The Relationship Between Public Funding and Entrepreneurial Behaviour of Theatres and Galleries: A Case Study on the Turbulent Cultural Sector in Slovakia

The Slovak cultural sector has been facing challenges since Minister ?imkovi?ová stepped into the office in 2023. Among other things, the previously independent Slovak Arts Council (FPU) was seized by the Ministry of Culture and significant changes in its fund allocation process were implemented. FPU serves as an important tool for financial support for both established and independent culture, specifically performance arts, visual arts, museums, and heritage institutions. In 2025, FPU was operating with delays and public support for many organisations was diminished or completely stopped. Thus, the case of Slovakia offers interesting insights into the importance of public funding for cultural organisations and how organisations deal with its absence. This comparative case study examines the relationship between receiving public funding and the entrepreneurial behaviour of Slovak theatres and galleries. Entrepreneurial behaviour is defined by six characteristics as inspired by Klamer's (2011) cultural entrepreneur: (1) innovation in products, (2) innovation in processes, (3) risk-taking, (4) opportunity seeking, (5) prioritisation of cultural values over profits, and (6) having the persuasive power to induce the right people to join the conversation. The data for this study was collected by conducting 11 semi-structured interviews with representatives from Slovak theatres and galleries, and was subsequently used in qualitative thematic analysis to arrive at findings. The interviews have shown that while the entrepreneurial behaviour of Slovak theatres and galleries is subtle, receiving public support does not crowd out their cultural entrepreneurial behaviour. A relatively stable budget turned out to play a pivotal role in the organisations' willingness to engage in cultural entrepreneurship - in the case of Slovak organisations, this was achieved through public support prior to the recent developments. The only aspect of cultural entrepreneurship that was undermined by public support was the organisations' use of persuasive powers to arrange finances. With the FPU changes, the theatres and galleries became less entrepreneurial as their budgets became highly unstable and they do not have experience with arranging funds through private financing. The findings highlight the importance of FPU gaining back its independence and the necessity of introducing a policy that would stimulate private sector involvement in the Slovak cultural sector.