National Culture Fund

The National Culture Fund was established by the virtue of Culture Protection and Development Act and its activity started in November 2000. Its main objective is to support the development of culture by raising, managing and spending funds for the purpose of pursuing the national policy in the field of culture as set forth in the Program of the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria for the respective period and in the Culture Protection and Development Act. The priorities in NCF activity are also in compliance with the criteria set forth in Chapter “Culture & Audio-visual Policy” of the EU Accession Treaty of Bulgaria.

The managing body of the National Culture Fund is a Managing Board chaired by the Minister of Culture. The members of the Managing Board are some renowned cultural figures, representatives of artistic unions and one representative of Municipalities, Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Finance.

Financial resources for the fund are raised by a subsidy as set forth in the State Budget of the Republic of Bulgaria Act for the respective budget year and other sources of funding as set forth in article 31 of the Culture Protection and Development Act. Funds are predominantly granted for artistic projects aiming at development of cultural sector. The artistic projects are funded after announcement of competitions under a program prepared and approved in advance by the Managing Board.

At the beginning of each year the Managing Board of the National Culture Fund outlines the directions of priority for which financial support is to be granted. The underlying principles of NC Fund’s work are transparency and competition. Individual artists, private, municipal and state cultural organizations are equally eligible to participate in competitions.