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The Deputy Ministry of Culture wishes to emphasize that the Cyprus Festival is a development of the "Cultural September" event, which aimed to offer to the Cypriot public cultural events of high artistic quality. This event was established by a decision of the Council of Ministers as "International Festival CYPRUS" in 1992, organized by the Cultural Services, hosting in its program both Cypriot and international productions of great importance. The artistic programme was drawn up by an Advisory Committee, chaired by the Director of the Cultural Services, while the financial management of the festival was entrusted to a contractor under private law following a tender procedure.
In December 2022, the newly established Ministry of Culture announced the transformation of the institution into the Cyprus Arts Festival Sponsorship Programme, stressing that this would fill an important gap in the Ministry of Culture's sponsorship policy in relation to the funding of independent festivals. The aim of the new programme, which was decided to operate on a pilot basis for the years 2023 and 2024, was to modernise the festival scene in Cyprus by supporting existing and new arts festivals. The programme has been warmly received by cultural institutions, the arts world and the general public.
A full and in-depth evaluation, however, of the programme and the extent to which its objectives have been achieved will be carried out now that the two pilot years of operation have been completed, with clear flexibility for any changes or improvements due to its pilot nature. Initial contacts with stakeholders and organised groups, in the form of an exploratory exercise, have already been made and targeted meetings and consultation are planned before the Ministry of State proceeds with changes to the terms of the programme and/or its objectives themselves. Therefore, the review of the institution should be accompanied by a radical redesign of its vision, objectives, structures and activities in order to respond to the contemporary cultural needs of Cypriot society, as well as to international developments in culture and cultural management and development.
The Ministry of State wishes to further emphasize that CYPRIA is one of its many sponsorship tools to support music in Cyprus, but music is not the exclusive target of CYPRIA. Opportunities for significant support for classical music, and any other kind of music, also arise through other sponsorship programmes, such as the Culture Programme, Music Subcategory. The support of the Ministry of State to all types of music is unquestionable with classical music receiving a large share, due to the Ministry of State's institutionalized and very significant support of more than three (3) million euros per year to the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra and the Cyprus Youth Symphony Orchestra.
It should be clarified that, as with all sponsorship programmes, the purpose, specific objectives, as well as the conditions and procedure for the evaluation of applications are described in the documents posted on the website of the Ministry of State for Culture and constitute the terms of reference for the Special Committee carrying out the evaluation.
The Special Committee for Cyprus evaluated the proposals, in accordance with the objectives and criteria of the Programme, and submitted reasoned recommendations on the eligibility of the proposals, their approval or rejection, as well as on the amount of the grant to be awarded to the selected proposals, to the Director of the Department of Contemporary Culture, who validates the Committee's minutes, which are then submitted to the Director General of the Ministry of State.
Finally, the Ministry of State wishes to thank the Special Evaluation Committee for its services during this pilot phase of the Cyprus Arts Festival Sponsorship Programme. The evaluation was painstaking and time consuming and the Committee worked with responsibility and impartiality.
(EK/MS/NYAN)
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