State administration in the field of traditional folk culture is carried out by the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic. From an organisational point of view, the area of traditional culture is incorporated under the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Culture of disadvantaged population groups within the Cultural Heritage Section, under which the following organisations of the Ministry of Culture of the SR perform their activities and receive contributions from the State Budget – the National Centre of Culture, the Slovak Folk Art Ensemble (SĽUK), LÚČNICA – The Slovak State Artistic Ensemble and the ÚĽUV – Centre for Folk Art Production (and also the Slovak Central Observatory in Hurbanovo). The area of museum, galleries, libraries and monuments belongs to two different divisions of the Section.
The Slovak Republic has successfully fulfilled the terms of several significant international UNESCO documents – the Convention on the Protection of Non-Material Cultural Heritage, the Convention on the Protection and Support of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and Recommendations for the Protection of Traditional Culture and Folklore, related to the issues of traditional folk culture, by means of which it undertook to implement the recommendations incorporated in them including the submission of reports on adopted measures and the state of their fulfilment.
In January 2007 a specific advisory body of the Minister of Culture – the Council for the Protection of Non-material Cultural Heritage – was established, its main role being to outline conceptual, organisational and legislative measures in the field of non-material cultural heritage. The elaboration of the Draft of the Concept of Care for Traditional Folk Culture constituted one of the first tasks of the Council. The Concept was approved on 8 August 2007 by means of Resolution No 666. The goal of the Concept of Care for Traditional Folk Culture was to create such conditions and instruments for the care of traditional folk culture, so that it could be preserved in its natural environment and so that it would not disappear from the cultural awareness of citizens of Slovakia and thus be institutionally protected and accessible for present and future generations. The Concept resolved the co-ordinated measures aiming at the identification, inventory, documentation, archiving, protection and development of traditional folk culture. It placed emphasis on the support of education, methodological guidance and strengthening of international co-operation in this field. It studied the issues of more effective dissemination of information and the promotion of traditional folk culture in wider cultural and social contexts. The basic aim of the Concept was to change the view of traditional folk culture and to establish concrete instruments and strategic tasks in order to achieve the formulated goals. The fulfilment of individual tasks and objectives was implemented through the Co-ordination Centre of Traditional Folk Culture established in April 2008 within the framework of the National Centre of Culture. Since 2010, it has operated as a separate organizational unit within the Slovak Folk Art Ensemble with the current name the Centre for Traditional Folk Culture.
On 7 January 2015, the Government adopted the Resolution no. 12 – a new conceptual document entitled The Concept of Preservation of Traditional Folk Culture until 2020 based on its previous concept. Main goals are to create conditions for the protection, promotion and development of traditional folk culture as part of the intangible cultural heritage, preservation of existing phenomena and manifestations of intangible cultural heritage, creation of a comprehensive information system of intangible cultural heritage with emphasis on traditional folk culture, systematic collection of data on the traditional folk culture, their processing, archiving and spreading, and application of traditional folk culture in the process of developing local and regional culture, but also in other areas (eg. in the fields of creative industries and tourism). One task of the Government’s Concept is to create the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Slovakia and the Representative List of programmes, Projects and Activities that best reflect the objectives of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Nominations for inscription in the list are assessed by an expert committee that is an advisory body of the Ministery of Culture. The following objects were inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Slovakia in previous years: Fujara – The Musical Instrument and Its Music (2010), The Radvaň Fair, “Aušus” services of Spania dolina miners, Music of Terchová, Traditional Manual Bell Ringing and the Bell Founders’ Tradition in Slovakia (2011), Čičmany Ornaments, Salamander of Banská Štiavnica, Traditional puppetry in Slovakia and Bagpipes and Bagpipe Music Traditions in Slovakia (2013). Within the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the Slovak Republic has currently registered Fujara – The Musical Instrument and Its Music, and also Music From Terchová. As part of the approval process for registration Bagpipes Music Culture is applying and within the international nomination there is Slovak and Czech puppetry.