Department 9 Culture, Europe, Sports

"With its responsibility for Culture and Europe, Department 9 is in charge of a broad and multi-faceted field of activity.

As part of our activities, we provide information to regional, national and international representatives of art and culture, creative artists, people working in (folk) culture, people interested in Europe and European affairs and our international relations; we offer expert services and provide support to them out of goodwill. Our target group includes, amongst others, participants of our various event formats - from Alps-Adriatic Alliance workshops, information events on EU subsidies and funding, Café Europa, information events for cultural promotion, readings and specific exhibitions, to events showing local culture and many more - as well as anybody with an interest in the arts, culture and Europe, and schools that receive funding from us. This also includes all the people who borrow books from the State Library to use them for their (scientific) research, and also those who take care of our regional cultural heritage.

In addition, we support numerous artists and cultural workers, from Styria and from all over the world, who are part of a network within the framework of our studio programmes or are awarded prizes and scholarships by us for their artistic work.

Our tasks in the framework of managing our shareholdings in cultural organisations (Theaterholding GmbH, Universalmuseum Joanneum GmbH, steirischer herbst Gmbh, Volkskultur GmbH) range from legal issues to exercising shareholder rights (appointment of Management Boards).

Old town preservation and cityscape protection: Our Department is home to the office of the Altstadt-Sachverständigenkommission (Historic Town Expert Commission) and Altstadtanwaltschaft (Ombuds Office for the Historic Town).  

As far as European relations are concerned, we are in charge of our regional representation: the "Steiermark-Büro" in Brussels, which acts as the liaison office between Styria and the European Union and represents Styrian interests in the EU." 

The Sports Unit was included in Department 9 Culture, Europe, Sports on 1 March 2020.