Grant Programs promoting the cultural diversity

Since many different grant programs focused on the support of cultural diversity exist in the Czech Republic, the Periodic Report will focus only on the most relevant ones. 

Ministry of Culture provides grants in various domains: professional arts, unprofessional arts, literature, traditional folk culture, media and audio vision, monument care, museums and galleries, international relations, churches and religion societies etc. 

Within the professional arts the Ministry supports many cultural theatrical, dancing, musical events, fine arts and design for example the multicultural Respect world music festival, Rhythms of Africa or Jazz of Four Continents. In the field of literature, the Ministry supports the translation of Czech literature into foreign languages, broadcast of contemporary Czech writers in the literary events abroad (fairs, festivals, etc..); national presentations on selected book fairs; implementation of bilingual/trilingual promotional publications on contemporary Czech literature; organization of a seminar to promote foreign Bohemistics.

Also there are many cultural activities in foreign languages which are organised with the support of the Ministry of Culture and various regional  and local budgets such as for example author readings or Prague German Language Theatre Festival.

Further, the film festivals contribute  considerably to the promotion of diversity of cultural expressions. In the Czech Republic there is a large number of film festivals and parades, no exaggeration to say that every week a film event of this type takes place. There are various specializations in terms of categories of films (fiction, documentary , animation ), length movies , provenance creation, thematic focus in terms of the extent of the impact on audiences (national, regional, ages), etc.  The film festivals are the welcome alternative distribution channel that allows to see films that would otherwise not come into regular theatrical distribution. We can name for example the film festivals like One World, Febiofest, Nordic Film Winter or Bollywood Film Festival.

Special grant programs are dedicated to national minorities: Support for cultural activities of national minorities, Support for the integration of the Roma minority or Program to support the dissemination and reception of information in minority languages. The Government Council for National Minorities offers a program named Support for the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. 

The Czech Republic also uses European Union´s grant systems such as Culture Program or Media Program. Projects, which receive support from these programs implement the objectives of the 2005 Convention - preserving and enhancing European cultural and linguistic diversity, cinematographic and audio visual heritage. They ensure its accessibility to the public and promote dialogue between cultures as well.
Main objective of the Culture Program is to enhance cultural area shared by Europeans, based on a common cultural space, and through the media to the development of cultural cooperation between the creators, cultural players and cultural institutions. This target is accomplished by the promotion of the transnational mobility of cultural actors, works of art and cultural products and promotion of intercultural dialogue.
In 2013 the European Parliament and Council approved the new program Creative Europe focusing on the support of European cinema, television, music, literature, performing arts, heritage and related areas. The Czech Republic is one of its beneficiaries.