The Expeditio team sent a request to the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro to include in the Cultural Development Program 2016-2020, which is currently being drafted, a measure to amend Art. 71 of the Law on Culture, which will enable non-governmental organizations to participate in competitions announced by the Ministry.
"Since the adoption of the Law on Culture, non-governmental organizations from Montenegro have been denied the opportunity to use public funds that are awarded at the annual competition of the Ministry of Culture. Such treatment further weakened the already poorly developed independent cultural scene, i.e. cultural actors who operate outside the institutions of the system," they stated in the request.
They state that the projects of actors of the independent scene can currently be financed through municipal budgets, funds planned for culture or through a competition for the distribution of part of the income from games of chance.
"Previous practice shows that municipal budgets for supporting the NGO sector are (generally) very small, and when they are allocated for cultural projects, it is mainly for the affirmation of tradition and cultural heritage, while contemporary cultural practices remain aside. When we talk about the distribution of income from games of chance, the budget of this competition for the area of culture and technical culture is only 10% of the total budget", the team added.
They believe that the previous attitude of the Ministry of Culture towards the development of the independent scene represents a negative example of the attitude of the state towards non-institutional cultural actors and that this is a lone case in the region of the former Yugoslavia.
"By abolishing financial support for the development of the independent cultural scene, the overall growth of the cultural sector is prevented, as well as the strengthening of the capacity of individual actors to participate in international and EU competitions, which should be of interest for the strategic determination of Montenegro," the team concluded.
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