Since 2016, at the competition "Cities in Focus" Ministry of Culture financially helps local governments, in order to improve their museums, cinemas, centers of culture, and thus their culture.
Minister Nikola Selaković emphasizes that the state has invested 2,38 billion dinars in cities and municipalities in Serbia through "Cities in Focus" for those 11 years.
We have already written that there is no information on the website of the Ministry of Culture what has been realized from that money so far, what is still being done, and what has yet to start.
Almost all of them have already been paid.
The Minister of Culture says that this year the state has set aside 430 million dinars for "Cities in focus" and that it will be distributed to 31 local governments. On the website of the Ministry, in the Solutions of the "Cities in Focus" contest, it is written that 30 cities have been selected and that 394.198.000,00 dinars will be distributed to them.
The decision of this competition was published on May 29. Almost every day since the first days of June, Minister Selaković has been in another of those elected places, in order to sign the donor agreement.
If we counted correctly, 27 contracts were signed yesterday (July 16) in Vrnjačka Banja. At the same time, many competitions for contemporary creativity since last year, they have been waiting for the commissions to announce their solutions, which means that payment is not even in sight. It is easy to conclude that the priority of Selaković's Ministry is infrastructure and decentralization. Artists say that it is a good strategy, but if it is not implemented at the expense of contemporary creativity.
From two to 33 million
The mentioned Vrnjačka spa will use the received two million dinars for the third phase of investment maintenance of the Castle of Culture, for the repair of skylights, carpentry, sheet metal and interior finishing works.
The day before that, Krupanj received 10 million dinars for the landscaping of the public library "Politika" on the first floor. Bečej received 20 million for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the roof and mezzanine construction of part of the City Museum building. Cyrillic Museum in Baja's garden, he received 25 million dinars for the fourth phase of the works. As Selaković said, "so far, a total of 95 million dinars have been invested in the previous three years in the old village school, which had not been in operation for years, and now it has become the youngest national cultural institution in Serbia - the Cyrillic Museum".
img_14770 White church Tatjana KokarMinister Selaković and Mayor of the White Church Tatjana Kokar
Bela Crkva received 14.950.000 dinars for the adaptation and rehabilitation of part of the Bela Crkva Cultural Center, Bosilegrad was allocated 7.900.000 dinars for the modernization of the stage in the large hall of the "Bosilegrad" Cultural Center institution...
Kladovo received the most, 33 million dinars for the adaptation and energy rehabilitation of the multifunctional hall of the Visitor Center in the Fetislam fortress.
The project "Cities in focus" became visible to the public thanks to Nikola Selaković, primarily because he managed to get a larger budget for this purpose than his predecessors Maja Gojković, Vladan Vukosavljević and Ivan Tasovac. It is considered to be the biggest and at the same time the only project that this minister has done for the benefit of his country.
The ministry is generous.
It is impossible not to notice that lately the Ministry of Culture has been generous to others, and not only to the cities selected by the "Cities in Focus" competition.
At the beginning of the month, the Ministry of Culture allocated 10.800.000 dinars for the completion of construction and conservation-restoration works on the Church of the Holy Trinity in Gornji Adrovac.
Ravanica Monastery received 14.000.000 dinars for the realization of the project of covering the roof of the main part of the Church of the Ascension of Christ. 9.800.000 dinars have been earmarked for the Treasury of the Diocese of Vranje and the digitization of the Treasury of the Monastery of Saint Prohor of Pčinj.
Niš received 4.910.000 dinars for the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, the National and University Library, the Archaeological Institute in Belgrade and 31.280.000 dinars for 16 projects, and so on - there is not a day that the Ministry of Culture does not sign a donor agreement.
None of the other contests announced by Selaković's Ministry of Culture, apart from the "Cities in Focus" contest, deserved such a prompt payment of premiums. That's why artists and cultural workers jokingly say that "Focus Cities" are stronger than the Expo itself.
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