Janet publishes report on Berlin’s cultural policy

On Thursday, September 24, Janet’s report on Berlin’s Cultural Policy in a Comparative Perspective was launched in Berlin. The event was held at Berlin’s Hertie School of Governance and featured a panel discussion with the State Secretary for Culture, representatives from Berlin’s independent art scene, museums directors as well as the Dean of Hertie School. The report is written in German and can be downloaded here. The discussion (only in German) was recorded and can be heard at Inforadio here.

Synopsis of the report:

The report is based on document analysis and compares Berlin’s cultural policy development in the last decade with London, New York, Paris and Toronto. It demonstrates:

• how cultural policies in these cities have become too much focused on cultural consumption instead of production and created a lock-in effect in their budgets, as the focus on big arts institutions leaves little leeway for artists support (in Berlin more than 95 percent of cultural funding goes into big institutions) and new policy initiatives,
• how cultural policy in cities has to engage more with urban planning departments, as these cities support regeneration agendas and subsequently displace groups such as artists, independent cultural producers and craft-based services for culture and creative industries from the inner-city areas (e.g. in 2014 in New York more than 53.000 artists applied for a newly build studio space with 89 arts studios),
• how we witness a new wave of political organisation among artists who push for new funding structures and for a new cultural governance in these cities (e.g. Toronto’s billboard tax, New York’s initiative for a cultural plan and Berlin’s ‘bedroom tax’ for hotels) and
• how these cities insufficiently address new artistic practices (e.g. interdisciplinary art forms, socially engaged art forms and artistic research) in their funding structures and the ongoing digitalisation.