The municipality allocates 250 thousand euros to continue the work of Liepāja Theater / Article / LSM.lv

Jānis Vilnītis on amendments to the budget of Liepāja municipalityEdgars Kupčs00:00 / 01:06

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206,800 thousand euros have been allocated for the maintenance of the Liepāja theater building and provision of artistic activity, but another 43,499 thousand euros for the return of money to the spectators for the purchased tickets to the canceled performances.

The City Council grant will help overcome the effects of the Covid-19 crisis.

Funding has also been given for the “Players’ Night” award ceremony, which is scheduled for November 23 in Liepaja.

The chairman of the Liepāja City Council Jānis Vilnītis (Association of Latvian Regions) informed at the council meeting that a little more than 12,300 thousand euros have been allocated for the organization of the “Players’ Night” ceremony. In turn, 381,015 euros of funding is also provided for the implementation of the project “South Kurzeme Coastal Heritage through the Centuries”.

In total, the amendments to the 2020 budget of the city of Liepaja in the amount of 7.3 million euros were approved. After the approval of these amendments at the council meeting, the total annual budget of the municipality will be 133.2 million euros.

Vilnītis also pointed out that these will not be the last budget amendments this year – they are also planned for the end of the year, most likely in December.

CONTEXT:

In July, the director of Liepaja Theater announced – if the state does not financially support the theater, which is legally considered a municipal capital company, as well as all other large state theaters, the Liepāja theater may have to close down in October.

In early August a compromise has been reachedthat the Liepāja Theater, which was in crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic, could be supported both by the State Cultural Capital Fund and the local government. Liepāja Theater, as a municipal capital company, could not apply for state funding to prevent the consequences of Covid-19.

September 1 Liepāja municipality promised to take responsibility on the financing of the Liepāja Theater, indicating that the results of the SCCF project tender must be awaited first in order to be able to calculate the necessary funds.

To overcome the crisis caused by Covid-19 and economic recovery, investment in culture was decided to allocate 32 million euros: € 10.6 million to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic public cultural institutions and support for creative people; EUR 10.4 million for modernization measures in the cultural sector – public procurement of new cultural assets, as well as EUR 11 million for cultural infrastructure.

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