Basel-Stadt reorganizes orchestra funding
The Basel-Stadt Department of Culture has reviewed the funding policy for music and orchestras as a whole. It has developed a new, content-oriented funding model for professional orchestras in Basel, which was approved by the cantonal government in February.
According to the canton's official press release, the new funding model is based on four funding instruments: Financial aid, program funding, project funding and structural funding. In future, only the Basel Symphony Orchestra SOB will receive financial aid (state contribution for four years), which will guarantee its mission of providing a basic supply of symphonic repertoire and opera productions at the Theater Basel.
2016 will be used as a bridging year for the implementation of the new funding model. This year, the Basel Chamber Orchestra, the basel sinfonietta and Ensemble Phoenix will continue to receive the same level of support as in the current funding period.
With the three-year program funding, "concert programs by professional Basel orchestras from various disciplines can now be supported", writes the canton. Their selection will be made by a jury of experts and the Department of Culture in the Presidential Department according to defined guidelines and criteria. Project funding will continue to be available to those orchestras that do not receive cantonal support from other funding bodies via the existing funding bodies of the Basel/BL Music Committee, the Basel-Stadt cultural lump sum and the Basel-Stadt Swisslos Fund.
