Promotion of culture

Schellhorn wants to send large museums across the country

Schellhorn wants more funding for small cultural institutions such as the blast furnace museum in Thomatal.

(Bild: Roland Holitzky/ROLAND HOLITZKY)

For Neos culture spokesman Sepp Schellhorn, the Salzburg Festival is just an outlier. Cultural institutions should visit the regions from Vienna. According to Schellhorn, the rural population deserves more than centralism and folk music tent festivals.

For Neos culture spokesman Sepp Schellhorn, the festival that has just been launched is more of an eyewash. After all, cultural life takes place predominantly in Vienna throughout the year. "Ultimately, you're just fooling the population. Apart from the festival, the offer for those interested in art and culture is very limited. Unfortunately, this applies to large parts of rural areas," says Schellhorn.

50 percent of the budget for federal institutions
The large federal institutions - such as the Burgtheater, the State Opera and the federal museums - receive more than 50 percent of the entire federal cultural budget. The City of Vienna adds a further 338 million euros in funding. The cultural budgets of the federal states are far removed from such sums.

"Austria as a cultural nation deserves more than short-sighted centralism and folk music tent festivals," says Schellhorn. He calls for innovative concepts and decentralization. For example, there should be traveling exhibitions and performance troupes outside Vienna that regularly visit small towns and rural regions. To this end, the Neos are calling for funding for regional cultural initiatives. There should be scholarships for interested pupils from rural areas. The large federal museums should also be made more accessible via the internet, with virtual tours and live-streamed performances.