Baltisches Haus will allocate 150,000 euros in support to six cultural and arts organisations

The competition for cultural and arts organisations’ support by Baltisches Haus, which lasted more than two months, has ended. Following the assessment of the participants’ applications and interviews with the finalists, six winners have been selected to receive a total of 150,000 euros in support. The organisations currently supported by Baltisches Haus will be joined by the documentary film festival Inconvenient Films, Lithuanian short film agency Lithuanian Shorts, the Open Circle theatre, the performing arts festival ConTempo, Lapas publishing house and Pažaislis music festival.

“Establishing new partnerships with proactive representatives of culture and arts, who believe in their work and create societal changes, was the main objective of this first publicly announced competition. We have found that tangible results are achieved by those organisations that are constantly looking for new ways to expand their activities, reach new audiences, have clear goals and know clearly how to achieve them. They also bravely share their ideas with other creators and openly cooperate with organisations operating in various fields, not just in culture and arts,” said Audrius Masionis, Director of Baltisches Haus.

A total of 113 applications were submitted for the competition from Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, Panevėžys, Alytus, Marijampolė, Mažeikiai, Raseiniai, Kėdainiai, Vilkaviškis, Šilutė, Ignalina, Utena, Zarasai, Švenčionėliai, Neringa and Druskininkai. The most active participants were representatives from the fields of performing arts, visual arts and music, accounting for over 60% of all applications received.

According to the company’s support policy, 4–5% of the net profit is allocated to support each year. This year, the total support budget of Baltisches Haus amounts to 630,000 euros. Of this, the company allocated 250,000 euros for education, 140,000 euros for social care, and 90,000 euros for cultural and arts organisations that have been supported for several years. The remaining 150,000 euros from the cultural and arts budget will be distributed among the competition winners. In total, including the competition winners, Baltisches Haus will support 19 organisations operating in Lithuania this year.

According to the State Data Agency, in 2022, the legal entities registered in Lithuania allocated 159.5 million euros in support to organisations with recipient status, of which 9.2 million euros, or 5.8% of the total amount of support, was allocated to the cultural and arts sector. The most support was allocated to sports, amounting to 55.9 million euros (35.1%). Nearly half of all support in 2022 was provided by companies operating in the wholesale and retail trade and manufacturing sectors, totalling 74.7 million euros (46.9%).