DEVELOPING CULTURAL STRATEGY IN THE CITY OF DUBROVNIKF A C T S S H E E T F A C T S S H E E T

ANA ŽUVELA BUŠNJAInstitute for International Relations, Zagreb

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: underpinning“a 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

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)

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

Clubture’s initiative has been adopted by a number of NGO organizations in the country which brought projects of developing cultural strategies in nine Croatian cities

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

city’s departments of culture and social services

CULTURAL SECTOR IN DUBROVNIK

Eight public cultural institutions: Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, Marin Držić Theatre, Dubrovnik Museums, Museum of Modern Art, Folklore Ensemble Linđo, Dubrovnik Libraries Dubrovnik Cinemas

Thirty two arts organizations Twelve annual festivals

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

CULTURAL SECTOR IN DUBROVNIK - FINANCES

Budget of the City of Dubrovnik for 2006: € 39 million City of Dubrovnik’s cultural budget for 2006: € 4.5

million Percentage of overall City’s 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 institution’s budget is spent

on salaries and maintenance costs Average of 10% or less of cultural institution’s budget is

spent on artistic production and cultural programmes

CITY OF DUBROVNIK BUDGET COMPOSITION

Social Services 25.3

Environment & Planning 4.64

Real Estate Mgmt. 21.61

Local Administration 12.87

Commerce 7.53

Public Utilities 16.61

Culture 11.44

CULTURAL SECTOR IN DUBROVNIK – FINANCES cont.

Other sources of funds for cultural institutions:o Croatian Ministry of Culture – averages from 0.1%

to 30% based on individual projectso Own income; ticket sales and sponsor donations –

averages from 1% to 74%

CITY OF DUBROVNIK’S 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)

CITY OF DUBROVNIK’S DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES

“In brief, tourism is Dubrovnik's main industry” The Mayor of the City of Dubrovnik,

Feb.2006