The Saeima¹ has adopted and
the President has proclaimed the following law:

Law on Culture Centres

Section 1. Purpose and Scope of Application of this Law

(1) The purpose of this Law is, through culture centres, to facilitate access to quality cultural services for the entire Latvian society, to facilitate preservation and sustainable development of the Latvian cultural and historical environment, cultural space, and intangible cultural heritage, strengthening of national identity, access to life-long education, development of new cultural services and products, and also quality culture process in which the entire society is able to participate.

(2) The Law prescribes the legal status, functions, operation of culture centres founded by local governments and other issues related to the operation of culture centres.

Section 2. Purpose of Operation and Legal Basis of a Culture Centre

(1) A culture centre is an institution founded by a local government and accessible to the society or its structural unit with the task to implement the functions specified in the Law in the field of culture. The local government may delegate an administrative task arising from the functions of the culture centre to a private individual or to another public person.

(2) A local government shall ensure the implementation of the functions of a culture centre and the operation of at least one methodological culture centre within its administrative territory in accordance with Section 3 of this Law, including the provision of the necessary financial, material and technical, and personnel resources.

(3) A culture centre shall be founded, reorganised, and liquidated by a local government. Before the local government takes the decision on the liquidation of the culture centre or on such reorganisation by which the culture centre will cease to exist, it shall inform the Latvian National Centre for Culture of the planned action and of the manner in which the performance of the functions of a culture centre will be ensured in the future in the respective administrative territory.

(4) The legal basis of the operation of a culture centre shall be this Law, the Law on Cultural Authorities, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law, the Song and Dance Celebration Law, the Historical Latvian Lands Law, the Education Law, and other laws and regulations, and also the by-laws approved by the founder of the culture centre.

(5) The name of a culture centre may include the words "Culture Centre", "Culture House", "People's House", "Community House", or other words pointing to the operation of the culture centre. The culture centre may use its historical name.

Section 3. Functions and Rights of a Culture Centre

(1) A culture centre shall perform one or more of the following functions:

1) create and organise events and initiatives of culture, life-long education, and further education which are diverse in terms of content and form;

2) support the continuity of the Song and Dance Celebration process, including the operation of amateur art and folk art collectives, support the participation of amateur art and folk art collectives in events of national and international level;

3) ensure access to genre-diverse professional art and culture, the development of creativity and local creative industries;

4) ensure the preservation and development of the local cultural and historical environment, identity, and intangible cultural heritage;

5) promote the knowledge of history and study of local history, contribute to the development of cultural tourism services;

6) identify and compile the needs of the inhabitants of the respective administrative territory in the field of culture and implement activities corresponding to such needs.

(2) A culture centre has the right:

1) to provide paid services and to use the funds obtained for the performance of the functions set out in this Law, for the development of the culture centre, and also for the improvement of professional knowledge of its employees;

2) to receive methodological support from the Latvian National Centre for Culture;

3) to participate, including by making suggestions, in the drawing up of development planning documents and the implementation thereof;

4) to participate in the activities of associations, partnerships, foundations, and other public organisations in order to achieve the goals set out in its by-laws;

5) in accordance with the procedures laid down in the laws and regulations, to apply for the financing from the State Culture Capital or other generally accessible financing from State aid mechanisms for the implementation of such cultural projects which contribute to the performance of the functions set out in this Law;

6) to perform other activities specified in its by-laws.

(3) A local government shall grant the status of a methodological culture centre to one or more culture centres in its administrative territory for the performance of the functions set out in Paragraph four of this Section.

(4) In addition to the functions of a culture centre set out in Paragraph one of this Section, a methodological culture centre shall:

1) ensure the exchange of information and experience between culture centres;

2) provide advisory and methodological assistance to all culture centres in the respective municipality, coordinate and promote their work;

3) within the scope of its competence, ensure the fulfilment of the tasks set out in the development planning documents of the local government;

4) organise events, festivals, exhibitions, and also other public activities of the municipality, State city, national or international level.

(5) Local governments may, by mutual agreement, establish a joint culture centre or methodological culture centre for the performance of the functions set out in this Law or for the implementation of joint measures.

Section 4. Latvian National Centre for Culture

(1) According to its competence, the Latvian National Centre for Culture shall:

1) provide informative, methodological, and organisational support to culture centres;

2) implement further education and professional development measures - seminars, courses, conferences as well as other informative and educational measures;

3) coordinate the cooperation of the parties involved in the preservation and development of the intangible cultural heritage, including tradition of the Song and Dance Celebration;

4) not less than once within two years, taking into account the information provided in the Latvian Cultural Data Portal, assess the compliance of operation of culture centres and methodological culture centres with the status and functions specified in the Law and, in case of non-compliance, inform the founder of the respective centre thereof.

(2) The Latvian National Centre for Culture has the right to request and receive information on the operation of culture centres in order to determine the necessary support for the operation of culture centres.

Section 5. Information on Culture Centres

(1) A culture centre and a methodological culture centre shall provide information on the Latvian Cultural Data Portal on the performance of the functions set out in Section 3, Paragraphs one and four of this Law in conformity with the procedures stipulated by the Cabinet for the compilation of official statistics in the field of culture.

(2) Information on culture centres and the services provided by them shall be accessible to everyone free of charge online in the Latvian Cultural Data Portal, unless its accessibility is restricted in accordance with the provisions of this Law and other laws and regulations.

(3) The manager of the Latvian Cultural Data Portal is the Culture Information Systems Centre which ensures the maintenance, preservation, updating, use, and accessibility of data to the society.

Section 6. Head of a Culture Centre

(1) The head of a culture centre shall be the manager of a culture centre - a local government institution - and shall be responsible for the operation thereof.

(2) A person is entitled to work as the head of a methodological culture centre if he or she meets one of the following requirements:

1) has obtained higher education (except for short-cycle vocational higher education) in the field of cultural management;

2) has obtained higher education (except for short-cycle vocational higher education) and has work experience of at least three years in cultural management.

(3) A person is entitled to work as the head of a culture centre if he or she meets one of the following requirements:

1) has obtained higher education in the field of cultural management;

2) has obtained higher education and has work experience of at least three years in cultural management;

3) has obtained higher education and has completed a licensed professional development education programme in the field of cultural management;

4) has obtained vocational secondary education in the field of culture and has work experience of at least three years in cultural management;

5) has obtained vocational secondary education in the field of culture and has completed a licensed professional development education programme in the field of cultural management.

(4) The head of a culture centre and the head of a methodological culture centre shall regularly improve their professional competence by completing professional development courses of at least 36 hours not less than once every three years.

Section 7. Financing of Culture Centres

(1) A culture centre shall be financed by its founder.

(2) Culture centres may receive funds from the State budget, funds from other funding sources, including financial resources from donations, gifts, revenues from paid services, and other own revenues.

Transitional Provisions

1. The head of a methodological culture centre and the head of a culture centre whose education or work experience does not meet the requirements of Section 6, Paragraphs two and three of this Law are entitled to continue work in this position until 31 December 2026.

2. The head of a methodological culture centre and the head of a culture centre whose education does not meet the requirements of Section 6, Paragraphs two and three of this Law, but who on 31 December 2026 will have five or less years left to attain the retirement age determined by the State are entitled to continue work in this position until the end of the year in which he or she attain the retirement age determined by the State.

3. A local government shall, by 31 December 2023, ensure that at least one culture centre in its administrative territory has the status of a methodological culture centre in accordance with Section 2, Paragraph two of this Law.

4. The Cabinet shall, not later than by 30 June 2023, make amendments to Cabinet Regulation No. 291 of 30 May 2017, Regulations Regarding the Compilation of Official Statistics in the Field of Culture, in accordance with Section 5 of this Law.

5. Public access to the information referred to in Section 5 of this Law shall be ensured not later than by 30 June 2024.

The Law has been adopted by the Saeima on 15 September 2022.

President E. Levits

Rīga, 27 February 2022

¹The Parliament of the Republic of Latvia

Translation © 2023 Valsts valodas centrs (State Language Centre)