State of Culture in Albania 2025 · Municipal profiles · Artivista Center (Qendra Artivista)
This profile is based on information provided by the Municipality of Tiranë in reply to Artivista's request for information on culture (2026), the municipality's medium term budget plans (PBA), and INSTAT's 2023 Population and Housing Census. Amounts are in Albanian lek.
At a glance
| Region (qark) | Tiranë, capital of the qark and of the country |
| Administrative units | 24: 11 city units and 13 former communes, including Kashar, Farkë, Dajt, Petrelë, Pezë, Ndroq, Vaqarr, Shëngjergj, Baldushk, Krrabë, Bërzhitë, Zall-Bastar and Zall-Herr |
| Area | 1,110.03 km² |
| Population, 2023 Census | 598,176 (about 539 residents per km²); 7.3% more than in 2011 |
| Residents aged 65 and over | 16.3% (national average 19.7%) |
| Culture budget, spent | 479.8 million lek in 2020, 1.19 billion lek in 2024 |
| Cultural institutions | Tën Youth Centre, Tirana Cultural Centre (with the Metropol Theatre), Centre for the Restoration of Works of Art, Tirana Art Gallery, Creative Industry Agency, Kadare-Agolli House-Studio Museum |
| Staff | 13 to 15 in the Directorate of Culture; 143 in the six institutions (2026) |
| Creative Industry Agency projects | 33 during the period 2023 - 2025 |
| Public consultations on culture | None requested |
Summary
Tiranë, the capital, has the largest culture budget in this series. The culture programme (08220) grew from 643.6 million lek planned in 2020 to 1.39 billion lek in 2024, and spending rose from 479.8 million to 1.19 billion lek. In 2025, 1.18 billion lek was planned and 721.1 million spent by the time of the reply. The programme is about 3.4% to 3.8% of the city budget.
Culture is coordinated by the Directorate of Culture and Cultural Heritage, with 13 to 15 staff, and delivered by six institutions with 143 staff. The Creative Industry Agency, set up in 2022, lists 33 projects for 2023 - 2025. Three institutions earn their own income, which rose from 808,370 lek in 2020 to 6.27 million lek in 2024.
The medium term budget plan reports 1.32 billion lek spent in 2024, about 126.3 million lek more than the institutions' total in the reply. The reply does not explain the difference. No requests for public consultations on culture were made during the period.
1. Governance and institutions
The Directorate of Culture and Cultural Heritage, part of the General Directorate for City Promotion, coordinates culture policy. Six institutions do most of the work: the Tën Youth Centre (courses in painting, singing, acting, design, ballet, guitar and piano), the Tirana Cultural Centre with the Metropol Theatre, the Centre for the Restoration and Production of Works of Art (monuments, park sculpture and restoration), the Tirana Art Gallery, the Creative Industry Agency (film, recreation and technology) and the Kadare-Agolli House-Studio Museum, formed in 2024 by merging the two writers' house-museums. The budget plan for 2026 - 2028 also lists the Tirana Zoo directorate under the same programme.
2. Funding
Planned and actual spending were 643,592,205 and 479,776,504 lek in 2020, 581,951,420 and 457,183,339 lek in 2021, 817,562,239 and 678,488,570 lek in 2022, 1,296,004,192 and 1,138,848,103 lek in 2023, 1,386,304,683 and 1,190,094,484 lek in 2024, and 1,178,035,786 and 721,065,741 lek in 2025. Between 74.5% and 87.9% of the plan was spent each year from 2020 to 2024. The municipal administration itself is the largest spending unit, followed by the Tirana Cultural Centre and the Creative Industry Agency.
The spending figures for 2022 and 2023 match the medium term budget plans exactly. For 2024 the plan for 2026 - 2028 reports 1,316,349,822 lek, 126.3 million lek above the reply. One possible source is the Zoo. The budget report for the first eight months of 2026 confirms that the Zoo is part of the culture programme, with 154.3 million lek planned for 2026 and 73.7 million lek spent from January to August 2025, a size that fits the gap; the Zoo's own 2024 spending is not given, so this is not confirmed. For 2026 the programme was revised to 1.46 billion lek, and 489.8 million lek had been spent by the end of August. The plan foresees 1.50 billion lek for 2026, then 863.1 million lek in 2027 and 798.9 million lek in 2028.
3. Cultural programme
The Creative Industry Agency lists 9 projects in 2023, 9 in 2024 and 15 in 2025. They include the Gjon Mili Festival, the Balkan Film Market, Game Jam Tirana, the Albanian Video Archive Festival, an AI and robotics course for children at Micro Folie Tirana, the Maks Velo Festival, Creative Industry Clubs in Schools and “50 vjet animacion shqiptar”. The agency also runs Micro Folie Tirana, the Agimi Art Centre in the former Agimi cinema, Tirana Moons and the Tirana Film Office. The reply gives no list of activities for the other institutions.
4. Heritage
Restoration is the task of the Centre for the Restoration and Production of Works of Art, which spent 6.2 million lek in 2020 and 22.1 million lek in 2024 on monuments, park sculpture and public works. The reply gives no list of restoration projects.
5. Staff and income
The Directorate of Culture had 13 staff each year, except 15 in 2024. The six institutions have 143 staff in 2026. Own income came from three institutions: the Kadare-Agolli museum (37,810 lek in 2020, 760,450 lek in 2025), the Tirana Cultural Centre (up to 4.82 million lek in 2022) and the Art Gallery (up to 1.36 million lek in 2024).
6. Planning and public participation
The reply does not mention a culture strategy. The Sector of Public Consultation says that no requests for consultations on culture, heritage or cultural activities were made to it. In July 2026 the Municipal Council approved an Artistic and Cultural Council for 2026 - 2028, with nine members.
7. Culture across the municipality
The reply gives no breakdown by administrative unit. The Creative Industry Agency says it works in public spaces in different units.
Conclusions
- The culture budget grew from 479.8 million lek spent in 2020 to 1.19 billion lek in 2024, the largest in this series.
- The 2024 figure in the budget plan is 126.3 million lek higher than in the reply, and the reason is not explained.
- Six institutions with 143 staff deliver culture, and the Creative Industry Agency lists 33 projects for 2023 - 2025.
- Own income from three institutions reached 6.27 million lek in 2024.
- No culture strategy is mentioned, no consultations on culture were requested, and there is no breakdown by administrative unit.
Recommendations
Explain the 2024 difference
Showing whether the Zoo accounts for the 126.3 million lek difference would make the two budget sources agree.
A culture strategy
Adopting and publishing a culture strategy would set out the city's aims for the sector.
Report for every institution
A list of activities for each institution, like the one from the Creative Industry Agency, would show the full programme.
Show the spread
Reporting activities and spending by administrative unit would show how far culture reaches beyond the centre.
About the data
Population figures come from the INSTAT 2023 Census. Budget, institutions, staff, projects and income are as reported by the Municipality of Tiranë in its reply (2026); the budget plan figures come from the medium term budget plans 2025 - 2027 and 2026 - 2028 and the budget report for January - August 2026.
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.
