In sports halls across Kosovo, music echoes alongside speeches and performances as politicians rally ahead of the February 9 general elections. While parties and politicians use art forms — music, design and occasionally literature — to attract voters, governments have long neglected creating a supportive environment for artistic production.

Kosovo’s arts and culture sector has yet to overcome its most fundamental challenge: infrastructure. The lack of facilities, inadequate infrastructure and poor maintenance of existing spaces create countless obstacles for artists and cultural workers.

Beyond constraining artistic creation, these infrastructure issues limit discussions about art and culture. As is reflected in election programs, the conversation rarely moves beyond constructing new buildings and renovating old ones. This particularly affects the National Theater of Kosovo’s actors, the Kosovo Ballet’s dancers and the Kosovo Opera’s artists.

Kosovo’s National Theater remains closed after announcing a full renovation in 2022. With no clear plan for an alternative venue, the theater’s closure immediately raised concerns among the artistic community about its continuity. After several months, the National Theater’s performances were relocated to Youth Palace amphitheater — a space far from ideal for theater productions. It wasn’t until September 2024 that the renovations began.

While the actors managed to continue working and performing in the new space, the ballet dancers faced greater difficulty adapting to the situation. They ended up rehearsing at the Shota’s Ensemble’s facility, a small space with unsuitable conditions for ballet, challenges in coordinating schedules with the Shota Ensemble and no dignified stage on which to present their performances.

The National Theater, although it has served as a workplace for the Kosovo Ballet, does not need to be used in that way. The Kosovo Ballet, which has existed for half a century, has faced successive and unfulfilled promises for its own theater. In fact, 16 years ago, a cornerstone was laid to construct a dedicated space near the Technical Faculty of the University of Prishtina for this institution, as well as for the opera.

Kosovo did not have a national opera until 2021, despite a law recognizing its establishment nearly 20 years earlier. This unresolved situation has left artists who chose this art form to perform on improvised stages in the country or to pursue their careers abroad, all without a dedicated theater and a proper attention to the institution’s functioning.

In the midst of these elections, the National Theater is devoid of theater performances. Since November 2024, the National Theater’s actors have been on strike. The Union of Artists of the National Theater of Kosovo has demanded, among other things, an increase on the wage coefficient set on their roles, as defined by the law on wages in the public sector.

Failing to address the strikers’ demands risks diminishing the theater offerings in Kosovo’s capital, Prishtina. The National Theater is one of three theaters in Prishtina, alongside Dodona and ODA theater. ODA theater is managed by nongovernmental organizations Qendra Multimedia and Oda.

These issues also persist in theaters in other cities such as Podujevo, Prizren, Gjakova, Ferizaj, Mitrovica, Peja and Gjilan, which have faced poor infrastructure and low budgets over the years, limiting creativity and causing both artistic and technical staff to become overloaded and work under difficult conditions.

The inadequate infrastructure is also seen outside the performing arts. The National Museum of Kosovo is closed for renovation as well and various other museums across Kosovo suffer from outdated infrastructure. In this context, another museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kosovo (MCAK), has yet to be realized — despite being a promise for nearly 20 years.

The conversation about museum infrastructure has, over the years, overshadowed the other aspects defining what a museum does — including encouraging visits by both locals and foreign visitors through enriched programs, organizing school visits, ensuring accessibility to museum information and the narratives that these museums convey.

Poor infrastructure also impacts the National Library, putting its archival contents at risk, much like the situation at the State Agency of Archives of Kosovo. With no digital preservation efforts, staff shortages and poor conditions such as dust, lack of space and inadequate archival care, the preserved past is at risk. Both institutions wait for digitization as a sustainable solution to these concerns.

In parallel, the independent cultural scene in Kosovo has not had an easy time — especially after COVID-19 exposed structural difficulties that previous governments failed to address over the years. Uncertain and short-term sponsorships, unstable public funding and the lack of recognition for independent artists were among the challenges that made the future of the independent segment of the cultural industry particularly uncertain.

In the run up to the elections, K2.0 analyzed political parties’ pledges in the field of art and culture, focusing on how well these promises align with the existing needs of cultural institutions in Kosovo, including infrastructural, physical, legal needs and beyond.

K2.0 examined the election plans of the four largest political entities, Vetëvendosje (VV), the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), which is running in coalition with the Social Democratic Initiative.

VV

VV’s commitments in the field of art are solely focused on constructing new physical infrastructure.

VV has continued to promise the construction of the MCAK, along with the Kosovo Opera and Ballet Theater — a commitment that appears to have been carried over from the 2021 government program. Both commitments are already under way, at least in terms of procedures.

The process of building the Kosovo Opera and Ballet Theater began in October 2022, when the tender for the conceptual and detailed project, worth over 2.5 million euros, was opened. In 2023, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport designated an economic operator. The case was brought before the Procurement Review Body (PRB), which canceled the procurement activity in January 2024.

The ministry relaunched the tender in 2024, again selecting an economic operator, but the process faced further obstacles when one of the bidders filed a request for reconsideration. In October 2024, following the reconsideration, the ministry reaffirmed the same winner. However, additional complaints were filed, and the case returned to the PRB.

On January 20, the PRB partially approved the appeal while confirming that the September 2024 decision remains in force. As a result, a conceptual project has finally been approved. After the end of this odyssey, the Kosovo Opera and Ballet Theater is now closer to completion — but only if the ministry’s remaining procurement activities, particularly those related to the construction phase, proceed without further obstacles.

The construction of the MCAK is as complex as that of the Kosovo Opera and Ballet Theater. Since 2007, governments have pledged its construction, initiated procedures for its development and allocated sites. VV pushed the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport to advance this project, and the ministry established an initiating council in 2022, composed of artists and cultural workers, to draft the MCAK’s founding concept. The concept was completed in 2023.

Among other recommendations, the council proposed that the MCAK be housed in the former Rilindja printing house. The concept document presents a comprehensive vision for the museum, outlining programs and initiatives aimed at addressing the lack of space for contemporary art. The museum is expected to be completed in 2028, but it remains unclear when construction will begin.

In its program, VV pledged that with a new mandate, it would shift its approach to cultural heritage from physical protection to operationalization; however, it did not provide details on how this would be achieved.

During its current mandate, VV has taken steps that could indicate a future focus on cultural heritage and its infrastructural preservation. It has expanded the permanent and temporary lists of heritage assets, established the Inter-Institutional Coordination Group for the Protection of Cultural Heritage — bringing together representatives from various institutions to coordinate preservation efforts — and sponsored the law on the Central Inspectorate of Cultural Heritage. The impact of these initiatives remains to be seen.

Building on the legal framework, VV passed a single law on art and culture, fully or partially repealing several pre-existing laws, including the Law on Theaters, the Law on Cultural Institutions and the Law on Philharmonic, Ballet and Opera. This introduced important innovations but was also criticized for disregarding feedback, particularly concerns about the centralization of culture.

Among other provisions, it establishes a National Arts Council with advisory, selection and supervisory roles, whose members are appointed and dismissed by the government upon the minister of culture’s recommendation. It also creates a Council of the Independent Cultural Scene, responsible for proposing priorities, criteria and models for the ministry’s support schemes in the independent cultural sector.

Additionally, the law defines the status of independent artists. However, it remains unclear how VV plans to develop mechanisms to ensure financial support and recognition of the status in the implementation of this law.

VV will continue to support independent artists and resident ensembles but does not provide further details. VV has already started supporting independent cultural organizations and individuals through institutional grants, including three-year grants — an important opportunity for organizations to build and sustain themselves in an otherwise challenging environment.

However, accessing these grants has not been easy for the beneficiary entities. According to a report by the GAP Institute — an organization that conducts research and monitors the work of public institutions — the challenges in providing subsidies and grants by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport include, among others, the malfunctioning of the online system and the e-Kosova platform; the loss of applicant files and documents by the ministry; lack of transparency in the evaluation processes; negligence in closing advances from beneficiaries, and the lack of resources to monitor project implementation.

The ministry requires internal reform to build the capacity needed to lead further reforms. The digitalization of the application process can be seen as just the first step in this reform.

LDK

LDK’s program also focuses on physical infrastructure, specifically the construction of four buildings: the Kosovo Opera and Ballet Theater, a new building for the National Theater, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kosovo and the Museum of Peace and Resistance.

The leader of LDK and its candidate for prime minister, Lumir Abdixhiku, posted four images of what the buildings will look like on Facebook, accompanied by a caption that reads: “Let me address you and speak to you from the future.” The images of the buildings indeed create a sense of time travel to the future — structures that appear beautiful from the outside, but without any information about how they will be financed or operated.

Abdixhiku stated in an interview that these four facilities, along with other cultural institutions, will be situated in the same area, around where the University Clinical Center of Kosovo (UCCK) currently is.

According to Abdixhiku, all existing facilities in the UCCK yard will be demolished after a new hospital center is built elsewhere. The UCCK site will then be repurposed for the construction of a cultural complex.

Abdixhiku also stated that until the new hospital center is built, existing hospitals will continue to provide services in the current space. This implies that, until the new hospital center is fully constructed — construction is scheduled to take four years — the construction of the promised cultural facilities is unlikely to begin within the mandate.

This raises questions about the most substantial part of LDK’s program and the feasibility of these promises. Even without these contradictions, it’s difficult to separate the pledge from the context in which it comes in Kosovo, where a slow pace of construction prevails — especially in the fields of art and culture.

An example of this slow pace is the first facility in LDK’s program, the Kosovo Opera and Ballet Theater. This theater, which was budgeted at 25 million euros, is the main infrastructure project in the program and was named after Ibrahim Rugova.

This is a longstanding project for LDK. In 2009, the then-president from LDK, Fatmir Sejdiu, together with the then-prime minister from PDK, Hashim Thaçi, during their coalition government, laid the foundation stone for this theater.

In the 2025 elections, LDK kept the same name for the project but moved it to a new location, near the Youth Palace. Work is already underway on the new building for the Faculty of Mathematical and Natural Sciences at the original site at the University of Prishtina’s Technical Faculty.

In fact, the LDK program contradicts Abdixhiku’s suggestion regarding the location of the Kosovo Opera and Ballet Theater. Abdixhiku mentions the area around the UCCK, while the program mentions the area near the Youth Palace.

The construction of the Kosovo Opera and Ballet Theater, according to LDK’s program, will take four years to complete. LDK has not mentioned anything about the process for constructing the theater that has already been started by the current government.

LDK’s program states that everything will start from scratch. If the current government’s experiences are any indication, just starting the procurement procedures could take an entire mandate.

The second building is a new National Theater of Kosovo, which is expected to cost 10 million euros. LDK does not explain how it assessed the need for a completely new building for the National Theater; the existing one is already undergoing renovation.

The National Theater’s current building in the city center, has hosted the National Theater for over 50 years. LDK promises to repurpose the theater as one run by the city — but without providing details about what kind of theater it will host, what needs it will address or where the National Theater will operate in the meantime. Although the program does not mention it, Abdixhiku has separately mentioned that the National Theater will be located in the UCCK space.

The third building is the MCAK. Here too, LDK fails to mention that MCAK is already in progress and does not indicate what it will do with the work, human resources and financial resources that have been invested so far in this museum. Without further details, this promise risks a costly and time-consuming effort to start everything from scratch.

The fourth building, the Museum of Peace and Resistance, is also projected to cost 10 million euros. Through this museum, LDK aims to showcase the history of the 1990s, including political, humanitarian, social and cultural movements. LDK plans to focus the museum on the activities of Kosovo’s parallel institutions during that time.

LDK goes further to also promise the establishment of an archeology museum, which will cost 8 million euros, but without explaining what it means by this establishment. Will it build a museum, begin the establishment process or integrate it into another institution?

LDK also promises to establish a book center that will focus on stimulating literary creativity and reading, supporting creators through scholarships and literary grants and mediating translation activities. This promise’s vagueness makes it difficult to determine where and how LDK will build this center.

Regarding the legal infrastructure, LDK has not provided a concrete plan. Apart from stating that steps will be taken for the “final and successful conclusion of budgetary independence for cultural institutions, in order to guarantee the independence of competences in management,” it is unclear what these steps are or which legislation LDK will address.

The only concrete detail regarding legislation is the promise of a National Strategy for Culture, with a 10-year action plan. While it is mentioned, the program fails to provide any information about what this strategy will include or where it will focus.

PDK

PDK’s program is more balanced between physical infrastructure, legal infrastructure and engagement with some of the current challenges of the cultural and artistic scene.

PDK promises to create a strategy for culture, prioritizing the digitization of cultural content, institutional networking and the creation of a database for Kosovo’s creators. Through this strategy, PDK also aims to promote cultural tourism and the creative economy.

Although the strategy outlines a series of ambitious goals, it does not clarify what institutional networking entails, which content will be digitized or what kind of database will be created. Defining these elements would be valuable, as history has shown that merely drafting strategies does not lead to substantial progress. A more concrete strategy would also make it easier to monitor the fulfillment of this promise.

PDK places a strong emphasis on physical infrastructure in its program, promising to build the Gallery of Visual Arts. Based on the program’s description, this gallery does not appear to serve a different function from the National Gallery of Kosovo. It remains unclear whether PDK envisions a distinct concept for this new gallery or what will happen to the current building and function of the National Gallery.

PDK claims that the new Gallery of Visual Arts will feature “traditional, modern and contemporary art, including film, photography, animation, graphics and installations.” The program does not define what it considers traditional, modern or contemporary art. Additionally, PDK does not provide any details on the project’s cost.

As for the Kosovo Opera and Ballet Theater, PDK — which took part in laying the foundation stone with LDK back in 2009 — has now proposed something a little different and more ambitious: a joint location in a National Center for Performing Arts, where the National Theater, Opera, Philharmonic and Ballet will all be housed.

According to PDK, this center would also become a hub for festivals and other events. However, PDK does not explain the basis for this initiative to centralize all institutions in one location, nor give a concrete plan for this promise.

PDK has not provided any basic details, such as the cost of the project, its funding source, how the space will be allocated or how it will handle ongoing processes like the renovation of the National Theater and the design of the Opera and Ballet Theater.

PDK also promises to build a genocide memorial as a national tribute to the victims of genocide and war crimes in Kosovo. It does not offer any concrete information regarding the cost, timeline or operational framework of the project.

PDK has also promised to establish a restoration school, which will offer specialized programs for conserving historical objects and training professionals in traditional and modern restoration techniques. The program does not specify what level this school will operate at, whether it will be integrated into the education system or how and with what resources it will be built.

Regarding legal infrastructure, PDK promises to take legal measures but does not specify what they will entail. In a single sentence, it pledges to increase the budget for cultural institutions in the name of depoliticization, raise theater budgets and enrich the collections of libraries, museums and galleries. It briefly mentions giving special attention to municipal theaters, supporting the construction of cultural centers and investing in new facilities. However, it provides no specifics on what this attention involves or the purpose of these cultural centers.

AAK

AAK takes a lighter approach. Without much elaboration, it focuses on what already exists and what is already a responsibility — supporting artistic projects, one of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport’s core functions.

In fact, AAK’s entire program for arts and culture is directed to funding smaller-scale projects: “A fund will be created to support artistic projects of young women and talented youth, including exhibitions, concerts and cultural festivals, with the aim of financing 100 artistic projects each year.”

What can we learn from these election programs?

Culture in Kosovo is still largely perceived as a physical space, with political parties focusing more on ceremonially laying foundation stones than on the sector’s broader development. While addressing urgent infrastructure needs is important, political programs rarely go beyond this. Most parties propose constructing new buildings, despite the fact that existing ones remain unused, waiting to be functionalized or renovated to provide proper conditions for artists and cultural workers.

Moreover, there is often no connection between existing infrastructure, ongoing projects and proposed developments. This reflects a common tendency among politicians in Kosovo: starting everything from scratch while failing to address what will happen to past investments like time, money or human resources.

The near-exclusive focus on construction has overshadowed the needs of cultural workers in existing institutions, as well as those of independent artists and civil society organizations. The independent cultural scene receives little attention, and there is still no clear vision of how the next government will support culture beyond state institutions. While these institutions are important, they are only one part of the engine driving artistic and cultural development in the country.

Meanwhile, laws and strategies remain a pledge, failing to give anything concrete — the bare minimum. So far, art has been governed by a mountain of laws, but without any actions to follow, those laws and strategies have never truly addressed the challenges those in the arts experience.

Feature Image: Majlinda Hoxha / K2.0

Political parties' pledges on arts and culture

K2.0 analyzes election programs

Aulonë Kadriu

Political parties' pledges on arts and culture

K2.0 analyzes election programs

Aulonë Kadriu