Municipality of Ljubljana

Municipality of Ljubljana covers a total area of 275 square kilometres and has a population of 264,269 people (2002) living in 38 settlements. It is one of 11 Slovene Urban Municipalities and incorporates the Slovene capital city of Ljubljana, the country’s largest city as well as its political, administrative, economic, educational and cultural centre. The Municipality of Ljubljana has signed a number of inter-municipal agreements with other cities of the world: in 1964 with Pesaro and Parma (Italy), in 1966 with Chemnitz (Germany), in 1967 with Bratislava (Slovakia), in 1969 with Sousse (Tunisia), in 1977 with Wiesbaden (Germany) and Tbilisi (Georgia), in 1979 with Leverkusen (Germany) and Rijeka (Croatia), in 1981 with Chengdu (China), in 1999 with Vienna (Austria) in 2000 with Athens (Greece) and Moscow (Russia), in 2001 with Zagreb (Croatia), in 2002 with Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), in 2004 with Brussels (Belgium), in 2007 with Skopje (Macedonia) and in 2010 with Belgrade (Serbia).

Funding of culture

The Board for Cultural Activities of the City Council is responsible for municipal funding of arts and culture and other activities in the field. Annually the Župančič Award is bestowed to the outstanding creators in the field of arts and culture.

The Department of Culture of Municipality of Ljubljana functions as a governance and professional body in charge of public cultural institutions (16 municipal cultural institutions) and non-profit cultural organisations in the municipality, seeking to provide a creative environment for cultural associations, groups and individuals in the field of art and culture and to stimulate amateur cultural activity. The Department is also responsible for cultural heritage, local monuments and infrastructure.

A tender for co-financing of cultural programmes and projects is issued annually (usually at the end of the year). Other bids for various initiatives are issued throughout the year.

Municipal cultural institutions

Municipal cultural institutions include the Municipal Library of Ljubljana consisting of 6 libraries and their branches round the city, the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, the International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, the Festival Ljubljana Public Institute, the Ljubljana City Theatre (MGL),Mladinsko Theatre and Ljubljana Puppet Theatre, and some recently (re)established institutions: Kinodvor Cinema, Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture and Španski borci Culture Centre.

Ljubljana City of Literature

From April 2010 till April 2011 Ljubljana acted as the UNESCO World's Book Capital which concluded with the adoption of the Ljubljana Resolution on Books, a document that "stresses the importance of books as key vehicles of human development, cultural pluralism and sustainable diversity". In April 2011 Ljubljana also became a member of the ICORN network of cities of refuge to persecuted writers. Ljubljana strives to pursue the active involvement with literature also with the candidature to obtain the permanent UNESCO title of the City of Literature.