Study on the cultural establishments in the urban environment – 2017 edition

The moment of decentralisation has created a vacuum in the data and information on the cultural establishments.

According to the Emergency Government Ordinance no. 118/2006 on the set-up, organisation and operation of the cultural establishments, “cultural establishments may be: culture houses, rural culture houses, people’s universities, people’s arts and trades schools, cultural centres, professional music bands or ensembles promoting traditional culture, regional centres for adults’ education, centres for the preservation and promotion of traditional culture and the like”.

The first goal of the study was to highlight a series of measurements for the various characteristics of the cultural establishments. The main dimensions monitored were: infrastructure elements; personnel operating within the cultural establishments; budget; public participating in the events organised by cultural establishments; specific activities according to the type of cultural establishment. Another goal was to conduct a series of analysis and commentaries, where appropriate, in order to highlight the problems and general situation of the cultural establishments.

As regards the infrastructure of the cultural establishments, the majority of the latter own at least one building for their operation, and within the building(s) the space for public events is larger than the space used for administrative activities. As regards the human resource within the establishments, we noticed that the majority of the organisations that answered the questionnaire mentioned persons for each general category of occupations. The budget section revealed that there was a significant discrepancy between the sampled establishments, as the degree of variation of the incomes and expenses was high. In terms of the public participating in the events organised by the cultural establishments, the data show a high probability of free access of the public.