Start of Kulturlabor Freiburg

To support sustainability transformations in the arts and culture sector, the “real-world lab” format has been transferred to the cultural sector in a cooperation between Freiburg’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the Karlsruhe Transformation Center.
Logo Kulturlabor Freiburg
Source: City of Freiburg, Kulturamt

What does a sustainable, future-oriented promotion of art and culture look like? This question is being addressed by the City of Freiburg’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the Karlsruhe Transformation Center (KAT) in the form of a “Kulturlabor” (culture lab), created specifically for this purpose. In a multi-layered participatory process that is intended to result in a realignment of Freiburg’s cultural policy and funding, production and operations in the arts and culture sector are scrutinized and necessary changes tested and explored.

Addressing the issue of sustainability in the field of art and culture is not only limited to a cognitive and linguistic level, but also involves a very practical approach in the form of experiments.

The “real-world lab” format has been transferred to cultural practice – and further developed – with the KAT as the leading partner. Thus, the culture lab consists of three sections:

  1. The “experimental space”, where 10 groups of committed art and culture professionals from all disciplines try out a more sustainable art and culture business in Freiburg with scientific support.
  2. The “culture code”, in which a future-oriented, sustainable promotion of art and culture in Freiburg shall be written down by fall 2023.
  3. The reflexive “discourse space” that mediates between the experiments and the emerging code. This is also where external impulses are introduced and important topics are put up for debate.

The culture lab was officially launched in July 2022 after a planning phase of several months and will be in operation at least until fall 2023. End date? Still open. (17.08.2022)

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