FUNDING OF MONGOLIAN ARTS AND CULTURE SECTOR IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY (1990-2014)

ABSTRACT During the seventy years of socialism in Mongolia, the state governed arts and culture sector (1921-1990) was established based on the European and Soviet models. The state arts organizations had full funding support with widely available human and material resources and well-established implementing structures. However, despite these advantages, the arts organizations and artists were limited by the socialist ideology, suffered from strong censorship, and restricted exposure to the international exchange platform. Conversely, Mongolia became a democratic country in the remarkable year in 1990, and made the shift from a government-centered economy to a free market economy. As a result, triplicate transitions of the economic, social and political sectors took place in the last twenty years. Through this transition period, the sector faced new challenges: limited funding and materials, poor human resource management, and poor implementation. Consequently, state organizations were forced to secure support from alternative sources, but due to outdated knowledge and skills, the Soviet-educated management was challenged to secure additional funding and respond to the supply and demand of the market. Nonetheless, the sector that once fully belonged to the state has now been transferred to non-profits and private ownership and has developed an effective legal system, enjoys freedom of creativity and ideological pluralism, has improved its skills in securing outside funding, has been exposed to a broader international exchange platform, and has become part Economic and Social Transformation; Cultural Policy; Funding; Mongolia; Government Control KEY WORDS of the Arts RESEARCH QUESTION From the establishment of the Soviet regime in Mongolia in 1921, the funding of Mongolian arts and culture sector solely based on government subsidy and censorship determined the organizational nature and aesthetic legitimacy of cultural programming. However, since the democratic revolution in 1990, a majority of arts organizations either closed down or experienced significant funding cuts. As a result, a private arts sector has emerged in Mongolia. Under what political, social, and economic circumstances these states, non-governmental and private arts organizations is funded? And what are their most significant institutional challenges and strategies in the post-Soviet transition?