FUNDING OF MONGOLIAN ARTS AND CULTURE SECTOR IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY (1990-2014)

Abstract

ABSTRACT

During the seventy years of socialism in Mongolia, the state governed arts and culture

sector (1921-1990) was established based on the European and Soviet models. The state

arts organizations had full funding support with widely available human and material resources

and well-established implementing structures. However, despite these advantages, the arts

organizations and artists were limited by the socialist ideology, suffered from strong censorship,

and restricted exposure to the international exchange platform.

Conversely, Mongolia became a democratic country in the remarkable year in 1990, and

made the shift from a government-centered economy to a free market economy. As a result,

triplicate transitions of the economic, social and political sectors took place in the last twenty

years. Through this transition period, the sector faced new challenges: limited funding and

materials, poor human resource management, and poor implementation. Consequently, state

organizations were forced to secure support from alternative sources, but due to outdated

knowledge and skills, the Soviet-educated management was challenged to secure additional

funding and respond to the supply and demand of the market.

Nonetheless, the sector that once fully belonged to the state has now been transferred

to non-profits and private ownership and has developed an effective legal system, enjoys

freedom of creativity and ideological pluralism, has improved its skills in securing outside

funding, has been exposed to a broader international exchange platform, and has become part

Economic and Social Transformation; Cultural Policy; Funding; Mongolia; Government Control

KEY WORDS

of the Arts

RESEARCH QUESTION

From the establishment of the Soviet regime in Mongolia in 1921, the funding of Mongolian

arts and culture sector solely based on government subsidy and censorship determined

the organizational nature and aesthetic legitimacy of cultural programming. However, since

the democratic revolution in 1990, a majority of arts organizations either closed down or

experienced significant funding cuts. As a result, a private arts sector has emerged in Mongolia.

Under what political, social, and economic circumstances these states, non-governmental and

private arts organizations is funded? And what are their most significant institutional challenges

and strategies in the post-Soviet transition?