Albania’s Arts and Culture programme will receive a budget of 3.37 billion lek in 2027, with around 1.5 billion lek, or 45% of the total, earmarked for public investment, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sports Blendi Gonxhja announced.

The draft budget also allocates 495.9 million lek to artistic projects, marking a 21.7% increase compared with 2026. The funding aims to expand artistic production and support independent artists and cultural organisations.

Support for national public cultural institutions will also increase. Their initial annual funding is expected to exceed 200 million lek in 2027, up from 47.3 million lek in January 2024, representing an increase of more than 322%.

The institutions have also reported higher attendance and activity. During the first eight months of 2026, they welcomed more than 206,000 spectators and generated 32.4 million lek in ticket revenue. They staged 771 performances and premieres, including 73 new productions. Compared with the same period in 2025, premieres increased by 52.1%, attendance by 6.9% and ticket revenue by 90.5%.

The government will also continue supporting independent artistic production through the National Cultural Grants Programme. In 2026, the artistic and cultural project fund reached 377.7 million lek, up from 51 million lek in 2014. A separate 25-million-lek fund, established in 2026 for artistic production within public institutions, has supported around 90 artists and creators.

Meanwhile, the International Cultural Weeks programme will continue in 2027, following five years of activity involving 30 countries, more than 1,400 events, 2,200 international artists and over one million participants. The CulturAlb initiative will also promote Albanian artists abroad. So far, it has supported 909 artists through 160 events in 18 countries.

Investment priorities for 2027 include completing and opening two major projects: the National Gallery of Arts and the National Cultural Centre for Children and Puppet Theatre. The 2027–2029 investment programme will also focus on modernising the infrastructure and technical capacities of cultural institutions.