site.bta"Better Funding Model Needed" for Regional Cultural Institutions

There is no correlation between the amount of funding and the intensity of work at regional cultural institutions in Bulgaria, the Finance Ministry said in an analysis published on November 6. The Ministry called for a change in the funding approach. It proposed a phased introduction of indicators for the activities and the usefulness of such institutions for consumers and society.

The analysis came after cultural workers staged nationwide protests on November 1 (National Awakeners' Day) to demand higher pay and increased funding. The Finance Ministry study sums up the work of 3,262 community centres, 111 museums and art galleries and 27 libraries of regional status in 2022.

The data show that the current system of funding, based on "subsidized positions", does not provide incentives for the respective institutions to work harder and achieve results. Their activities tend to be of periodical nature and are related to specific events rather than being planned and organized systematically throughout the year.

Activities involving regular (weekly) classes for children and adults have a very limited scope. The institutions often count on organizing static exhibitions and presenting library stock that is already available as well as holding one-time events related to public holidays. Available stocks are digitized and renovated too slowly.

A town mayor's role is usually limited to adjusting cultural workers' wages, and not seeking ways to assess their work, study public attitudes and the influence of demographic and regional characteristics, the people's cultural and educational needs, or whether it is necessary to expand the scope of services.

For the separate types of institutions, the Finance Ministry analysis shows the following:

Community centres

The government provides about BGN 100 million in funding to community centres every year. There were 7,773 subsidized staff positions in such establishments in 2022.

The data show that 267 community centres (8%) did not report any activity in 2022 according to a list of 10 indicators, but still received subsidies. Most community centres were active either seasonally or during school holidays, while others organized functions only on specific occasions or holidays.

Approximately 48% of community centres organized educational activities last year, and 52% did not. Some 88% of them held cultural activities, and 12% did not.

Community centres with comparable budgets show considerable dissimilarities in terms of work intensity. Among larger establishments, the Razvitie-1869 Community Centre in the northwestern town of Vratsa had a staff of 61 and an annual budget of BGN 781,800 in 2022. It maintained three performance art groups for people over 18 and two courses for amateur artists, and organized 146 cultural events throughout the year. By comparison, the Rodina-1860 Community Centre in Stara Zagora, in the south-central part of the country, had a staff of 51 and an annual budget of BGN 631,000. It maintained 10 performance art groups for over-18s and 23 courses for amateur artists, and organized 646 cultural events.

Museums and art galleries

The government allocates BGN 55 million in annual subsidies to regional museums and art galleries. Last year, subsidized staff positions in this kind of cultural institutions totalled 2,022, or an average of 18 positions per institution.

The 111 regional museums and art galleries covered by the analysis were visited by over 3 million people and earned BGN 13 million in revenues, accounting for 24% of their budget. Some 54% of regional museums and art galleries did not acquire any new items for their permanent collections in 2022. For 21% of such establishments, there is no information about any exhibitions held last year.

In the northern city of Pleven, the Regional Museum of History and the Regional Museum of Military History had almost the same staff size, but the former was visited by 22,000 people and earned BGN 30,000 in revenues, while the latter welcomed 95,000 visitors and reported BGN 340,000 in revenues. Similar discrepancies are observed among art galleries.

Libraries

The Finance Ministry analysis also covers 27 regional libraries in Bulgaria. They are financed by the government with BGN 30 million every year. In 2022, they had 1,177 subsidized staff positions, or 44 positions per library.

There were 210,000 registered regional library users last year. Such libraries recorded 3 million visits.

Differences exist in the number of registered regional library users in municipalities of similar population size. For example, the Regional Library in Blagoevgrad, Southwestern Bulgaria, with an annual budget of BGN 799,400 and a staff of 32 in 2022, had 12,800 registered users (accounting for 11% of the population of the municipality), who borrowed 158,000 books throughout the year. By comparison, the Regional Library in the South-Central town of Haskovo, with a budget of BGN 1.1 million and a staff of 35, had only 3,100 registered users (accounting for 3% of the population of the municipality), who borrowed 59,000 books.

Considerable differences are also observed in the information services provided by libraries and the number of their publications, the Finance Ministry said.