Legal Eye: Patrons of the arts

Instead of attempting to imitate the grand opera houses, for example, the Warsaw Chamber Opera deliberately plays on its strengths by offering intimate performances. The National Theater has gained international acclaim for its avant-garde staging. But even if Polish theaters and artists are effective at making the best out of limited resources, money is a necessary evil, and both state and private funds are crucial.

State funding

Through the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, artists and artistic institutions can receive state grants. The list of eligible projects is broad. It covers such obvious positions as "encouraging and promoting artistic works," "encouraging and promoting reading," "maintaining and disseminating national and state traditions," and "promoting Polish culture abroad," to the more opaque, such as "building and modernizing cultural infrastructure," and "societal cultural education."  In other words, if someone thinks it's art or art-related, it could be eligible for financing.

The down side is that budgetary funds must be stretched over all these projects and ideally fit into a priority category. Eligible projects could include everything from building the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, to buying musical instruments for theaters, to sponsoring guest artistic performances.

Other governmental divisions also fund projects. As an example, the Warsaw city authorities have declared their willingness to cover a significant portion of the costs of a new Modern Arts Museum in Warsaw.

Corporate sponsorship

As you enter the theater, you are bound to see posters or banners for upcoming events and a list of the various sponsors of that event. This information is often repeated in the playbill and media advertising. By sponsoring events, companies are able to do good deeds and get a tax break in the process. Sponsoring can be treated as a cost to a company for tax purposes as long as it qualifies as public advertising. 

Donations

Another, more subtle means of doing good is to give donations to not-for-profit organizations affiliated with artistic institutions. As examples, the Współczesna Theater and the Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra both have affiliated foundations. By making a donation to a foundation, it is possible to treat the donation as a cost for tax purposes. But, unlike public advertising expenses, the tax authorities place an upper limit on the amount of the donation that can be treated as a cost. For businesses, the limit is 10 percent of earnings.

Ticket sales

An additional source of funding is, of course, ticket sales, and if I'm taking my daughter Natalia, we are bound to spend a little more at the concessions stand or the gift shop.  However, at this point, it's up to the theaters to offer performances that the public will pay to see. And here, at last, I can pick a bone with the National Theater.

Last December, I hoped to take Natalia to a holiday-season ballet performance. The National Theater was offering an interesting repertoire, but none of it was holiday or child-friendly. The thousandth performance of the Nutcracker may be kitschy, but a lot of indulgent (i.e. willing to spend money) parents were searching for a suitable weekend matinee to which to take the children.

Judith Gliniecki is the managing partner of Rymar and Partners