Thea Tsulukiani appointed Minister of Culture, Sport and Youth
Tsulukiani most recently worked as the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Science and Culture. Screenshot from Georgian Public Broadcaster video.
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Share Georgia's former justice minister Thea Tsulukiani has been appointed Minister of Culture, Sport and Youth and will lead the reorganised state body after its separation from the Ministry of Education and Science.
Revealed by the government in the run-up to the reorganisation in recent weeks, the appointment has now been formally confirmed after Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili's signing earlier today. The minister is expected to commence her work on the new position on Monday.
Tsulukiani most recently worked as the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Science and Culture. She previously served as the justice minister between 2012-2020.
The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia has been separated into two entities: the Ministry of Education and Science, and the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth.
The move reverses the 2018 unification of the Ministry of Culture and Sport with the Ministry of Education and Science, which itself followed the 2017 merger of the culture and sport agencies under the "flexible state apparatus" strategy initiated by the then-PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili.
Former PM Giorgi Gakharia said in December the merger of the culture ministry with the other agencies had been a "mistake", adding the "invaluable cultural heritage" of the country required management by a separate entity.
The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Georgia has again been divided into two government agencies - the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, as it was before former Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze merged the ministries in 2018.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia has stated that all technical work has been completed to separate the Ministries of Education and Culture.
Georgian state cultural agencies' efforts in keeping up cultural projects and activities during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown have drawn praise from the cultural policies platform Compendium.
The Government of Georgia is undergoing a major reshuffle, where several ministries will be merged. The changes will be approved at the nearest government meeting after which the new Cabinet will be presented to Parliament for a vote of confidence.
Georgia's newly appointed Minister of Culture, Sport and Youth Thea Tsulukiani has said the institution will look to support production of culture projects promoting "love for homeland and freedom" in young generations.
Georgia's newly appointed Minister of Culture, Sport and Youth Thea Tsulukiani has revealed plans to restore the Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts as part of a reorganisation of the Georgian National Museum network.
The Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth of Georgia has launched an initiative to collect information on professionals of restoration and conservation of cultural heritage monuments, hoping to "revive" the tradition by creating a registry of certified craftspeople.
The restoration of Shalva Amiranashvili Fine Arts Museum in Tbilisi will involve State Academy of Arts students, while the venue will also see artwork removed from its collections in 2010 returned to its vaults, following initiatives of the culture ministry under the recently appointed minister Thea Tsulukiani.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has appointed two new Vice-Prime Ministers earlier today in the government session. Georgian Minister of Culture, Sport and Youth Tea Tsulukiani and Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia Levan Davitashvili will take the post starting today.
Researching and preserving monuments of cultural heritage in Georgia and abroad, developing a structured cultural education, and supporting artists and institutions of creative industries with programmes were revealed as part of plans of the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth for the next decade, presented by minister Thea Tsulukiani in Tbilisi on Wednesday.
A number of authors from the longlist of this year's Litera Prize, one of two major literary awards in Georgia, have dropped out of the contest in protest, citing appointment of a jury member from the culture ministry and the recent incident involving minister Thea Tsulukiani with a local reporter.
All but one judges of this year's Litera Prize in Georgia have resigned in protest, joining criticism of a jury member being appointed to the panel from the culture ministry, while nominees in the longlist of the literature prize have asked the ministry to remove its appointment.
Publishing house Intelekti has removed all of its books from the Litera Prize nominations, one of the two major literary awards in Georgia, following a protest wave against Georgian Culture Minister Tea Tsulukiani, who appointed a staff member of the culture ministry to the jury of the contest. Participants of the literary competition started exiting from the Litera Prize due to a recent incident in which Tea Tsulukiani took away a microphone from an opposition-minded TV channel Mtavari Arkhi reporter.
A new study by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information, a Georgian-based non-governmental organisation, shows “weakened ability” of non-governmental groups to monitor finances and corruption risks at the country’s sports federations under Sport Minister Thea Tsulukiani, the IDFI said on Friday.
Georgia’s Equestrian Sports Federation has obtained new horses for the first time in 30 years after purchases made by the Sport Ministry in support of the national body, revealed on Monday.