Open Call for Community and Neighborhood Projects

The Berlin Performing Arts Program is launching an open call for community and neighborhood projects for the very first time! We would like to support Berlin performance venues, artists and sociocultural structures in creating new connections or strengthening existing connections between the Berlin audience and the locations of the independent performing arts community using mediation work. To do so, we are on the lookout for project ideas that can start beginning in April 2024.

Taking new audience groups into account and actively reaching out to them has long since part of the daily work for the independent performing ats community. Taking community building more strongly into our focus can serve as an important approach for this. Independent performance venues can work in an especially flexible manner and establish closer relationships to their neighborhoods and civic society in their direct vicinity. The mediation work associated with this is not only extremely important for audience development, it also underscores the nature of theater itself, of third locations in which societal participation takes place.

This is why it is important to us that we build up long-term relationships to individual communities or to the audience in the neighborhoods they live in as we searh for community and neighborhood projects. Possible project ideas could be, for example: an amateur theatre group that regularly rehearses in the premises of the neighboring multiple generation community building and performs its productions at the theater, supporters associations, regardless of whether their members are young or old, that regularly attend theater and dance productions and discuss them, a cargo bike that can flexibly bring the events of the theater into the city or offering a mediation format for non-German-speaking communities in cooperation with an adult education center. Or also the opening of the community garden operated together with the local neighborhood office for the entire neighborhood or the regular opening of the lobby of a performance venue, for example, to offer soup in cooperation with the organization Berliner Tafel (and, while doing so, to increase the level of awareness of the three EUR tickets for public cultural institutions). These and many other project ideas are very welcome - as well as projects that have been conceived with multiple steps that will start off small in 2024 and be augmented or expanded in the following years if they are successful. 

Projects that are chosen as part of the closer selection will be able to receive some funding and their fees and material costs will be able to be paid within a framework that will be determined mutually.In addition, we are able to offer accompanying the contents of selected projects, can provide access to our large network of culture mediators if necessary, can communicate precise advisement opportunities and can also bring the projects together into an exchange, e.g. over the course of shared networking meetings. In addition, we provide the opportunity for public presentation, e.g. during joint activities of Berlin performance venues or by including them within the program of Theater Scoutings Berlin.

We Are On the Lookout for Community and Neighborhood Projects That…

• Support connections between the Berlin audience and the location of Berlin’s independent performing arts community through mediation work
• Develop new target groups for the independent performing arts or that strengthen existing connections
• Have a focus on community work and outreach projects
• Are conceived to operate on a long-term basis or with an option for extension or in multiple project phases that build upon each other
• Can start between April and June 2024
• Projects that are of a purely artistic nature cannot be considered for this open call

Who Is This Call Intended For?

• Performance venues, mediators, artists and additional people who work in Berlin’s independent performing arts community
• Community projects, neighborhood managements, neighborhood offices and other sociocultural structures that would like to work together with Berlin’s independent performing arts community

What We Have To Offer:

• Accompaniment of the content of the project
• Support in the form of advisement opportunities
• Exchange between the projects in the form of networking meetings of the people involved
• Opportunities for public presentation in 2024 in the first planned Berlin Stage Month (working title)
• Connection to a large network of culture mediators
• Possible inclusion of the projects in the program of Theater Scoutings Berlin
• Payment of fees and material costs for mediation work within a framework that will be determined together

What Should Be Submitted?

• A brief concept (max. 1 A4 size page, German or English) that includes the basic project idea, target group, implementation period and duration, general scope as well as the integration of possibly existing project partners
• A short description of the participating perosn(s) and/or organization(s), possibly with web links
• If there are already project partners (neighborhood offices, multiple generation community buildings, youth centers, et cetera), we would appreciate it if you could include a brief written letter of intent from these project partners

Alternative Forms of Submission:

• Alternatively, the application can also be submitted in the form of an audio file (max. 3 minutes) or in the form of a video file (max. 3 minutes) per download link. Here as well, the basic project idea, the target group, the implementation period and any existing project partners should be clearly indicated.
• If the submission deadline cannot be complied with due to disability, chronic illness or other important reason, a brief declaration of interest is also sufficient. In this cases, your application can be submitted at a later date.

Application & Deadline

• We ask you to please submit your ideas by February 11, 2024, at the latest,  to:
  community-und-kiez [at] pap-berlin.de
• Before the deadline, we will offer two digital information events for all interested parties who have questions about their project ideas and about the application: Monday, January 22, 2024, 11:00 am to 12:30 pm, and Thursday, February 1, 2024, 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm.
• Additional questions can also be asked via email (insun.jung [at] pap-berlin.de or florian.hohnhorst [at] pap-berlin.de) or via telephone (+49 (0)30/ 204 5 979 12)

And How Do Things Continue From Here?

• After the expiration of the deadline, an initial selection of the projects on the basis of the materials submitted will take place based upon content-related criteria. This selection will be made by the team of the Berlin Performing Arts Program together with an expert from the field of community work and mediation.
• In a second step, the framework of the financial participation will be determined jointly.