site.btaBulgarian Freelance Artists Receive Financial Support from State

July 29 (BTA) - A total of 15 million leva will be set aside to support Bulgaria's freelance artists, Minister of Culture Boil Banov announced at a news briefing on Wednesday. He described the measure as unprecedented support for Bulgarian culture.

Twelve out of the fifteen million will be directed to individual projects by creators in all forms of art. The plan is to grant 4,000 leva per project to 3,000 artists. According to Banov, apart from expressing their creator's freedom of thought and flight of imagination, the projects must meet two major requirements.

First, they must be related to Bulgarian literature, drama, poetry or applied arts.

Second, the projects must be presented as online content, so that they are uploadable to the YouTube channel of the Culture Ministry and accessible to everyone.

In addition, 3 million leva are committed to private culture organizations. Half of these funds will support organizations which do not have their own stages, and the other half will go to the ones that do. The measure applies to independent theaters, cinemas and galleries that perform various long-term activities on a monthly basis, Banov explained.

He added that "Socially Engaged Arts", a new programme on an initial budget of 250,000 leva, is now receiving another 500,000 for a total of 750,000 leva. The programme for attracting more audiences was allotted 500,000 leva initially, and is expecting another 500,000. The funding of programme "Creative Europe" also increased by 300,000 leva, Banov said.

Through the National Culture Fund (NCF), 700,000 leva will be allotted to circus and variety arts. The administrative capacity of the NCF will be increased by up to 150,000 leva, from 75,000 leva currently. In view of the numerous pending project applications, additional experts will be hired to evaluate them.

In addition to the 15 million, the Ministry of Culture will grant 300,000 leva to the National Museum of Literature to support Bulgarian writers, poets and playwrights. According to Banov, this will happen on a yearly basis.

The Minister of Culture promised to help all Bulgarian creators survive these trying times through lasting solutions. He assured that the State is continuing to finance its culture institutes and community libraries despite their zero activity at the moment.

RI/MT
/МТ/