Grant Scheme for the Culture of Disadvantaged Sections of the Population
financial support for projects in the area of intangible cultural heritage and public cultural awareness activities.
The grant scheme Intangible cultural heritage and public cultural awareness activities operated until 2015 as an instrument for providing financial support primarily to the projects of civil society organizations and the organizations of territorial self-government authorities. Funds from this grant scheme were intended to support projects related to festivals, exhibitions, competitions, educational activities, the creation of new works, the presentation of performance skills in traditional folk culture, folklorism, art hobbies and amateur art, and also research and publications on intangible cultural heritage, ethnography, folkloristics, public cultural awareness activities and local and regional culture.
In 2015 the grant system of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic was transformed into an independent public institution, the Art Support Fund, whose remit includes support for projects in the area of intangible cultural heritage, traditional folk culture, public cultural awareness activities, local and regional culture, art hobbies and amateur art.
Every year the grant scheme supported around 700 projects of the organizations of territorial self-government authorities and non-governmental organizations contributing to the development of local and regional culture, the dissemination of information on intangible cultural heritage and traditional folk culture or helping to provide informal education through public cultural awareness activities. Since one of the programming priorities of this measure was to support activities aimed at children and young people, the instrument also contributed to children’s meaningful, safe and creative use of their free time.
The grant scheme was intended to support projects whose target group was the general public – children, young people, adults and seniors. In the sub-scheme Educational activities, the priority target group was children and young people in the case of projects for public cultural awareness activities promoting meaningful free-time activities helping to prevent and eliminate negative effects on this group.Every year the grant scheme supported around 700 projects of the organizations of territorial self-government authorities and non-governmental organizations contributing to the development of local and regional culture, the dissemination of information on intangible cultural heritage and traditional folk culture or helping to provide informal education through public cultural awareness activities. Since one of the programming priorities of this measure was to support activities aimed at children and young people, the instrument also contributed to children’s meaningful, safe and creative use of their free time.The grant scheme was administered directly by the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic (the cultural heritage section and the project management department).The grant scheme distributed EUR 1,212,590 in 2012, EUR 1,612,830 in 2013, EUR 1,749,500 in 2014 and EUR 1,890,500 in 2015.
The grant scheme distributed EUR 1,212,590 in 2012, EUR 1,612,830 in 2013, EUR 1,749,500 in 2014 and EUR 1,890,500 in 2015.Representatives of the professional community participated in the assessment of grant applications every year. Non-government organizations and private companies did not participate directly in the implementation of this measure because they were its target group and they were excluded from the decision-making process (by law) so as to maintain transparency in the allocation of public funds and eliminate potential conflicts of interest.
Implementation of the measure included performance of regular annual evaluations of the projects implemented with the scheme’s support. Financial and substantive evaluation was carried out by the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic focussing in particular on respect for the approved budget and the conformity of actual activities with the project documentation. Project evaluation also included occasional monitoring of particular events during their implementation.