A Study on the Impact and the Role of Public Funding

Taking the Case of Encouraging Dissemination and Exchange of Regional Culture by Invigorating Public Cultural Facilities

Abstract

　Under the severe circumstances surrounding cultural facilities such as financial constraints of governments and more emphasis on efficiency, this study aims to clarify the role and the impact on cultural policy of the Agency for Cultural Affairs (ACA) by considering the case of encouraging dissemination and exchange of regional culture by invigorating public cultural facilities. We conducted a questionnaire survey of all cultural institutions which received grants of encouraging dissemination and exchange of regional culture by invigorating public cultural facilities from the ACA. The survey includes such items as financial and management conditions, the main purpose of the operation, effectiveness of the grants, and evaluation. Also we conducted interviews of some of these institutions in order to clarify more details as supplementary research. Based on an analysis of the results obtained by those two surveys, we reached the following conclusions. The operations of cultural institutions vary from region to region but have in common that the expenditures, the attendance and the revenue of the independent productions have decreased. Thus the encouraging dissemination and exchange of regional culture by invigorating public cultural facilities of the ACA is indispensable in funding of original productions and promoting regional cultural creation. At the same time, broadening the market and increasing attendance is one of the most important issues for securing a sound future for the regional institutions.