Tutti Fund #solidarity in action 09.10. - 09.12.2026

The Tutti Fund is an independent solidarity initiative aimed at strengthening and safeguarding the diverse arts and cultural landscape. Emerging from the TUNED Network for Contemporary Classical Music of the German Federal Cultural Foundation - and following ideas that were developed during a workshop in Köthen in autumn 2024 - creative managers from the network joined forces on their own initiative to discuss the concept of a voluntary 1% contribution from cultural institutions to a common Tutti Fund.

The goal is to establish a mechanism that can provide quick and unbureaucratic support in times of need, while also sending a clear signal against anti-cultural political decisions.

• What could a fair contribution model look like?

• Which application and distribution scenarios are conceivable?

• How can we create societal added value without relieving cultural policy of its responsibilities?

Want to get involved?

These and other questions are discussed in regular online sessions. We meet once a month - new collaborators are always welcome!

Next meeting: Monday, June 1, 6–7 pm
Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81542683359?pwd=vK7opIBzY8r7d23ylEsIHacjB5qjva.1
Contact: tuttifonds@gmail.com

We will also be present at the German Orchestra Conference in Berlin on Sunday, May 10, 3:00–4:30 pm. Come by and join the discussion!

Initiators

Amadeus Templeton (TONALi gGmbH), Franziska Ritter (1:1 CONCERTS e.V.), Johannes Leuschner (Beethovenfest Bonn), Julian Rieken, Saskia Bladt (tō), Ilka Seifert, Aurelia Georgiou, Johanna-Leonore Dahlhoff (Bridges Kammerorchester), Auli Eberle, Thomas Weißschnur, Rose Hunt, Lorenz Blaumer (Stegreif Orchester), Philipp Krechlak (Deutscher Orchestertag), Tim Vollmann (Musaik – Grenzenlos musizieren e.V.), Rebecca Zimmermann (Stiftung Kulturzukunft Bayern / alma change) and others.

How and why the Tutti Fund started

Political developments in Germany and worldwide give cause for concern. Right-wing and neoliberal ideologies are gaining influence, and authoritarian governments are increasingly interfering with the freedom of arts and culture. The right to freedom of expression and cultural participation is being restricted - often gradually, sometimes openly.

Spaces that should allow openness, diversity, doubt, and contradiction are increasingly constrained: boundaries are drawn, belonging is defined, and alternatives are sanctioned and censored. In the United States, artworks are being removed for being too critical; in Hungary, the independent cultural scene has largely been disempowered. Germany, too, is seeing a rise in attacks on artists, festivals, and institutions. By the federal elections of 2029 at the latest, illiberal forces could further restrict artistic freedom, tie funding to political loyalty, and determine what qualifies as “worthy of support.” A cultural policy that replaces freedom with ideology undermines the foundations of an open society. Art is not an ornament - it is a litmus test of democracy.

Already, the resources that enable art are being politically curtailed in some places. Public funding is shrinking, budgets are being cut, and projects are being canceled. These cuts are not merely administrative - they are political signals that say: culture is expendable, participation is secondary. Free and critical art is increasingly conditional.

Yet culture must not be worn down by competition. Funding systems that pit artists against one another destroy a sense of common purpose. When scarcity forces everyone into survival mode, there is no energy left for a free and diverse cultural landscape.

At the simulation workshop during the TUNED Ideas Festival in Bochum 2025, participants tested different allocation procedures in a playful format. Here, an independent citizens’ council discusses the distribution of €50,000.

Solidarity as Cultural Resilience

Solidarity is not a state - it is an action, a verb. Those who merely “are in solidarity” remain passive; those who “practice solidarity” take action, share, and intervene. Solidarity is not expressed in words or program texts, but in doing.

This is where the Tutti Fund comes in: as a proposal to not only call for solidarity in the cultural sector, but to structurally anchor it. The fund understands solidarity as an activity - an active sharing, opening, and redistribution of resources, power, and responsibility. It is about building communities, enabling diversity, and remaining open across boundaries.

Solidarity emerges where actors are willing to give up privileges, question power structures, and concretely redistribute resources - even when it is uncomfortable. The Tutti Funds is not a relief fund, but a collective instrument to reshape agency and responsibility. It lays the groundwork for securing artistic freedom, cultural diversity, and social participation in the long term.