8. Creativity and Culture
Cultural policy in Hungary, especially that aimed at young people, is increasingly associated with a conspicuous and conscious reconceptualization of community culture. The concept of basic cultural provision: a form of provision in the field of culture that provides a minimum of cultural services used by the vast majority of the population – thus making the community level indispensable in culture-related tasks and a high priority in both planning and funding. Basic cultural services are often mentioned in relation to young people, especially students: one of the flagship programmes is the Lázár Ervin Programme (Lázár Ervin Program) enables all primary school students to attend cultural events. In terms of the main directions of cultural policies, the 'preservation and strengthening of national identity' is in focus and appears in youth-related policies. (Compendium, 2022) (See sub-chapters 8.1 General context and 8.2 Administration and governance).
Culture-related tasks can be found in several governmental and public bodies. Community culture is administered by the Ministry for Culture and Innovation (Kulturális és Innovációs Minisztérium), in the State Secretariat for Culture. The National Council of Culture (Nemzeti Kulturális Tanács), co-chaired by the Minister Responsible for Culture, is supposed to provide the technical basis for a coherent strategic governance of the cultural sectors. The two main public institutions related to strategical planning and funding are the National Cultural Fund (chaired by the Minister Responsible for Culture) and the Hungarian Academy of Arts. In contrast, the methodological background of community culture is provided by NMI Cultural Institute Non-profit Public Utility Ltd. Besides, the Foundation for Hungarian Culture (Magyar Kultúráért Alapítvány), founded in 2021, has an increasing strategical role in cultural policies (see sub-chapter 8.2 Administration and governance).
There is no national strategy for creativity and culture for young people. The most relevant documents regarding cultural policies of the government are
- the cultural law, which has been significantly modified in 2017 to express the policies related to the concept of basic cultural care,
- the National Youth Strategy and
- other strategies of related policy fields (sustainable development and education).
The strategic objectives mainly aim at protecting national culture and identity, improving young people's access to culture and widening the participation of cultural institutions in non-formal learning opportunities (see sub-chapter 8.3 National strategy on creativity and culture for young people).