State of Culture in Albania 2025 · Municipal profiles · Artivista Center (Qendra Artivista)
This profile is based on the medium term budget plans (PBA) of the Municipality of Fushë-Arrëz for 2022 - 2024, 2023 - 2025 and 2024 - 2026 and on INSTAT's 2023 Population and Housing Census; the municipality did not reply to Artivista's request for information on culture, despite several requests. Amounts are in Albanian lek.
At a glance
| Region (qark) | Shkodër |
| Administrative units | 5: Fushë-Arrëz, Fierzë, Blerim, Qafë-Mali, Iballë |
| Area | 540 km² (according to the municipality's budget plan) |
| Population, 2023 Census | 4,878 (about 9 residents per km²); about 34.1% fewer than in 2011 |
| Residents aged 65 and over | 16.5% (national average 19.7%) |
| Culture budget | No separate culture programme in the budget plans for 2022 - 2024, 2023 - 2025 and 2024 - 2026 |
| Cultural institutions | None with reported revenue; no library, museum, theatre or cultural centre appears in the budget |
| Reply to the request for information | None, despite several requests |
Summary
Fushë-Arrëz, a small mountain municipality in the north, built during the communist period around copper processing and timber, has lost about a third of its population since 2011. It is the clearest case in this series of a municipality where culture has no place of its own in the budget.
The municipality's medium term budget plans for 2022 - 2024, 2023 - 2025 and 2024 - 2026 divide the budget into about eleven programmes, none of them for culture. The organisation of cultural activities and the promotion of national and local identity appear only as a second objective of the basic education programme, with no cost, activity or indicator attached to them.
The municipality did not reply to Artivista's request for information, despite several requests, so this profile relies entirely on the budget plans. They show no cultural institution, no staff working on culture and no cultural programme during the period 2020 - 2026. At the same time, the municipality's own vision for the future rests on mountain tourism, for which culture and heritage could be an asset.
1. Governance and institutions
The budget plans do not identify a culture directorate, a cultural institution or dedicated staff. Culture is mentioned only within programme 09120, basic education including pre-school education, whose policy statement lists the organisation of cultural activities and the promotion of national and local identity as its second objective, after the maintenance of school buildings.
2. Funding
Most Albanian municipalities report culture under programme 08220, cultural heritage and artistic and cultural events. Fushë-Arrëz does not use this programme in any of the three budget plans reviewed. The education programme that contains the cultural objective cost between 34.2 and 39.1 million lek a year during the period 2021 - 2023, with 56.6 million lek planned for 2024, when a school reconstruction in Iballë was included, and 42.6 million lek a year for 2025 and 2026. None of this is identified as spending on culture.
The fee table that appears in every budget plan has rows for a library, museums, a theatre, a children's cultural centre, a sports palace and a community centre. All of them are empty in every year. Only kindergartens and nurseries bring in fees, 410,000 lek and 210,000 lek a year from 2023. The empty rows suggest that the municipality does not run any cultural institution that charges fees.
3. Cultural programme
The budget plans report no cultural activities, festivals or projects and no indicator for the cultural objective of the education programme, whose indicators cover only pupils, teachers and classes. No evidence of an organised cultural programme during the period 2020 - 2026 was found in the documents reviewed.
4. Heritage
The town of Fushë-Arrëz was built as a planned industrial settlement, part of a group of copper-processing centres in the north that also includes Kurbnesh and Spaç. Its industrial past is itself a form of heritage. Iballë, one of its administrative units, is a much older settlement linked to the historic highlands of Pukë and Dukagjin, where two churches and a mosque stand side by side. The budget plans do not mention spending on heritage.
5. Staff
The budget plans report staff only for education, teachers and support staff in schools and kindergartens. No post is attributed to culture.
6. Planning and public participation
The municipality's long term vision describes Fushë-Arrëz as a small, renewed town built on the sustainable use of natural resources and forests, with mountain tourism and medicinal plants as its main directions. Culture is mentioned only among the sectors where qualified human resources are needed. The municipality holds public consultations on its overall budget, but none on culture was identified.
7. Culture across the municipality
The documents give no information on cultural activity or investment in Fushë-Arrëz, Fierzë, Blerim, Qafë-Mali or Iballë.
Conclusions
- Fushë-Arrëz has no culture programme in its budget plans for 2022 - 2024, 2023 - 2025 and 2024 - 2026.
- Culture appears only as a second objective of the basic education programme, with no cost or indicator.
- No cultural institution charges fees, and no staff or activities for culture are reported.
- The population fell by about a third between 2011 and 2023.
- The municipality's vision rests on mountain tourism, to which its industrial and religious heritage could contribute.
Recommendations
Reply to the request for information
A reply to Artivista's request, even a short one, would make it possible to describe the cultural activities that may take place without appearing in the budget plans and to include them in future editions of this profile.
Give culture a line in the budget
Even a small amount under programme 08220, or a separately costed line within the education programme, would show what the municipality spends on culture and allow it to set simple targets, such as the number of events and participants each year.
Say which cultural spaces exist
The budget lists a library, museums, a theatre and a cultural centre as fee categories, but reports nothing for them. The municipality could state whether any such space exists and, if it does, how it is used.
Link culture to mountain tourism
The industrial heritage of the town and the history of Iballë could become part of the tourism offer the municipality wants to build. A small project, such as a local history exhibition or a summer event, could be prepared with residents and the diaspora and supported by national or donor funds.
Consult residents on culture
The municipality already consults residents on the budget. Adding a question on culture to these consultations would show what activities residents would like and where.
About the data
Population figures come from the INSTAT 2023 Census. All other information comes from the municipality's medium term budget plans (PBA) for 2022 - 2024, 2023 - 2025 and 2024 - 2026; the municipality did not reply to Artivista's request for information, despite several requests.
Every effort has been made to base this analysis on the data provided by the municipality, complemented with data from its Medium Term Budget Programmes (PBA) published online. For comments or questions, please contact artivista@arti-vista.org.
This article was prepared within the CulturAL project, with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the National Centre for Community Services and Artivista Center and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
