Ministry of Culture

The Ministry of Culture is responsible for cultural matters in the public interest, including the coordinated cultural development of Slovenia, protection of cultural heritage, plurality of the media landscape, suitable conditions for the creation, dissemination, and accessibility of cultural assets, cultural rights of minorities, international cultural cooperation, and the promotion of culture both domestically and internationally.

Background

The Ministry of Culture was established in June 1991 under the Organisation and Competence of the Republic Administration Act, which transformed the existing Republic Secretariat for Culture into the Ministry of Culture, transferring its functions and staff. The Republic Secretary for Culture became the Minister for Culture. Following Slovenia's declaration of independence, the Republic of Slovenia's first Minister of Culture took office on 28 June 1991, the day the Act came into effect.

Tasks

The Ministry's core task is to provide suitable conditions for cultural creation and the protection of cultural heritage, guided by three principles of cultural policy: quality, accessibility, and diversity. Paramount is fostering top-level creativity across all cultural spheres. Equally important is ensuring the widest possible accessibility of cultural assets, as the right to culture is a fundamental human right. Closely bound to both is the Ministry's commitment to cultural diversity. The Ministry also protects freedom of expression in the media and ensures media pluralism.

At the national level, the Ministry of Culture is responsible for distributing most public funds for culture. "The Resolution on the National Programme for Culture 2024–2031", a key document that periodically updates cultural policy and sets goals and priorities, was adopted by the Slovenian government and parliament in July 2024.

Funding

For public institutions, there are dedicated calls for archive institutions and libraries, movable cultural heritage institutions (primarily museums), immovable cultural heritage projects (infrastructure investments), and audio-visual programmes. All public state cultural institutions must submit their programmes for the following year to the Ministry of Culture, which determines their annual subsidy in accordance with the annual budget.

For non-governmental organisations, the Ministry announces an annual call – usually in autumn – for public cultural programmes and projects. From applicants across various disciplines, 47 cultural programme organisers and producers were selected for four-year contracts for the period 2026–2029, most of them professional support organisations or producers running a venue or festival platform: 14 in performing arts, 13 in music, 12 in visual arts (including architecture and design), 5 in transdisciplinary programmes, and 3 in new media art. In addition, there is a call for four-year cultural projects and an annual call for artistic projects across all art disciplines, also open to smaller organisations and individual artists.

Every year there is also a dedicated call for cultural activities by the Italian and Hungarian ethnic minorities, the Romani community, and other ethnic minority groups and immigrants in the Republic of Slovenia.

Funding for literature and publishing is managed by the Slovenian Book Agency, while the national cultural programme for film is implemented by the Slovenian Film Centre.

The Ministry owns the digital web platform Culture.si and supports the National Aggregator for Europeana, managed by the National and University Library, which also runs the DLib.si - Digital Library of Slovenia.

International cooperation

International projects and festivals are supported through the programme and project public calls for producers. A dedicated call is open for the organisers and curators of the Venice Biennale of Visual Arts and the Venice Biennale of Architecture.

Further dedicated calls related to international cooperation are administered by the European Affairs and International Cooperation Service. One is open annually to creators bidding for short-term residencies in apartments rented by the Ministry in New York City, Berlin, London, and, since 2011, also in Vienna. The Ministry also co-funds the activities of the Creative Europe Desk Slovenia.

In 2011, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs launched a dedicated cultural fund to support cultural projects and events co-organised by Slovene embassies and consulates round the world.

That same year, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs established the Slovenian Culture and Information Centre in Vienna, followed in June 2016 by the Slovenian Cultural Centre in Berlin. Both are located within their respective Slovenian embassies.

Membership in international organisations

The Ministry of Culture collaborates regularly with the Council of Europe and other European bodies through the Attaché for Culture and Audiovisual affairs at the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Slovenia to the European Union. Slovenia is a member of European Audiovisual Observatory.

The Ministry is represented on the Slovenia National Commission for UNESCO and contributes to the International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD). It has also cooperated with the European Cultural Foundation and the Asia Europe Foundation (ASEF).

The Ministry is a permanent guest of the EUNIC Slovenia network of the European Union National Institutes for Culture in Slovenia, and a member of the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA).

The Ministry of Culture supports the participation of Slovenian young talents in the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO).

External links

Gallery

Ministry of Culture, 2009

The touring exhibition The History of Europe – told by its theatres was presented by theatre institutes/museums in Warsaw, Copenhagen, Vienna, Munich, and London. In Ljubljana it was set in the entrance hall of the Ministry of Culture in 2016.

Ministry of Culture

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