Tbilisi culture institutions, projects to benefit from increased city financing

Culture institutions and projects run in Georgia's capital will start benefiting from an increased financial support from the Tbilisi City Hall, mayor Kakha Kaladze said on Wednesday.

Kaladze told reporters the city hall would begin allocating a larger budget to events, programmes and organisations of the culture scene, in a bid to help them overcome challenges of the COVID-19 crisis.

"[We] held a number of meetings with representatives of the culture field to hear about their concerns. [The culture budget] will be increased in order for us to be able to support different representatives of the field and enable them to overcome the pandemic period without major pressure," Kaladze announced.

Lending land and building space - currently owned by the city hall municipality - to entertainment venues, and starting a series of open-air music performances were two of the examples of the city-wide support for culture Kaladze mentioned in his comments.

The Tbilisi mayor also added a "whole host of programmes" were being launched by the city hall in support of the city's culture scene.