"Culture for all!" 03. October 2023

#interview #thecircleofgiving

Providing access to art and culture without barriers has always been a matter close to the heart of the 1:1 CONCERTS projects, right from the very beginning. Admission to our concerts is always free. We aim to establish a cycle of giving / donations: venues and hosts provide space and time and many volunteers join and support. The voluntary donations of the listeners are used to support regional fundraising partners.

For our Potsdam 1:1 CONCERTS premiere in July 2023 as part of the "Face the Music" Festival of the Kammerakademie Postdam, we collected donations for Kultür Potsdam. The 1:1 LISTENERS donated altogether 585 Euros. We are very grateful for this! Our artistic director Franziska has talked with Kristin Geschwäntner, the project manager of Kultür Potsdam, about our collaboration.

Kristin, what exactly is Kultür Potsdam all about?

We want each and everyone in Potsdam to be able to participate in the cultural and social life of the city. Many people have not been able to afford culture for a long time due to low income. As a result of the inflation, the costs continue to rise. Unfortunately, culture is no longer affordable for everyone. And this is exactly where the project comes in.

How exactly do you do that? And how many people have you already helped to participate in the cultural life of Potsdam?

To become a guest, interested parties must actively register with Kultür Potsdam and prove their income. This is easily done with a flyer or via a form on our website. After registration, we enter the guest in our database. The database is the heart of our work. It links the guests' interests with the events and makes suggestions according to a rotation principle; it automatically books and sends out orders and guest lists. That may sound a bit complicated, but it all happens automatically.

So the database suggests that a guest is interested in a certain event, e.g. a play or a concert. We call this guest and ask if he or she would like to attend the suggested event. Right. We call the guest, talk about the suggested event, but we can also offer alternative events, we give advice and discuss the schedule for the visit. If there is interest, we book the event and the guest's name is on the guest list.

Kultür Potsdam turned 10 this year. We have now arranged a total of over 27,100 places for events. We work with over 270 partners, i.e. cultural partners and social institutions. Directly or with the support of social institutions, we reach over 12,000 people in Potsdam with this offer.

Initiatives like Kultür Potsdam exist all over Germany. In the big cities of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Düsseldorf, but also in smaller ones like Lübeck, Dresden, Leipzig, Oldenburg, Regensburg and many others. We are organised in the Federal Association for Cultural Participation. So far, all initiatives together have arranged about 400,000 places for cultural events and made about 45,000 cultural guests happy nationwide.

Wow, that's really impressive. What an amazing contribution! So it has been for a long time that you have been cooperating with the Kammerakademie Potsdam, whose musicians also played at the 1:1 CONCERTS for the fundraising appeal. What is your connection with the orchestra?

The Kammerakademie was one of the first cultural partners. Since 2013, the Kammerakademie Kultür has been offering the gift of a few pleasant hours to a lot of people. The enthusiasm is great every time! A little time-out from everyday life, time to enjoy and recharge.

Personally, I didn't like classical concerts when I was a teenager. Now I appreciate them a lot. The Kammerakademie really inspires me with its diversity and creativity, I like their approach towards the future and how they deal with sustainability issues in music. Also, they have wonderful programmes for children. I have two sons and they both enjoy concerts or music workshops like the ones at the "Face the Music" festival. With their self-made instruments they still give concerts in their living room.  

We were very pleased that you supported us on site with the implementation of the 1:1 CONCERTS. How did you experience the transformation of the audience?

It was very important for me to be there. I was so curious and wanted to meet you and see what was happening. The day was a wonderful experience. You welcome people with open arms and hearts. Our meeting felt like a joyful reunion. And immediately I was taken away into a special atmosphere, very calm and thoughtful, a bit mysterious. In any case, detached from the before in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The guests came, they were excited, anticipating, but also waiting, perhaps also sceptical, because they didn't know what exactly was going to happen. But after the very personal concerts, the guests came back beaming, enchanted, joyful, even with tears in their eyes. Everyone was touched and moved by the unique experience. I found it wonderful that almost all the guests thanked us with a letter or shared their thoughts. That was special, because how often do we write letters nowadays? Thank you very much for these wonderful gifts and your commitment. 

585 euros have been donated by the 1:1 listeners altogether - do you already know what exactly you are doing with the donations? How can the donations continue to have an effect in the sense of the giving cycle?

Thank you, dear donors! The association Neue Kulturwege, which is behind the Kultür Potsdam project, is a non-profit organisation. We are dependent on funding and donations. Donations secure our work and are urgently needed, for example, in order to be able to submit further funding applications, for which a financial contribution must usually be made.

But the 585 Euros donated by the audience are an important financial contribution to the financing of a new software for mediation. Without software that is specifically tailored to our needs, as mentioned above, we cannot do our work. Therefore, some initiatives of the Federal Association have joined forces to have a new software developed that covers all needs and is therefore very complex. There is no standard solution.  

We want to continue to convey art and culture safely and responsibly in the future. After all, our Kultür guests and partners also confirm again and again how important cultural and social participation is and report on their cultural experiences. Every support helps to make a brighter future possible for everyone.

Do you have any further plans or projects? Where do you see yourselves in the future?

We have many ideas and plans, which of course all revolve around cultural participation. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Kultür Potsdam in August this year, Neue Kulturwege e.V. gave the city of Potsdam, those interested in culture and those involved in culture a new website: www.eintrittfrei-potsdam.de - here we collect free events in Potsdam and give an overview of the broad cultural landscape that can be experienced - without admission. The project is funded by the German Postcode Lottery. 
For the coming year, we have applied for further funding to be able to present even more people in Potsdam with beautiful experiences. We want to bring cultural experiences directly to people.