Saxony's cultural scene breathes an additional 30 million euros in sight!

Saxony's cultural scene breathes an additional 30 million euros in sight!

In Saxony there is a breath of fresh air for the cultural scene: The Saxon cabinet has decided to hold the government draft for the 2025/26 double budget with a whopping plus of 30 million euros. This money should reduce the deficit and support the municipalities. Minister of Culture Barbara Klepsch is satisfied with the budget negotiations and underlines the importance of maintaining the cultural infrastructure.

Despite the additional funds, the location remains tense. Anne Gaschütz, the head of the Dresden Film Festival, expresses concerns about payment bottlenecks that affect both institutions and freelance artists. Missing final grants have been causing liquidity problems for months and increasing the pressure on many actors in the cultural scene. Ingolf Huhn from the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht initiative also criticizes the budget planning, which are considered unrealistic for some cultural institutions.

Details on the new household

In the new household, the cultural areas are equipped with unchanged funds of around 104 million euros per year. The Cultural Funding Act plays an important role here, which has been promoting rural cultural areas since 2008. For the theater in the Free State, grants of EUR 5.1 million are scheduled for 2025, which will increase to 5.8 million euros the following year. The Saxon Memorial Foundation also receives more funds, which is considered positively. However, many other institutions have to expect reductions in institutional support.

• cultural education: 1.4 million euros.
• Saxon music schools: 7.87 million euros without a reduction.
• Kulturpakt for nine municipal theater and orchestra: approx. 9 million euros.

There is further focus on the Saxon State theaters and art collections, which together received 149.6 million euros for 2025 and 157.1 million euros for 2026. Despite these funds, the expenditure for other state -owned requirements have been reduced, which raises questions about financial stability.

tourism as a supplementary goal

The household also offers perspectives for tourism, where the government plans to continue the tourist development of the three world sites. An annual budget of 4.7 million euros for destination management organizations (DMO) will be made available in the next two years. There are also 6.2 million euros for location and tourism marketing in 2025 and 2026.

The challenges that arise in the field of cultural education and mobility cannot be overlooked. There are considerations to also integrate cultural education into the cultural area law in order to enable the most widespread access to cultural offers. If there is a good hand of those responsible here, not only the thick ships of the cultural landscape, but also the finer ships of education in calmer fahr water could sail.

Despite all the positivity, there is plenty to do to master the cultural diversity and the associated challenges in Saxony. With a solid financial foundation and a forward -looking planning, however, hope is popular for the cultural scene in the Free State.