Amateur Arts in Slovenia
Amateur arts have a specific tradition in Slovenia, especially as important source of national cultural
identity with special role in social processes, because of its specific social functions.
In Slovenia, in the last 15 years, we mostly classify amateur arts as organized form of free time mass cultural
activities. It appeared as a strong movement in the 19th century as a part of strong movement
seeking for national identity and freedom.
In the independent Slovenia (after 1991) there are currently ( data for the year 2005) 4000 groups of amateur
arts, most of them are choirs - about 1.550, theater and puppet groups 450, folklore dancing groups 350,
contemporary dancing groups 200, fine arts groups 200, literature groups 150, groups preventing cultural heritage
100 and the other.
There are about 100.000 members involved in amateur arts activities. They organize about 17.000 cultural events
for almost 3 million spectators pro year. They are associated in several local and national unions.
The presence, activities, knowledge and experience of amateur/voluntary arts organizations are important factors in the complex provision of cultural goods, public awareness of the importance of top quality artistic events and quality of cultural life in general.
An important function of amateur arts is promotion of cultural diversity, creative pluralism and cultural goods. A large number of creative works, regardless of their genre, audience, aesthetic taste, ideology or ethnic content is characteristic for this form of activities and also work with vulnerable people and minorities.
Amateur arts develop social life, incorporation into amateur arts has a strong social value, because it gives affirmation also to those social groups and individuals that in every-day work and family environment cannot get personal satisfaction and confirmation
Because of all this qualities, amateur arts in Slovenia were always strongly, directly or indirectly supported by the government on the state or local level.
Slovenian independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 brought about a new system of local government that rocked the foundations of the funding for amateur culture which was tied to the network of 68 local communities (now 210 local communities). A lack of consensus among them endangered the organizational and financial structure of amateur culture.
In 1996, the government established the Fund for Amateur Cultural Activities (since 2000 Public Fund for Cultural Activities - JSKD) to prevent the collapse of an expert and financial framework supporting the work of cultural societies. With this fund government started to take responsibility for civil society institutions directly. JSKD is obliged to support amateur cultural societies and their unions. It also acts as cultural intermediary, performs organizational and administrative services in the field of culture for local communities and is vehicle of cultural policy in many places. The JSKD has expert and administrative personnel at its headquarters in Ljubljana and 59 local offices in all major urban centers in Slovenia. Programs of the local offices are coordinated by 10 regional subdivisions. The network of the Fund enables multidirectional interaction between cultural societies and local communities through local offices and central expert units located in state institutions. This organizational structure allows even easier access to cultural goods. The Fund also organizes reviews and promotional events on the local, regional, and national level for all art fields (music, theatre and puppet theatre, folklore, film, dance, fine arts, literature, and inter media projects), thus allowing interactive comparison and evaluation of achievements and can be said to stimulate innovation and creativity.
The JSKD makes annual calls for financing of projects and programs, small investments and equipment for cultural groups and youth culture centers and societies Beside that almost every local community is supporting "everyday life" of cultural groups and societies on their territory with rooming and financing.
(Vojko Stopar, from the paper prepared for Compendium of Cultural Policies and Trends in Europe: Council of Europe and the ERICarts Institute 2006. http://www.culturalpolicies.net/web/index.php)
