Romania / Roemenië

1. Cultural policy

Cultural policy profile

Cultural policy profile of Romania in 7 thematic chapters, including additional information and resources:

Government

Government – Ministry of Culture and National Heritage

2. Official representations

Representation of Romania in Belgium

Representation of Flanders in Romania

3. About funding, cooperation and information centers

– Funding and cooperation

  • Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN): an autonomous public institution, subordinated to the Ministry of Culture, which has been operating at national level for over 10 years. Established in 2005, AFCN is the main public funder of the cultural offer in Romania. It is an IFACCA Affiliate Member.

– Information

  • Information via On the Move country page: On the Move is the cultural mobility information network, providing information and knowledge for artists and cultural professionals active across borders. On this page, you can find all current calls related to the country as well as the latest version of the Cultural Mobility Funding Guide – and more.

4. Other information portals and platforms

– All disciplines

  • Cultural Media
    • Radio Romania Cultural is the only radio station in the country dedicated to cultural news, theater and music masterpieces. Its program includes: cultural news, radio news, live broadcasts and correspondence from major cultural events, important festivals and galas in Romania and around the world, famous plays, great screenplays, screenings for children, shows in support of the school, etc.
    • Suplimentul de Cultura: weekly publication in Romanian only, the “culture supplement” has a unique editorial policy in the landscape of the Romanian cultural press, following primarily the cultural news and promoting youth culture.
    • Observator Cultural: the Cultural Observatory magazine is a weekly magazine of information and cultural analysis, with chronicles of books, films, theatre, music, exhibitions. It includes thematic files and debates on various cultural, political and social issues, from national and international cultural and political news. In Romanian only.
  • Feeder.ro: “the alternative nation’s news agency”, a website which, since 2004, has been publishing news and articles on the urban scene, alternative events, contemporary art, music, dance & street art.
  • The National Alliance of Creators Unions (ANUC): the largest federation of the professional organisations grouping art creators and performers in Romania. The ANUC operates as a means of communication, mutual information and common action of the member unions in the development of projects and programs meant to defend the status and creativity and to promote the image of the professional artist within the society
  • FAIR-MediaSind, Federation for Culture and Mass-Media: the only representative organisation in the Culture and Media sector in Romania, with approximately 8000 members. The union works on all cultural disciplines, including the media and journalism. It also takes part in FIA’s Dance Passport Scheme. (note that MediaSind is the union dedicated to journalists, which is part of FAIR-MEDIASIND)
  • Fabrica de Pensule – Space for Contemporary Art: The project started at the beginning of 2009, as an independent initiative to bring together ideas, events and projects of cultural organisations, galleries, producers and independent artists in Cluj and as a reaction to the local lack of production and exhibition spaces in the city. The artists, galleries and organisations – active in the fields of theatre, contemporary dance, visual arts, arts in public space, music – are jointly engaged into delivering relevant cultural content, both for the artistic community and the wide audience. Besides artist studios and production spaces, Fabrica de Pensule also hosts events of local and international partners. It acts as a major player in cultural and urban policies in the Romanian context. Check Community & Members.
  • 4Culture: Founded in 2010, 4Culture Association carries out activities in the field of contemporary arts – dance, performance, visual arts and multidisciplinary projects. 4Culture aims to contribute to the ongoing professional development and promotion of artists, by organising workshops, research and coaching programs, mentoring, residencies, production, presentation and dissemination. Part of many EU projects, such as Life Long Burning.

– Visual arts

  • Revista ARTA: was, between 1954-1993, the most important contemporary art magazine in Romania. It went out of circulation between 1993-2010, with a short comeback in 2000-2001. In 2010 it launched in its current format and the online edition was founded in 2014, providing content in English and Romanian.The purpose of the magazine is to map the Romanian contemporary art scene, to document it and offer a critical evaluation of its manifestations. Revista ARTA is published by the UAP – Romanian Artists’ Union.
  • Visarta: an organisation dedicated to copyright and related rights and has been operating since 1999 on approving the establishment and functioning as a collective management body of copyright in the field of visual arts, photographic works, architectural works, maps and drawings in topography, geography and science.

– Performing arts

  • UNITER: the professional association of people working in the theatre industry, founded as a result of free association between theatre professionals. It counts over 1.900 members, working in the theatre industry:actors, directors, scenographers, composers, choreographers, theatre critics. UNITER runs projects and programmes for its members, and advocates for the sector in Romania.
  • Centrul National al Dansului București | National Center for Dance Bucharest (CNDB): The CNDB was set up in 2004, and it has three departments: Production and Broadcasting, Media Library and Archive, and Education and Training, which operate in collaboration with each other in order to forward the Center’s goal: developing dance culture in Romania. Its building is currently being refurbished and will contain two auditoriums, rehearsal studios, an archive space / media library, and other facilities for the public.

– Music

  • Raw Music: an association formed by the people organizing the international conference: Mastering the Music Business (MMB) in Romania. MMB has become the leading music business conference in Romania. In between the annual conference editions, RAW Music organises several workshops (about music & instruments, music production, music business etc). RAW Music is also performing as an export office for Romanian artists (as there is no official music export office here), facilitating connections of western territories with CEE countries and professional shows in major European music events.

5. Regional organisations

  • The Central European Initiative (CEI): a regional intergovernmental forum which gathers 17 Member States in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. It supports a united Europe with shared values embracing all countries, regions, peoples and citizens; and fosters good governance, rule of law and sustainable economic development for stability, social cohesion, environmental sustainability, security and prosperity. CEI also supports cultural cooperation.
  • Organisation internationale of la Francophonie (OIF): The Francophonie is also an institution, dedicated since 1970 to promoting the French language and political, educational, economic and cultural cooperation among the 88 member countries of the OIF, among which support for Cultural Diversity. Romania is a member country of the OIF.
  • CEC ArtsLink: advocates and supports transnational cultural mobility and collaboration, empowering artists and arts leaders to engage communities in dialogue and creative projects for a more equitable, compassionate, and sustainable world. In many of its funding programmes, it connects the USA with European and Asian countries.
  • Easttopics: a non-profit initiative dedicated to the promotion of the Eastern European contemporary art field. This cross-border project takes form as an expanding on-line website and database focusing on the following countries: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
  • Tranzit: Co-founded by ERSTE Stiftung in 2002, tranzit is a unique network of independent associations working in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia as well as across borders / peripheral zones of Europe. Each of the five tranzit initiatives works autonomously in the context of the local art scenes and the social and political framework conditions. They provide artists with a versatile space in which art can be produced. Check also other programmes of the ERSTE Stiftung for regional activities in (contemporary) arts.
  • EA M East Art Mags: a project of five art magazines in the East Central European region: Artalk (CZ), Artportal (HU), BLOK (PL), Kapitál (SK) and Revista Arta Online (RO). EAM is a content making and publishing platform with the aim of capacity building in art journalism in the region. Supported by International Visegrad Fund (2017, 2019), AFCN (2017), Erste Stiftung (2018-19).