Just Do It – The Current State of Things Regarding Ecological Transformation in the Independent Arts Community

While many of the current crises and (global) political developments have earned our complete attention, we also do not want to lose sight of one of our permanent commitments: the ecological transformation of our working and production methods.

The specific implementation following a sustainable transformation requires the commitment of many individuals and, while the readiness can be felt strongly within the independent performing arts community, the knowledge and resources for the actual realization are often lacking. As a result, the Berlin Performing Arts Program has offered constant advisement and information for many years and engages intensely with individual aspects such as, amongst others, resource-conserving touring, the climate-friendly (re)use of materials or the ecological renovation of theater buildings.

In April of this year, in cooperation with the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste (BFDK, the German Federal Association for the Independent Performing Arts) and the network Performing For Future, we dedicated ourselves to the question of sharing resources in Berlin’s cultural landscape with the symposium The Marketplace of Possibilities and numerous working sessions. Over the course of a cultural policy panel discussion that will close out the event, representatives from the fields of cultural policy and cultural administration ask, together with members of the independent performing arts community: what does the community need in order to develop its structures and production in a manner that allows for a greater conservation of resources?

Alongside mentioned the already visible engagement of many members of the community and the formulation of specific desires and projects, mandatory climate footprints for institutions and possible standardizations in terms of sustainable producing methods will be discussed - considerations that are also seen in a similar manner in the adoption of climate footprint standards for cultural institutions. We welcome this important step and the associated comparability and further development of climate-friendly, sustainable measures and their implementation on the federal, state and local levels.

With this is in mind, we would like to take up the conversation and discuss existing and new means of ecological transformation further. Over the course of a panel discussion, we will take a look at where the independent performing arts community and the cultural institutions currently are and which new and old options individual members of the community have in order to make their working methods more climate-friendly. How do politicians, networks and points of contact see the current situation? What is necessary in order to finally realize a shared, Berlin-wide materials warehouse?  What is going on with the Green Culture Desk? How does making an application for Program Zero of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes, the German Federal Cultural Foundation, and what prerequisities must be met in order to receive funding from the Berliner Programm für Nachhaltige Entwicklung (BENE, the Berlin Program for Sustainable Development)?

Following the panel discussion, we will provide space to enter into conversation with experts about the current and coming working steps and existing support options - and to discuss new ones with each other.

Accessibility
Information on accessibility will follow shortly. If you have any questions, you can also already contact Sarah Stührenberg at sarah.stuehrenberg [at] pap-berlin.de () or 030/ 20 45 979 14 (available by phone on Thursdays from 11:00 to 17:00).

Amongst other sources, you can find additional information about the topic of sustainability in the performing arts here:
 

• The Symposium The Marketplace of Possibilities: Sustainable Togetherness in the Independent Performing Arts, The Berlin Performing Arts Program and the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste (the German Federal Association of the Independent Performing Arts), April 17, 2023, schedule of events: https://pap-berlin.de/de/event/gemeinsam-nachhaltig
• Listen to the cultural policy panel discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNj6YDz4XYc&t=403s
• Statement from the  Kulturminister Konferenz (KMK (Kultusministerkonferenz, The Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the German States in the Federal Republic of Germany) regarding the adoption of a uniform climate footprint standard, https://www.kmk.org/aktuelles/artikelansicht/bund-laender-und-kommunen-verabschieden-einheitlichen-klimabilanzstandard-fuer-kultureinrichtungen.html
• Program Zero of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (the German Federal Cultural Foundation), https://www.kulturstiftung-des-bundes.de/de/projekte/klima_und_nachhaltigkeit/detail/zero_klimaneutrale_kunst_und_kulturprojekte.html
• Berliner Programm für Nachhaltige Entwicklung (BENE, the Berlin Program for Sustainable Development), https://www.berlin.de/sen/uvk/umwelt/foerderprogramme/bene/
• Green Culture Desk, https://www.greenculture.info/
• Aktionsnetzwerk Nachhaltigkeit. Betriebsökologie für Klimaneutrale Kultur und Medien (Action Network for Sustainability, Business Ecology for Climate-Neutral Culture and Media), https://aktionsnetzwerk-nachhaltigkeit.de/
• The network Performing For Future, https://performingforfuture.de/
   

This list constitutes a very small excerpt of current initiatives, measures and conversations and makes no claim to completeness. We would be very grateful if you could let us know about additional resources that we have missed!