Forms Public Financing Alternatives / Management Culture

CULTURAL MANAGEMENT PROGRAM University of Barcelona PUBLIC MANAGEMENT OF CULTURE alternative ways of funding How public organizations' activities are funded? Traditionally, public budget contributed with most of its available resources. In a period of crisis, or when there are less resources available, project managers try to find new ways of funding. One of the first ways of funding is, of course, cutting costs down. We have to be optimistic. The crisis has a positive side: it forces us to raise things that were being done out of habit, when should have been stopped long ago. We have cut down, as simple as that. We have cut down on projects and programs. At this moment, councils are having less resources worthiness for services like spreading performing arts. So, many things are needing to have a new approach. One of the ways of approaching this is opening theaters to many other activities, like a school theater festival, workshops with young students at primary schools... We have to create all kinds of new activities. At the moment, the most economistic aspect of a venue like this one, is in crisis. So, our justification must be a social one. Traditionally, apart of the general budget, we have tried to obtain resources from users, through a prices policy. How is a place like this funded? Basically through public resources. More than 50% of our income comes from the sport part: season tickets, swimming pool fees, swimming courses, paddle tennis courts rental... On the other hand, we have the company sponsorships. There is a potential resource of funding in collaborative projects through entities or citizens. The most feasible way of getting resources in these kind of cases, is through events co-production with social entities. If a council associates with a neighborhood association, or with athenaeums, or with any other local entity, it is more probable that citizens give money to these entities, so that they complete their budget. What is very difficult is getting citizens to give resources to public administrations, since citizens believe administrations should get the resources to undertake this kind of activities. It was a future bet which consisted, the day we opened the theater on 24th December, 1995, Christmas Eve, on having an open house day in the theater. When people got to the gods and they had a view of what the theater could be, we gave them the chance of buying a ticket for the theater's opening, which would happen 10 years later. Tickets were 2,000 pesetas, and that helped us, as an entity that started from scratch, could get the economic support. But it also had the added value of having people believing in our project. Cultural, theater and sport entities joined together, and we started to have more and more people asking for Kursaal Theater. From 1999, things got clearer: we bet from a political point, we looked for other funding, until three years later we started the building works. In 2007, Kursaal Theater remains opened, working well. El Galliner is still doing the theater programme. Granollers Theater had been left unfinished, when they proposed us -and we accepted from our sponsorship agency- a territory of action to get local companies to help with the project of finishing this center. We innovate by imagining all possible ways of cooperation.