NordenBladet – Estonian Minister of Culture, Piret Hartman, had long discussions with both the employees of the Ministry of Culture and his social democratic party colleagues before promising emergency money to the theaters.
The Riigikogu adopted a new law on performance institutions in the summer of last year, with the goal of making funding for theaters clearer and making the theater landscape more diverse, sustainable, and accessible to all people.
However, the application round for funding did not take place until mid-December, which caused concern. The Tallinn City Theater, as well as the VAT Theater, would have lost about half of their support from last year, while Tartu Uus Teater and ten other performance institutions would get more money.
Hartman decided to come up with additional funds and put 850,000 into this round of applications, half of which was money from the theaters themselves that was intended for experimental projects in previous years, and the other half was from the reserve of the Ministry of Culture. He stated that the reserve of the Ministry of Culture is too small to address all concerns, but it serves as a quick solution for urgent issues. Hartman plans to make a new round of applications for next year’s operating support, so performance institutions have as much time as possible to reorganize their operations if necessary.
You can read Madis Hindre’s long interview (with the original title: Hartman alles jäänud reservist: meie võimalused on väga väikesed) with Culture Minister Piret Hartman on ERR.
Featured image: Piret Hartman (NordenBladet)