Subsidies from the programs of the Ministry of Culture and a wave of indignation. Hanna Wróblewska “may award money and does not have to explain himself”

The Ministry of Culture announced greater transparency and justice in granting subsidies under the minister's programs. At the same time, a mode was introduced to allow money to be directly for applications that were not approved by experts. Hanna Wróblewska benefited from it, and the March results of the “Music” program aroused the indignation of the environment. We asked the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage about the criteria and the basics she followed.

The new management of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage undertook to reform the system of granting grants under the so -called Minister's programs, i.e. a mechanism, thanks to which the ministry supports cultural events once a year. “Gazeta Wyborcza” wrote in mid -March that “for eight years of Piotr Gliński's rule in the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage we got used to the absurdities, discrimination and cuddle” in this matter.

Meanwhile, the new management assured that this would change. – The process of granting subsidies under the minister's programs will be transparent, effective, fair and giving the opportunity to implement ambitious, high -budget projects while maintaining equal opportunities for smaller initiatives – argued Minister Hanna Wróblewska at the conference on September 30.

The head of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage also reported that “we decided to give more power to experts invited to evaluate applications.”

“GW” indicated that the ministry has created a special platform to facilitate the submission and monitoring of applications, changed the financing limits, and also lifted the assessment of the organizers' own contribution, which “at the start discriminated against small institutions (now they can apply for a subsidy even in the amount of 100 percent of the project budget)”.

Changing the assessment criteria and the minister's reserve mode

Application evaluation criteria have also changed. Earlier there was the so -called Substantive assessment and strategic assessment. “The latter often served as previous power as a lever to pull up the final assessment of conclusions for non -territorial, i.e. political or friendly reasons,” says Gazeta Wyborcza.

The ministry himself wrote in a statement of September 20, 2024 that the strategic assessment “was accused of susceptible to political influence, which undermined trust in the whole trial.” It was then emphasized that experts “would be fully responsible for the substantive and contextual assessment of applications (0-60 points)”. “Their recommendation will also be important taking into account the uniqueness and importance of projects (0-40 points)” – we read.

“In addition, we introduce a median of expert ratings instead of the average to calculate the final assessment. This will reduce the impact of extreme assessments and reduce the importance of the subjective factor in the assessment of experts,” Mkidn emphasized in September.

The minister's reserve mode was also introduced instead of the appeal procedure. “Gazeta Wyborcza” explains that “so far it was so that those who did not give money to the minister who could already decide to grant a subsidy.”

Instead, the minister's reserve mode was created, for which 15 percent of the Minister's programs budget was allocated. “These funds will enable the minister to grant a subsidy to projects that have not gained recommendations in the competition mode and to increase the subsidy recommended in the competition tasks with high budgets. Importantly – the proceedings under this mode does not require the applicants to submit additional applications or appeals” – the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage was filed in the September

One person, two companies and PLN 320,000 from the minister

However, “Gazeta Wyborcza” wrote – the results of the “Music” program published in March 13 aroused indignation in the environment. Almost 900 applications were submitted to him, and subsidies for the sum of PLN 29.5 million were awarded to 189 of them.

The discussion was particularly evoked by two subsidies granted from the minister's reserve, i.e. directly by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

One of them – in the amount of PLN 150,000 – went to STX Music Solutions for a six -episode podcast “Contact Poles with music”. This – as “GW” described – is to consist in the conversations of the owner of the company Stanisław Trzciński “with artists, journalists and scientists who will discuss the latest scientific research on listening to music and help answer the question: what actions should be taken to increase the popularity of concerts and listening to live music.”

List of all entities that received subsidies >>>

What's more, another Trzciński company – BA Booking Agency, received PLN 170,000 for “Playlist promotion with the Polish repertoire on the most popular world streaming websites – the development of the Polish portal of Spatomzyki.pl and Polish mobile applications MyPlaylist in iOS and Android systems.” The subsidy also came from the minister's reserve.

“Gazeta Wyborcza” emphasized that subsidies from experts received those projects that received at least 84 points. Meanwhile, experts rated Trzciński's podcasts at 56 points, and the Playlist promotion – at 40.

As the newspaper writes, as part of the new reserve mode, the head of the ministry “can grant money to any applicant and does not have to explain it, even if the project has obtained 0 points from experts”.

In the “Music” program Wróblewska in this way transferred the subsidy to 50 other applicants.

Ministry's response

The tvn24.pl portal sent questions to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage about what criteria was followed by Minister Hanna Wróblewska, granting grants from the minister's reserve this year in the “Music” program. We also asked what determined the granting of subsidies for STX Music Solutions and for the BA Booking Agency and what was the justification of this decision.

The Ministry's Information Center wrote that “the minister's reserve mode includes 15 percent of the Minister's programs budget” and “allows for co -financing of projects that for various reasons did not receive expert recommendations and support of initiatives going beyond the standard assessment criteria.” “Decisions are made by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, deputy ministers are also included in this process,” we read.

It was reported that “52 tasks were co -financed in this mode in the 'Music' program for a total amount of over PLN 5.7 million.”

“Projects supported as part of the reserves expand areas and areas co -financed in the competition mode. These are tasks that go beyond the standard assessment criteria, support access to knowledge about culture and culture, affect areas that can affect culturally” – it was indicated.

As MKIDN added, “the indicated projects concerned activities in the Internet space, addressing activities that were not included in the projects indicated by experts, i.e. concerts and music festivals.”

Virtual Poland also published a text on Thursday, April 3, describing the issue of subsidies under the “Music” program, which the minister awarded the reserve.

The editors contacted STX Music Solutions with questions about its previous experience. “In response to our questions (company – editor's note), he admits that there is no experience in the implementation of podcasts. So we do not know what group of people he can reach and why they undertook such a task. However, they submitted the conclusion, what they had absolutely the right to” – wrote WP.

The portal also quoted the content of the message from Trzciński. “STX Music Solutions has not yet implemented podcasts, so there are no previous productions and their ranges,” the company wrote. She added that she would use the support of specialists when creating podcast materials.

Knowledge with Trzaskowski. “Both are sons of important musicians”

“Gazeta Wyborcza” drew attention to one more aspect. As she wrote, indignation also caused knowledge of Stanisław Trzciński with the President of Warsaw, the presidential candidate for president Rafał Trzaskowskiwhich dates back to their high school times. She noted that there was no evidence that Trzaskowski has something in common with this matter. And she noted that apart from the two subsidies mentioned, “Trzciński did not get money for two more projects.”

“GW” indicated that “it would be strange” if Trzaskowski and Trzciński did not know each other.

“Both are sons of important musicians. The President of Warsaw is a visitor to concerts and festivals. Stanisław Trzciński has one of the most impressive biographies when it comes to the Polish musical life of the Third Polish Republic: he led clubs, broadcasts, released records (including the series 'positive vibrations'), organized concerts, produced festivals,” reads.

Who without funds

“Gazeta Wyborcza” emphasized that the subsidies from the “Music” program were not received by the organizers of festivals with alternative, avant -garde or experimental music (except for Lublin codes and the Krakow Audio Artu). The money was not given, among others: Avant Art Festival, Sanatorium Sanatorium, AD Libitum Festival, UP to Date Festival, Lado cycle in the city or the Jazz Jantar festival.

“GW” noticed that all ten experts evaluating conclusions are represented by the world of classical music. “No wonder that they rated festivals and concerts with classical music (including former and contemporary) and several of the largest jazz festivals,” she added.

As the newspaper assessed, “Minister Wróblewska as part of the reserve, she probably tried to lightly repair this tilting and granted money for several subsequent jazz festivals, as well as events with the song, Jewish music, reggae or blues.” Nevertheless, in the opinion of the newspaper, “it is Hanna Wróblewska who is responsible for not fulfilling the goal of the program, which is to support the most valuable phenomena and trends in Polish and world music culture.”