Why Cultural Resilience Matters: A Conversation on Funding Cuts

In Europe and beyond, cultural funding is shrinking at the moment when independent voices are most needed. Eurozine’s article “Funding cuts on the rise” traces how opportunities for artists, cultural organisations, and public-interest media have steadily eroded since 2008. As funding disappears, so do many people’s chances to participate in cultural life, whether as practitioners or as audiences.

The article highlights how political pressure is shaping these trends. In Slovakia, the culture minister promotes the idea that “culture should be Slovak and no other”, echoing patterns already seen in Hungary and Serbia, where independent institutions and media face deep restrictions. Combined with dramatic international withdrawals, the impact is severe. USAID has cut more than 80 percent of its programmes worldwide. As Olena Leptuha of the Kharkiv Crisis Info Center warns, this risks creating “information deserts” in communities already living through crisis.

Eurozine’s piece is also a reminder of cultural resilience. Across Slovakia, the Open Culture initiative has brought together hundreds of institutions and thousands of artists in defence of artistic freedom. The article features a Display Europe conversation recorded at the Academy of Fine Arts library in Vienna, where György Szabó, Maximilian Lehner, Maria Popovic, and Tarun Kade reflect on how the sector can adapt and protect its vital role in democratic life.

This conversation is part of Display Europe, a public-values media platform co-funded by the European Commission and the European Cultural Foundation. With cultural spaces under strain, it shows why independent culture matters for a confident, open, and democratic Europe.

Photo by Roman Wimmers on Unsplash