Symposium 2016: What Does Cultural Communication Need? Production Conditions for Communication Activities in the Independent Performing Arts Community

Cultural communication is currently proving itself to be a working environment that is in a constant state of change. Cultural communication is also opening up space to the artists and culture makers working within the independent performing arts community in which they can devote themselves to the search for new practices and formats. Everyone wants to communicate: But who is meant to initiate, conduct and pay for communication activities within the independent performing arts community? Which personnel, organizational, logistical and financial framework conditions do we need in order to ensure high-quality communication offers within the independent performing arts community? Is there a job market for cultural communicators within the independent performing arts community?  If so, what is it like? How would it be in an ideal world?

Together with partners, all interested members of the community and guests, will explore the conditions for communication within the independent performing arts community in much greater detail. Various working models for communication formats within dance and theater productions in Berlin will be presented, discussed in work groups and enriched with examples from practical experiences.

Schedule of Events:

11:00 am: Opening greeting

11:15 am: Introductory presentations What should the job market for cultural communicators in the independent performing arts community be like? A Utopian Attempt (working title) by Jörn Becker, freelance theater communication specialist 

11:30 am: Practical examples: Communication from the point of view of a performance collective, a performance venue and a communication organization Presentation and panel discussion

Communication activities can be initiated and conducted by artists, by performance venues and/or by external communication specialists. What do these respective groups understand communication to be? From their point of view, who should take on which tasks in the field of communication? Members of the independent performing arts community who have approached the practice of communication from various perspectives will speak about the practice as well as their experiences and invite the audience to join them in a shared discussion following the presentations.  

With: Fräulein Wunder AG: Anne Bonfert und Verena LobertSophiensaele: Christiane Kretschmer Tanzscout Berlin: Amelie Mallmann

1:00 pm: Lunch break

2:00 pm: On the way to a handbook: communication formats for the independent performing arts community 
short presentation of the project
by Nathalie Frank Swetlana Gorich

2:10 pm: Communication: And how shall we pay this? 
An attempt of an overview on Funding opportunities for communication activities in the independent performing arts community. 
by Ulrike Düregger, performing artists, project manager and project leader "Survivalguide" through the Fundingjungle

2:30 pm: Work groups
Invited keynote speakers will introduce three specific questions that will be discussed and elaborated upon in smaller groups. The results and ideas of the three work groups will then be collected and briefly presented. Together, we would like to create a draft version of the ideal/most desirable job market for communication practices.
*Communication: Who is supposed to conduct it? 
Impulse: Willi Wittig, Geheime Dramaturgische Gesellschaft
*Communication: Who is supposed to initiate it? 
Impulse: Tullia Tarsia in Curia, Kunstvermittlerin, (among others for the 9th Berlin Biennale and the Biennale d'art contemporain, Lyon)
*Communication: Who is supposed to pay for it? 
Impulse: Tanzbüro Berlin (Name tba)
Work group leaders: Carolin Schmidt (Tanzscout Berlin), Anne Bonfert und Verena Lobert, (Fräulein Wunder AG), and others 

4:00 pm: Final round of discussions and "Apéro" in the Bar at Ballhaus Ost