ROUND TABLE on the status of self-employed cultural and other non-institutional artists in the field of puppet theatre  

As in all areas of culture, puppet theatre has also faced increasingly difficult business conditions in recent years. If, on the one hand, we have a pretty well-regulated status of both city puppet theatres, the position of self-employed and other non-institutional puppets is more questionable. In the 1990s, non-institutional puppet theatres were the driving force behind the development of puppetry art, both in terms of production and inventiveness, but it can be seen that many, especially after the start of the crisis in 2008, have ceased to function or due to their survival on the market the production of the performances became more commercial. Just a glance on the selectors’ choices of the last few puppet biennials reveals the absolute dominance of national theatres, because they can afford bigger production and riskier stage installations due to better operating conditions and less worries about survival on the market. Non-institutional artists are practically cut off from sources of co-financing for their own productions. Some of them work with both institutional theatres. They are also deprived when applying for status, because no one really knows and follows puppet theatre at professional committees at the ministry, committee in field of performing arts or committee for processing applications of self-employed in culture. The status of self-employed is also worrying, since right now all puppet artists are divided in only two categories - puppet animator and puppet-technologist, which by no means suits the majority of artists who work as a puppet artist, as an animator, technologist, director, writer ...

The moderator of the round table will be Anže Virant.