Culture Philanthropy and Culture Policy in Lithuania: perceptions of participants in culture philanthropy

Abstract

The governmental promotion of culture philanthropy as a significant issue in culture policy is widely discussed in scientific literature. Many authors (Sulek 2010, Payton, 2000, etc.) argue that, though philanthropy concept has antique origins, at present still there is no comprehensive perception of its full meaning and no well-thought-out definition exists, thus, it is not astonishing that understanding of philanthropy is pretty much embedded in social, cultural and political settings. Culture philanthropy process involves different philanthropy actors – donors, intermediaries and recipients. The paper aims to discuss theoretical and practical aspects of culture philanthropy, using three differents approaches – perceptions by all three groups of actors in culture philanthropy. The paper analyses the concept of philanthropy as well as perceptions of culture policy in Lithuania. Data analysis is dwelling on the findings of the qualitative research conducted in 2014 on culture philanthropy actors’ perceptions and experiences.