Rules for the promotion of culture in Bern
The Government Council of the Canton of Bern has approved the ordinance on the promotion of culture. It regulates the way in which municipalities and the canton cooperate in the promotion of culture. It also contains the provisions on the organization of cantonal cultural promotion, which came into force a year ago.
With the Cantonal Cultural Promotion Ordinance (KKFV), the cantonal government has adopted the second part of the implementing legislation for the Cultural Promotion Act. The KKFV regulates the joint subsidization of cultural institutions by the canton and the municipalities more clearly. The list of cultural institutions to be jointly subsidized, separately for each region, will be added later as an annex to the ordinance.
The provisions on the organization of cantonal cultural promotion, which had already been enacted on 1 January 2013, were incorporated into the KKFV. This means that nothing has changed for the cultural commissions or for the canton's representation on the governing bodies of cultural institutions.
The ordinance names five cultural institutions of national importance, which only the canton, but not the municipalities, are legally obliged to co-finance. These are the Zentrum Paul Klee, the Bern Art Museum, the Alpine Museum in Bern, the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum and the Artists' Exchange in Thun. The Bern Historical Museum would also fall into this category. However, because the municipalities of the Bern-Mittelland region and the City of Bern in particular are to remain obliged to co-finance it, it has been placed in the category of cultural institutions "of at least regional importance".
The ordinance stipulates that in the case of jointly subsidized cultural institutions, the local municipalities are primarily responsible for drawing up the service contracts. However, the municipalities in a region decide for themselves how they want to divide their share of the subsidies among themselves.
The requirements for contributions to school and community libraries are specified in the ordinance. Libraries must be politically and denominationally neutral in order to be eligible for cantonal contributions. The other provisions basically continue the previous ordinance on the promotion of school and community libraries from 1988, which will be repealed at the same time.
