Culture for the Future 2021
Cultural Policy after Corona

It’s election time in Germany!

With the programme for International Cultural Relations, Polis180 wants to support young people’s ideas and demands for a sustainable and resilient cultural policy in Germany and Europe. We want for these voices to be heard in the public debate leading up to the 2021 German Federal elections.

Culture is so much more to us than just entertainment or another economic sector. As Richard von Weizsäcker once put it, „Culture is not a luxury that we can afford or do away with, but the spiritual ground that ensures our very inner ability to survive“. Hardly any sector has suffered more from the consequences of the pandemic than the cultural and creative industries and their circa 1.8 million employees.

With the project Culture for the Future 2021, we want to think and analyse cultural policies during the crisis and provide an overview of the party programmes and positions on cultural policy leading up to the German federal elections in September 2021.

Join us and contribute to Culture for the Future 2021!

Phase 1: Europe-wide mapping & conversation

The first phase of our project consists in starting a conversation with artists and cultural workers across Europe to learn how they are doing during the pandemic, and creating an overview of cultural policy measures in various European countries.

We are launching a Europe-wide discussion about cultural policies, about the impact of local initiatives and of cultural governance decision-making. We are deliberately looking for best practices and discussing with you, cultural workers across Europe, what a more resilient cultural policy would look like. We want to include the perspective of those affected and make their voices heard, hence we designed this mapping mostly as a series of interviews with artists. 

The result of these conversations is collected in diverse formats and presented in the interactive map: We started publishing content in Mai – with first contributions from Ukraine and Ireland. But this mapping is a work in progress, we are updating it as we continue having conversations with diverse stakeholders. 

Do you have a special interest or expertise in the cultural sector of a European country? Do you know artists or creatives who would like to raise their voice and contribute to the mapping? Get in touch with us and be part of the European-mapping of cultural policy initiatives during the pandemic!

Phase 2: Election programs check for the German federal elections 2021

In May and June we will conduct participatory workshops to envision how a cultural policy could look like in the 2020s and check the cultural policy programmes of different political parties during the election campaign. We will develop recommendations for a resilient and sustainable cultural policy in Germany, that will subsequently be published as a list of demands.

Would you like to help plan and organise the participatory workshops?

Phase 3: We reach out to decision-makers with our demands

In order for our demands to have a real impact, we will bring them to the attention of politicians: starting in June, we will discuss our policy recommendations with decision-makers through open discussion events before the federal elections.

We will thereby bring greater attention to the topic of cultural policy and its social importance. 

We will ultimately share our publication in our German and international network.

Our Team

Behind Culture for the Future 2021 is a diverse team of volunteers who are committed to democratic and transparent governance of arts and culture across borders, and have initiated this project. With us, you will find a motivated team and space for the implementation of your own ideas!