Cuts in NRW’s cultural sector become concrete – independent dance scene and film culture particularly affected
17 December 2024
Lorenz Deutsch: “We need more transparency in cultural funding.”
At the end of the year, the fears of the cultural scene are coming true. Several sections within the umbrella organisation Kulturrat NRW report that, contrary to announcements to the contrary, state funding will also be cut in some areas, in some cases drastically and at short notice.
The international dance fair nrw, which has been organised by nrw landesbuero tanz since 1994, will no longer be funded by the state of NRW for the year 2025/26. After 30 years, the Ministry of Culture and Science intends to withdraw its support for the upcoming edition. After fifteen years, the dance network International Dance Artist Service (IDAS NRW) will also no longer receive funding at short notice from January, jeopardising the extensive support for dance artists from NRW. The cancellation of IDAS NRW and the state’s withdrawal from the dance fair will not only weaken the structural promotion of dance, but also make international exchange more difficult in the long term. The dance state of NRW is in danger of losing its international appeal. However, dance in the region is also affected: the “Tanz OWL” project, an inter-municipal cooperation between the cities of Bielefeld, Gütersloh, Herford, Paderborn, Minden and Detmold, will also be cancelled from 2025. The rural area of East Westphalia is thus losing a flagship project.
In the performing arts, the Cheers for Fears initiative, a network for young artists that has been supporting students on their path to professionalisation for ten years and also runs a festival, will also be cut. This means that an important structural project will be cancelled. An interesting detail: Three projects from the field of dance and theatre are being cut here, although the title subgroup for the independent dance and theatre scene is actually growing by around 400,000 euros in the draft budget. So where is the pressure coming from?
The film culture scene is also affected: the NRW Film Culture Network will have to make do with almost 15 per cent less funding from next month. This means the cancellation of all events and a reduction in staff hours – which is particularly crippling for the already underrepresented sector. The office was also informed of this just a few days ago.
The Regional Culture Programme NRW (RKP) reports an impending cut in project funding for networked culture of around 30% or €1.4 million compared to the previous year for the 2025 funding year. These cuts will affect important projects in rural areas, where the RKP provides important impetus by promoting inter-municipal and interdisciplinary cooperation and makes a significant contribution to the local cultural infrastructure.
In addition, there is information that scholarships and project funding are to be reorganised across all sectors – as early as the end of the coming financial year. The Ministry of Culture has not provided any information on the details of the planned reorganisation. However, the first changes are already becoming apparent: Museums and art associations, for example, can only submit their applications now, with a deadline of the end of January, instead of the usual end of October. This means that there is hardly any prospect of realising projects in the first half of 2025.
The overall picture is one of great lack of transparency. There is great concern in the cultural scene that there will be further cuts. After the promised increases failed to materialise, it was emphasised that the cultural budget would not have to be cut. However, it is now clear from the concrete funding decisions that cuts and cancellations are being made. It remains unclear whether the decisions are conceptually or financially justified.
The Kulturrat NRW is calling for a comprehensible concept of the extent to which savings are necessary and according to which criteria they are made. And we call for administrative processes that allow funding recipients to plan with certainty. This requires dialogue. For the development of appropriate funding structures, we propose a coordination body that develops solutions that are as lean as possible but also target-oriented, with the involvement of funding administration levels and intermediaries as well as funding recipients. The Kulturrat NRW is available as a dialogue partner.
Lorenz Deutsch, Chairman
Contact: E-mail: presse@kulturrat-nrw.de / Phone: 0221-178 98209
