Croatia / Kroatië

1. Cultural policy

Cultural policy profile

Cultural policy profile of Croatia in 7 thematic chapters, including additional information and resources

Government – Ministry of Culture

The Ministry of Culture in Croatia is an IFACCA National Member.

2. Official representations

Representation of Croatia in Belgium

• Embassy of Croatia in Belgium
• Permanent representation of Croatia to the European Union

Representation of Flanders in Croatia

• fdfa.eu/en/croatia

3. About funding, cooperation and information centers

– Funding and cooperation

• Kultura Nova Foundation: Kultura Nova provides professional and financial support to programmes developed by organizations of civil society in culture that: support the development of programme implementers’ production and organizational capacities; increase the level of professional activities through informal education and professional training; support cooperation between sectors; work to improve programme networking and cooperation on national, regional and international levels; promote creativity and cultural activism of the youth; support other programmes directed at the realization of the foundation’s objectives. Kultura Nova also implements its own programmes in the above-mentioned areas. Kultura Nova is an IFACCA Affiliate Member.

– Information

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs: The Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the EUNIC member for Croatia.

• Creative Europe Desk:
  • deskkultura.hr
  • ec.europa.eu/culture/resources/creative-europe-desks
  • Check out the Rijeka ECoC legacy project

• Information overview via On the Move: On the Move is the cultural mobility information network, providing information and knowledge for artists and cultural professionals active across borders. On this page, you can find all current calls related to the country as well as the latest version of the Cultural Mobility Funding Guide – and more.

• Zadobro.bit: Croatian ZaDobro.BIT! Forum gathers around thirty foundations that are active in the Republic of Croatia. The goal of the Forum is to involve as many members as possible in its work in order to build the capacities of the existing foundations through cooperation and experience and knowledge exchange and to raise the visibility of their work in Croatia. The Forum also contains an educational component and offers its members content that is designed in accordance with their needs: project preparation, legal and financial consulting, raising visibility of foundations’ work in Croatia, providing help in finding partners and donors, organizing study trips, publishing brochures on foundations and social entrepreneurship.  

• IRMO: IRMO’s Department for Culture and Communication is engaged in interdisciplinary scientific research in the field of cultural development, cultural and media policies, international cultural cooperation and communication.

4. Other information portals and platforms

– All disciplines

• Kulturpunkt: Kurziv is a non-profit organisation whose activities are dedicated to media, culture and education. Its activities, realized both in online and offline space, are aimed at changing, reshaping and deepening public discussion on the topics and issues of contemporary cultural and artistic practices, civil society and media. The main project of the organisation is Kulturpunkt.hr, a non-profit news portal that was founded in 2005. Its goal is to intervene in Croatian media landscape presenting, analysing and contextualising contemporary artistic and cultural production and theory in a wider sense and follow civil society and activities of civil society organisations, everyday life, politics, cultural and media policies.

• Culturenet: Cultural content online – open calls, partnerships, translations. Platform of the Ministry of Culture of Croatia.

• HZSU: The Croatian Association of Independent Artists is an association of independent artists who professionally perform independent artistic activity. The abbreviated name of the association is HZSU. HZSU is an association of independent artists working in the following areas of artistic creation: film creation, musical creation, literary creation, artistic creation and stage creation. HZSU provides an overview of art professional associations.

• Residencies: Overview of artist residency programmes in Croatia on TransArtists, all disciplines

– Performing arts

• Teatar: Teatar.hr is a news and magazine digital portal on theatre and performing arts in Croatia. Most of its content is on subscription, but it does include some free information.

• Croatian Association of Drama Artists (HDDU): HDDU is an umbrella association for professionals from the dramatic arts, life and audiovisual performing. The majority of members (about 75%) are actors, while the rest are stage directors, playwrights, drama writers and scriptwriters, costume designers, stage designers, puppet designers, score composers, light designers and theatre producers. These artists are members of 32 professional theatres throughout Croatia (12 theatres in the capital city of Zagreb) as well as in many private theatres and artistic organisations.

• ITI Croatia: Croatian ITI Centre was founded in 1994 as a non-profit professional organisation. Following several years of activities, the Centre has grown from a small organisation of theatre enthusiasts into a programmer of theatre projects and promoter of Croatian theatre and drama on the international level. As part of the promotion of theatre and dance, the Centre is the publisher of a series of publications in English (Croatian Theatre, Theatres in Croatia, Shortcut to Croatian Dance).

• Assitej Croatia: Croatian branch of Assitej, established in 1996.

– Music

• Croatian Composers’ Society (HDS): an association of 300+ music professionals, which aims to develop the music scene and to contribute to the recognition of Croatia’s music, both nationally and abroad. The Society hosts several important music events: Music Biennale Zagreb, Zagreb Festival, Music Platform, Jazz.hr.

• HDS Zamp: HDS Zamp is a professional service of copyright protection (ZAMP) of the Croatian Society of Composers (HDS) – the association of musicians (authors, composers, songwriters) that deals with the protection and promotion of Croatian music repertoire and collective realisation of the rights of authors of musical works. It is managed through official bodies by its members, authors and other copyright holders. It is part of CISAC and BIEM.

• Croatian Musicians’ Union: Trade union for musicians, the union was set up in 1992 with the basic intention to organise and protect Croatian musicians and their rights, following the example of the British Musicians Union – regulating fundamental material and status issues of all music industry participants.

• UNISON – Croatian Music Alliance: New umbrella organisation of music associations which has assumed the role of the former Institute of Croatian Music. Unison was founded in 2015, emerging from a need to create a harmonised ecosystem in the domestic music community.

5. Regional organisations

• Organisation internationale of la Francophonie (OIF): The Francophonie is also an institution, dedicated since 1970 to promoting the French language and political, educational, economic and cultural cooperation among the 88 member countries of the OIF, among which support for Cultural Diversity. Croatia has an observer member status.

• Easttopics: a non-profit initiative dedicated to the promotion of the Eastern European contemporary art field. This cross-border project takes form as an expanding on-line website and database focusing on the following countries: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

• The Central European Initiative (CEI): CEI is a regional intergovernmental forum which gathers 17 Member States in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. It supports a united Europe with shared values embracing all countries, regions, peoples and citizens; and fosters good governance, rule of law and sustainable economic development for stability, social cohesion, environmental sustainability, security and prosperity. CEI also supports cultural cooperation.

• CEC ArtsLink: advocates and supports transnational cultural mobility and collaboration, empowering artists and arts leaders to engage communities in dialogue and creative projects for a more equitable, compassionate, and sustainable world. In many of its funding programmes, it connects the USA with European and Asian countries.