OPEN CALL: THE ART OF CHANGE

The Berlin Performing Arts Program provides a wide range of opportunities for structurally strengthening, professionalizing and networking Berlin’s independent performing arts community. The goal is to increase the visibility of and stabilize artistic work within the creative location that is Berlin, bundle knowledge as well as to create new connections within as well as outside of the community. 

With a new project, we are looking not only to strengthen artistic competencies, but also make visible and effective as a motor for a resistant and fair society that is able to meet the challenges of the future.

Our world is faced with fundamental changes, from climate change to digitalization to the erosion of democratic participation. It is becoming clearer and clearer that the previous strategies and habits are not enough to face these changes. Artists especially create spaces where new patterns of thinking and acting beyond the existing silos can be tested out. This is where the idea behind the qualification program The Art of Change comes in.

Artists have special competencies in dealing with complexity, insecurity and ambiguity. They create resonant spaces, support new perspectives and enjoy experimenting with change. In the independent performing arts especially, artists are looking for exchanges with other disciplines, are making new connections and thus laying the foundation for productive reciprocal effects between different parts of society. The Art of Change understands artistic processes in this sense as research and design simultaneously–not only as an expression, but as an active tool for societal development. The object of examination of this project is how these artistic-aesthetic practice can be productively incorporated in societal transformation processes. Artists who work or would like to work in the manner described will be specifically strengthened with the new qualification program through advisement sessions, peer-to-peer coaching and the establishment of networks, just like their potential partners from civil society. In addition, the visibility of existing projects and thus the potential of their interdisciplinary working practices will be increased.

In order to ensure that the program is designed close to practice, we would like to include members of the community with corresponding work experience in the application process and the project realization. 

There will be a first analog work meeting for this on March 13, 2026 in Berlin, where we will present a draft of the program and collect feedback on it. 

You are welcome to announce your interest in taking part in this meeting (and being paid for your time), effective immediately!

Who can apply

Do you work interdisciplinarily at the crossroads of art, science and/or civil society? Have you often thought about how this work practice can be strengthened? Do you know partners, that is, institutions, organizations or other structures removed from the field of art that can name specific needs in the qualification and exchange for potential interdisciplinary collaboration? 

If you can answer these questions with yes, then please apply to take part in the first exchange of experiences!