Is the free culture and what it has to offer in Schweinfurt valued by the city’s cultural administration? Will it be missed during the corona lockdown? Are there any offers to help?
A question of perspective, but there is reason to hope that the mood between the cultural office and the free cultural institutions such as Disharmonie, KulturPackt or Stattbahnhof, which has deteriorated noticeably over the past year, will improve.
The Schweinfurt SPD recently called for the second online cultural conference to exchange ideas and find ways to get together. Finding these ways is particularly important now, as the theater will initially not be opened after the lockdown has ended for reasons of fire protection.
The theater, which opened in 1966, is to be completely refurbished for 42 million euros from 2022, and reopening is planned for the 2024/25 season. In order to offer the more than 6000 subscribers and the interested public an alternative during the closure, the head of the cultural office, Christian Federolf-Kreppel, is currently working on a replacement program. Initial ideas for this could be reported at the culture committee meeting in mid-March.
According to the cultural office, free culture naturally plays an important role in this replacement program, especially disharmony, KulturPackt and the dance floor destruction crew. The fact that there were meetings and that these were also constructive was confirmed at the SPD cultural conference.
Are the city hall, conference center or cultural hall suitable?
Christian Federolf-Kreppel and his technical team are also visiting the possible venues in the city in order to use a checklist to clarify whether and, if so, which productions are possible. A replacement venue will not be built for cost reasons, but of course the town hall or conference center, but also the culture hall in Grafenrheinfeld are good options. At the moment we are working on a “cultural summer 2021”, for the following years there will be further year-round offers, but these are not yet ready for a decision.
SPD parliamentary group leader Ralf Hofmann, who is well networked in the cultural scene with his company L19 as the organizer of the Honky Tonk Festival and the city festival, summed up the basic mood of the actors: “We have to get out of our trenches, despite some personal sensitivities . “
A chance for free culture to get more attention
The closure is bitter, but also an opportunity for the city’s cultural scene to develop and advance, especially in the perception of the public in all of Lower Franconia. “Now,” said Hofmann, “it’s up to us, and it is positive that the city is also seeing the need for cooperation.”
This was also seen by the conference participants, who also noted that in the next steps it was important to open up the circle very broadly in order to give as many cultural actors as possible a chance to participate. Andrea Schärringer, the musical and pedagogical director of the music school, also sees the time when the theater was opened “as an opportunity to turn the focus on free culture.”
Speaking of opportunity. That could also be in an umbrella organization of independent cultural institutions. An important part of the cultural conference was the presentation of this association, which was established in Würzburg over 30 years ago as the first such association in Germany, which was presented by the third chairwoman Antje Molz.
Umbrella association of independent cultural institutions in Würzburg for 31 years
Molz described the development when, in the early 1990s, the independent theaters of Würzburg merged into an association and from then on spoke with one voice. Of course, it was a long, often difficult path to unite all interests, but today all the relevant cultural associations and associations as well as 70 individuals are members, around 1000 cultural workers are represented in the Würzburg region.
“Now it’s up to us, and it’s positive that the city is also seeing the need to work together.”
SPD parliamentary group leader Ralf Hofmann on the cooperation of the independent cultural institutions with the city administration during the opening of the theater.–
This is having an effect, because on the one hand there is “a corresponding cultural climate” within the city council and the cultural administration in Würzburg, according to Molz. On the other hand, people are taken seriously and asked questions, especially during the corona pandemic. According to Molz, the head of the Würzburg Cultural Office stood out for his above-average commitment, organized round tables on his own initiative, kept asking whether and how the city could help and initiated various projects.
The fact that the city of Würzburg did not cancel any grants for its cultural institutions, but instead provided monetary support in the corona crisis, was definitely a reason to frown: In Schweinfurt there was a 20 percent cut in voluntary benefits for 2021, which both the independent institutions and the municipal ones Institutions met.
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