A. Gelūnas: cultural institutions are considered secondary in the public consciousness
The general director of the Lithuanian National Art Museum (LNDM), Arūnas Gelūnas, says that the turnover of employees in the culture and art sector is not so significant. According to him, the activities of LNDM curators, fund custodians, hall consultants, art educators, tour guides, and publishing workers are much more stable.
The market can pay them much more.
However, LNDM lacks technicians – foremen, plumbers, electricians, construction specialists. However, the situation is not so dramatic – according to A.Gelūnas, such services can be bought by hiring a company and concluding a contract: “Despite this, sometimes problems still arise with specialists and technicians, due to the fact that the market can pay them much more.”
A. Gelūnas emphasizes that the biggest problem is the employees of general functions. He means lawyers, economists, public procurement specialists, investment specialists: “Although we are looking for the best financial and all other conditions, but the workload is high, we can pay the salaries as we can and, apparently, that ratio between the work put in and the reward received is still not uncommon encourages the turnover of these employees.”
After hearing about the salaries of specialists, A. Gelūnas says that he dares to say that the average salary in hand has probably exceeded a thousand euros. As announced on the Rekvizitai.lt website, as of July 1, 2024, the average salary in the company was EUR 1,667 (excluding taxes).
Since LNDM is a government institution, when asked about the sufficiency of funding, A. Gelūnas tends to evaluate the situation positively. In his opinion, the problem is not the allocated funding, but the created image that cultural institutions are not a territory for lawyers, economists, public administrators to seize: “Apparently, in the consciousness of our society, cultural institutions are still secondary, a little poorer, hidden in the shadows, although I can confirm that it hasn’t been like that for a long time.”
M. Budraitis: 31 full-time positions are needed to realize the full capacity of the theater
The Lithuanian National Drama Theater (LNDT) also faces unique challenges. According to LNDT general director Martynas Budraitis, the theater does not lack representatives of the art field, the most frequent and biggest change is among stage services, for example, scenery installers: “The main reasons are probably the working hours, because it is a 6-day work week, and the salary.”
Although qualified employees and specialists receive more than 1000 EUR, M. Budraitis says that the funding for the theater is not enough to hire the necessary specialists: “We use up the available salary fund earlier and every year we contribute about a month/a month and a half from our earned funds in order to fully pay. “
Irmantos Gelūnos/BNS photo/Martynas Budraitis
According to the director, both the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Culture have been approached recently.
As announced on the LNDT website, submit 2024 I quarter data, the total average salary in the organization amounts to EUR 1,999 before taxes. It is true that the heads of the theater and structural units and their deputies earn almost half as much, and the workers’ salaries barely exceed EUR 1100 before taxes.
M. Budraitis adds that after the reconstruction, the theater has 3 halls that can operate synchronously, but for this, more employees are needed: “To expand the theater’s activities, a total of 31 full-time technical employees, audience service personnel and building maintenance specialists are missing.”
J. Šaltytė-Mironovienė: we have a fixed budget and we must survive within its limits
However, the Lithuanian National Philharmonic (LNF) currently lacks employees. According to Jurgita Šaltytė-Mironovienė, Deputy General Director of LNF, the institution is currently looking for only accountants, all other positions are filled. It is true that J. Šaltytė-Mironovienė notes that she periodically faces a shortage of employees, but so far she managed to find everything she was looking for.
Sometimes we are also faced with the outflow of specialists, due to the fact that in some places we do not compete with salaries, especially with the business world.
According to her, some turnover of employees is completely natural – some look for career opportunities elsewhere, change qualifications, others take a well-deserved rest – retirement: “Sometimes we also face the outflow of specialists, due to the fact that in some places we do not compete with salaries, especially with the business world. “
According to the deputy general director of LNF, this is felt strongly in the field of technical specialties, and currently also in the sphere of the lowest service personnel, such as cleaners or support workers.
Irmantos Gelūnas/BNS photo/Lithuanian National Philharmonic
According to the information provided by Rekvizitai.lt, as of July 1, 2024, the average salary at LNF was EUR 2,303 (before taxes).
Despite this, wage competition still remains and according to the deputy general director of LNF, the wages are what can be offered from the way it is formed and allocated in the budget: “We have a fixed budget for wages and within its limits we must survive, spin as best we can We have nothing to raise wages at the moment, which affects both the qualifications of the employees we can hire, as well as their job satisfaction, salary, and longevity, how long one employee works.”
M. Ivanauskienė: we do not lack colleagues
Milda Ivanauskienė, director of the non-governmental MO museum institution, is also happy that all their jobs are currently occupied: “Working in a museum requires people from a wide variety of professions, and sometimes it is even more difficult to compete with the market, in those areas that are not specifically cultural. For example, marketing, sponsorship coordinators, fundraising people. But at the moment we have all the colleagues and it feels like people want to work at the MO museum.”
According to M.Ivanauskienė, there is no noticeable turnover of employees in their organization. Most often, the change takes place for family reasons – women are sent on maternity leave. According to the director of the MO Museum, the turnover of employees is not significant due to the fact that those people come to work in non-profit organizations who are more motivated by the meaning and mission at work than by the salary: “But we also single out the organizational culture, which is non-hierarchical, as one of the most important elements. , non-bureaucratic, flexible and therefore a pleasure to be around. The freedom, dignity and respect of everyone who works is valued and emphasized.”
Milda Ivanauskienė, head of the MO Museum
According to the information provided by Rekvizitai.lt, as of July 1, 2024, the average salary in the MO museum was EUR 2,804 (before taxes).
We cannot offer compensation comparable to that paid in leading startups or private businesses.
Despite this, although the non-governmental company MO Museum has divided its sources of income into 3 branches (ticket sales, private support and sponsors, public financing), it can only offer a certain salary during employment: “We cannot offer remuneration equivalent to that paid in leading start-ups or private in businesses, we simply look at what we can offer comprehensively.”
L. Žakevičius: lack of experienced professionals
“Low Air” dance theater cannot be satisfied with the sufficiency of employees. According to director Laurynas Žakevičius, most of the positions in their theater have to be filled by him himself, so the lack of employees is obvious: “Usually what is missing is not creators, but cultural managers and producers who are able to perform managerial and production work. People who help cultural organizations to move forward, to grow, helping them to become more sustainable, not in the ecological sense, but in the sense of using resources, attracting, attracting funding, distribution, finding partners.”
True, the director of “Low Air” dance theater notices that there is also a lack of training, education, dance pedagogues professionals. For this reason, the change of specialists is especially felt among the representatives of this field.
The director of the NGO singles out the lack of funding as one of the main reasons for this. According to L. Žakevičius, in the state funding system, the field of culture is one of the areas that receives the least amount of funding: “These funding opportunities often barely cover the remuneration of creators, but not the opportunity to hire or involve someone who would consistently work on the project.”
NKIKIA photo/Laurynas Žakevičius
L. Žakevičius points to the lack of professionals as another reason. Although creative industry specialists are trained in higher education institutions, producer programs have been introduced, but young producers have not yet reached the market, so there are no professionals who can fill the ranks of the missing workers.
According to the information published on Rekvizitai.lt, as of July 1, 2024, the average salary at the Urbanist Dance Theater “Low Air” was EUR 1,312 (excluding taxes). It is true, L. Žakevičius notes that the company has both hired employees and permanent employees, but there are also employees based on individual activity or business certificates, so not all of these things are reflected in the average salaries.
R. Kregždaitė: funding and income are not enough
Producer Rusnė Kregždaitė, the founder of the Vilnius City Theater “Art and Science Laboratories” (MMLAB), assures that most of the people in the administration, technical and creative team in their company are intrinsically linked to unstable labor relations, because they are hired on short-term contracts for individual projects and work according to individual activities : “This also leads to a natural change in the team, especially the creative team.”
Personal archive photo/Rusnė Kregždaitė
R. Kregždaitė says that such forms of involvement have to be carried out due to insufficient funds: “Funding and income are not enough to employ all the necessary specialists.” She also mentions that the turnover of specialists is also related to the nature of the project activity.
The founder of MMLAB does not expand on the remuneration, it is difficult for me to give an exact answer due to such a work model. There is also no information about the prevailing average salary of MMLAB on the website Rekvizitait.lt.
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#cultural #institutions #secondary #Managers #challenges #finding #employees #Culture
2024-09-11 19:54:11
