The Tivat Cultural Center was formed in 1970, by merging the activities of the then City Library and Reading Room, the "Radnik" Cinema and the Local Amateur Theater. In the 1980s and until the first half of the 1990s (1983-1994), cultural functions were also organized through the INDOK Center Tivat: "Center for Culture, Information and Documentation" when Radio Tivat and a unit for photo and film documentation were added to the existing form (during that period, the Center also included the FA "Boka" and the "Jadran" a cappella group), and after that this Public Institution united: the National Library and Reading Room, production of theater and documentary film works, the Mediterranean Theater Festival "Purgatorija", publishing and regular program and repertoire activities, which included; music concerts, literary events, reception and organization of guest programs, promotions and provision of technical services and support to numerous users of the spatial capacities of the Center and the city as a whole.
In all previous organizational forms of the Center, from its foundation to the current moment, there is a recognizable effort to unite, in the most rational and operational way possible, the achievements and traditions of cultural development, spatial, technical and financial capabilities of the community in one institutional place. Thus, we also recognize the characteristic phases in the development of this institution.
It was formed for the needs and on the basis of the very pronounced mass and ideologically based work of numerous amateur societies in the area of the municipality of Tivat, which already at that time inherited significant previous legacies. This primarily refers to the union Cultural and Artistic Society "Bratstvo" (1945-1954), its music, choir and theater sections, then the tradition and activities of the "Musical and Educational Society" Tivat, founded in 1909, numerous tambourine and mandolin orchestras throughout the area of today's Municipality, significant theater activity, the beginnings of which we can also trace back to 1926 at the latest, the tradition of showing films, dating back to the 1920s, and the like. (In addition to “Bratsva”, in the Tivat area, after World War II, the following also operated: KUD “Sloga” in the Krtole area, “Josip Marković” in D. Latvija, “Naprijed” and “Ilija Marković” in Gornja Lastva, “Budćnost” in Gradiošnica, “Jedinstvo” in Lepetani.)
In the period from 1945 until the end of the 1970s, for example, in these societies and the Local Amateur Theater, founded in 1954, according to data from the Center’s archives, as many as 38 theater performances were realized, some of which (“Pučina” Hvar, 1958) won awards at the Federal (Yugoslav) Festivals of Amateur Creativity. Municipal Festivals were organized regularly, and in addition to theatrical productions, the quality of music, especially choral ("Jadran" Tivat and the choir in Donja Lastva), stood out, which, following the traditions of the "Jadranska straža" choir from 1925, also earned significant recognition at the republican and state levels ("Radnički omladinski chor" Belgrade 1948). Tivat also stands out as the city with the largest number of organizations of the "Meeting of Brass Bands of Montenegro", a unique manifestation that, despite its strong tradition, has not experienced any renewal initiatives to this day. Significant attention was also paid to film art. Building on the traditions of the “Ton Kina”, which began showing films occasionally in Tivat in the mid-1920s, and had a regular repertoire in the “DomaJadranske straže” hall in the 1930s, “Kino Radnik” was formed, which showed films in the hall of the “Sokolski dom” (after the war, DTV Partizan), i.e. the newly built Radnički dom “Gracija Petković” which was built on the same site as the already mentioned “DomaJadranske straže” building that was destroyed in the war. Since 1961, the Foto Kino Klub, Mladost, has been operating very successfully in Tivat, in the 1970s and 1980s the best of its kind in Montenegro and one of the best in Yugoslavia, with outstanding results in the promotion and development of photo and amateur filmmaking.
The Workers' Home "Gracija Petković" and the Summer Stage in Tivat, built in 1963, were the main facilities for the implementation of cultural programs and projects in the first phase of the Center's development. In the area of the Municipality of Tivat, the so-called "Culture Centers" (of local communities) also operated, in Radovići, Gradišnica, Donja and Gornja Lastva and Lepetani, which were basically equipped to hold simpler programs (a hall with a stage), and the offer was supplemented by the JNA club in Seljanovo, and the Summer Stage in Donja Lastva, built a little later, which also had the capabilities to implement programs. Their main purpose and role were to provide spatial and technical conditions for the work of very large and active amateur societies and sections, to gather the olmadina and to overall develop and nurture the socialist social order.
In parallel, the organization of hosting guest programs, performances, concerts, and events was constantly improved, with the Summer Stage facility at the forefront, which from the very beginning was a meeting place for the highest quality programs of its time, starting from the “Igar Juga” which brought together the most important theatrical productions and theaters of the SFRY, to concerts, folklore ensembles, pop and rock groups, the “Velika Revue Jadrana”, and finally musicals and operettas, such as “Rhapsody in Blue” by the Small Theater in Sarajevo or “Male Florami” by the Croatian National Theatre in Split.
The second phase of the development of the Tivat Cultural Center, which coincides with the period after the catastrophic earthquake of 1979, in which there was significant damage to existing cultural facilities, along with their renovation, is characterized by the Center's increasingly noticeable participation in creating the image of Tivat as a recognizable tourist destination, where the cultural offer, by force of circumstances and by necessity, comes out of the facilities and institutions, and events are held on beaches, squares and streets. "Beach festivals" are the most characteristic product of the summer cultural offer (there used to be about a dozen of them during one tourist season), and the participation of Tivat residents and amateurs from the surrounding area, their basic program content, to which the organizational and technical capacities of the institution are subordinated. Tivat, e.g. During this period, it became the first city in Montenegro to have a removable stage, sound system and lighting for the implementation of programs on the ground.
During this period, in the early eighties, the renovated building of the medieval Buća-Luković summer house was put into use for cultural purposes (as a Gallery and Museum Collection in the making), which brought about a special momentum and qualitative changes in the artistic life of the city, the beginnings of which, when it comes to exhibition activities, date back to the first Art Salon in 1976. The Tivat Association of Fine Artists was formed in 1983.
The third and current phase in the development of the Center dates back to the mid-1990s, with the renovation of the Workers' Home and the Great Hall of the Center for Culture, the Summer Stage (2001) and the orientation of the management structures towards professional theater production.
