the arts. This idea produced the view
that at best the state can run national institutions (e. g. the National Theatre, the National Gallery
in Prague, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Film Archives, the Museum of Applied
Arts in Prague, the Museum of Czech Literature, the National Library of the Czech Republic)
and control over everything else should be ceded to the control of the municipalities (later
also the regions) and to civic actions and initiatives. In the mid-1990s programmes and systems
for subsidising the arts began to be formalised at the state level, but the form of this support
was project-based and not institutionalised. The majority of the financial resources going into
support for the arts were still provided through governmental organisations of the Ministry of
Culture (hereafter “MC”).
The Transformation of Individual Artistic Organisations
The transformation of artistic organisations commenced at the start of the 1990s and involved
the privatisation and liquidation of a large number of organisational entities. Publishers and
institutions engaged in the production of music and film were privatised in the first wave of privatisation.
In the fields of theatre and music, after privatisation and the subsequent change of
founding party, the original network of theatres and symphonic orchestras was left almost intact,
and in some cases even the governmental organisations were transformed into other types of entities,
whereby gradually new types of private legal entities were added to the original network.
The visual arts underwent a similarly complex process of transformation and development.
- Visual Arts
A good number of organisations and enterprises in the field of visual arts, architecture, and
design were privatised; for example, the former state enterprises ARTIA, Exhibition Management
(V˘stavnictví), Technoart, Dizart, Artcentrum, Institute of Folk Art (ÚLUV), Brno Arts and Crafts
(Umûlecká fiemesla Brno), or Arts and Crafts Central Prague (Ústfiedí umûleck˘ch fiemesel Praha).
The privatisation and restitution of the national chain of galleries called Work (Dílo) led to its
demise, which, given that this chain of galleries had previously functioned as a platform for the
exhibition and distribution of contemporary art, gave rise to a problem that has yet to be addressed.
As a consequence, in the early 1990s, art suddenly became relegated to the space of governmental,
i. e. public-type, museums and galleries, whereby the unique role played by galleries in identifying
and distributing works of art, through their sale of works to private owners and public collections
and through the provision of organisational services for artists, as is the custom elsewhere
in the world, was stifled. Galleries that organise exhibitions for artists and mediate the sale of
their works had yet to be established and they were to emerge purely in conformity with market
principles and with practically no chance of support. This, together with the transformation of
the fund that previously administrated the property of the artistic community, as described on the
following pages, seriously complicated further development in the visual arts (see page 22).
8 Based on a Government declaration made by Prime Minister Petr Pithart on 2 nd June 1990. 9 From a Government declaration made by Prime Minister Václav Klaus on 13 th July 1992.
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