The results indicate major cultural initiatives going on throughout the country. Over the years, a strong cultural infrastructure has been built. A network of governmental cultural institutions – national, regional and local – working with local organisers, small independent groups, larger organisations and volunteers, has made professional culture highly accessible throughout the country. Focused efforts to make culture more accessible have produced results. Today, Sweden is culturally active in terms of both its consumers and practitioners of culture.
The financial distribution pattern confirms the frequent observation that about half of all government cultural resources go to the four counties or regions that are the largest in terms of population, namely, Stockholm, Skåne, Västra Götaland, and Östergötland. If the distribution pattern of the same resources is considered per capita, however, the small and/or sparsely populated countries end up on top.
Local or regional government co-funding is a precondition for national government funding of institutions, organisations, and – in most cases – independent cultural initiatives. In other words, it would be extremely unusual for the Swedish government to fund a regional or local cultural activity on its own. Co-funding is handled differently in different parts of the country. A few counties, such as Blekinge, Västerbotten, and Gotland, are quite similar in their contributions to national government subsidies, whereas other counties, such as Norrbotten and Jämtland, provide considerably more support.
Nothing indicates that the large counties containing several institutions are being favoured at the expense of the weaker ones. Regarding the Arts Council’s funding allocation pattern for theatre, the sums given for the development of structures in small counties with few cultural institutions are as large as those given to large counties with many such institutions.
This year, the Swedish Arts Council also launched a project to expand its reporting on the cultura activities of independent groups. As a result of the first step of this project, the Swedish Arts Council presented a report on the range of cultural offerings provided by independent groups and on the audiences for such offerings. In 2007, independent theatre groups gave almost 8,000 performances throughout the counties of Sweden, to audiences of over 637,000.
The report also details the results of the first two budget cycles of the “Creative School” programme. This programme, aimed at grades seven to nine, is designed to enable students and teachers to experience and be inspired by various forms of culture. Creative School is administrated by the Swedish Arts Council.