Katja Lindqvist

This paper describes regional support for art education at museums and galleries in Scania, Sweden, and its role in the overall education work undertaken at these institutions. The paper is exploratory to the extent that it describes a development in the field, and links this development to current research in the field of arts management, cultural economics and cultural policy research. Questions answered are: How is regional support distributed in Scania to art organisations? What role does regional support to art education play for individual art organisations? What is the relationship between regional support and other types of funding for art education for art organisations in Scania? The empirical data used as a basis for the paper has been generated through documents of various kinds, including websites and formal policy documents, interviews and conversations with various actors in the field during an evaluation of regional arts education commissions in Scania in 2011 and research for the development new regional arts education commissions within the Region of Scania undertaken in 2012. The study shows that education at art institutions has developed and grown in the last decade, much due to direct support from the Region of Scania. The development is similar across organisations with and without regional support. Principals thus have taken responsibility for the continuing educational work at art institutions in a situation where the Region has shifted its support from monies to everyday educational activities to development of educational activites in recent years. The regional support is only a small contribution to the total expenses of art institutions, but due to it being earmarked it has had visible impact.