Advisement for newcomers provides a first overview of all relevant topics for getting started working professionally within Berlin’s independent performing arts community. It is ideal for everyone looking for advisement that would like to receive an initial orientation in the city as well as some insight into the various aspects of working in the independent performing arts community. One of our special points of focus is the initial advisement for transnational artists and persons responsible for the production process.

This area includes all topics from the idea all the way to the realization from the point of view of a project. Over the course of an individual advisement session, the advisee can check, together with an expert, which funding instruments could be appropriate for the project or which alternatives could be possible through fundraising. This advisement session can also be used to take a first look at how to successfully develop the advisee’s concept and how a funding application can be submitted. This includes questions both about the application text as well as the budget. In additional, advisement sessions regarding accounting can also be arranged.

Individual advisement sessions provide an overview of the formal framework conditions for working in the independent performing arts community for the areas surrounding legal, contractual or financial questions of one’s status as an artist. General questions regarding working as a freelancer and legal forms for groups can be asked over the course of the friendly individual advisement sessions.  Questions regarding taxes, contracts, accounting and the KSK (Künstlersozialkasse, the German public social insurance fund for artists) can also be asked.

Alongside general questions regarding production, genre-specific questions are also asked again and again. Our experts have knowledge in a wide field of areas: circus and aerial arts, performance art, interdisciplinary work and much more. The individual advisement sessions can also be used to share knowledge regarding individual occupational profiles such as set design, production management and costume design. In addition, our experts can provide valuable knowledge about performance venues from their experience, for example, what successful communication with performance venues and other performance locations can look like or which legal and organizational aspects must be kept in mind when working in public space.

No matter whether you are at the very start of a career in the independent performing arts or already right in the middle of things: it is always worth taking the time to think about your professional development. Our experts provide support with the knowledge of strategic planning as well as initial orientation when it comes to specifying and refining ideas and projects. The individual advisement sessions can also be used to check over the course of the conversation what options exist for professional combining one’s artistic work with a secondary means of financial support.

This includes aspects regarding communication routes as well as marketing strategies and digital networking and marketing tools for one’s own artistic work. The focus is placed upon the internal and external communication work, strategies for building up distribution lists and networks as well as methods for press and PR work. An additional focus is placed on the topics of guest performance management, the obtaining of invitations to festivals and residencies as well as the arrangement of (inter)national cooperations.

Our experts have specialized knowledge regarding the reduction and prevention of discrimination in the independent performing arts. Over the course of individual advisement sessions and workshops, communication strategies as well as awareness and prevention measures in the production process are discussed and communicated. Beyond this, the individual advisement session also provides the opportunity for artists to participate in exchanges who have experienced various forms of discrimination within their working fields and who would like to receive advice that is oriented toward a solution.

Sustainability impacts all areas of the artistic production process, touring and the use of materials after the end of the project. Our experts can provide advice as to how these topics can already be taken into account in the project planning, what points of contact and stocks of material for set and costume materials exist in the city and how decisions based on sustainability can be justified in the final project accounting.