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CULTURE
Robert Alagjozovski
The author is a literary critic
and a PhD candidate(ABD)
in Cultural Management
The Power of Masses
Is alternative funding
of cultural activities in
Macedonia possible?
In general, in Macedonia there is a
lack of an entrepreneurial and in-
novative spirit. One can even say
that the current political and so-
cial crisis is a result of such a state. the requested funds and what was sup-
With no intention to penetrate into an
elaboration that will create an essay in
the essay, we can shortly conclude that
social groups are mainly directed towards
the same known sources of wellbeing and
social mobility, that they repeat and imi-
tate the actions of their predecessors and
they create a situation of an overfilled
pond. Too little resources and too many
subscribers. And social antagonism is
becoming sharper, which is more than
flesh and blood can bear. Everyone wants,
everyone pushes the others, everyone ex-
pects. Currently such an example in the
economy is the construction industry,
while at the state level, it is the budget.
Everyone would like to build apartments,
i.e., everyone would like to work in the
administration or get funds from the
budget. The same thing happens with
culture. The eyes of all actors are direct-
ed towards the budget and the programs
of the Ministry of Culture, both the insti-
tutional and the alternative culture, and
the international events, national insti-
tutions, and local festivals. Although we,
especially those of us involved in culture,
are not friends with statistics, often the
presidents of different program com-
mittees use the disproportion between
posed to be granted as a facilitating cir-
cumstance for the impossibility to make
a choice, i.e., regardless of who enters in
the national program, ten times more
are left out, disappointed and frustrated.
The situation is no different with the
non-budgetary sources of funding. The
known philanthropists and corporations
that have a policy of donations of funds
in culture are also flooded with requests
for support, again from a broad range of
players in culture. The same applies for
the international foundations present on
the Macedonian cultural scene. Well-pro-
filed funds and foundations such as Open
Society, Pro Helvetia, the European Cul-
tural Foundation, even when they pro-
vide small grants, they have huge popu-
larity and visibility.
This is a detrimental situation for
several reasons. Not only that it leaves
numerous frustrated cultural actors, or-
ganizations and institutions that cannot
realize their missions, but it also depletes
the cultural offer because usually the
profiled donors, even our Ministry, have
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