On 23 and 24 September 2024, the heads of the three national music councils of Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DA-CH) as well as the European Music Council met for their regular closed meeting to discuss cross-border music policy issues.
President Prof. Martin Maria Krüger and Secretary General Antje Valentin took part in the exchange on behalf of the German Music Council. This year the meeting took place in Gmunden at the invitation of the Austrian Music Council.
Below you will find the final declaration of the DA-CH Conference 2024:
Art and culture are not a luxury, but a basic human need. Music is an integral part of our everyday lives. However, art and culture are increasingly under pressure in social discourse: funding is being questioned, structures in music education are being dismantled and media visibility is reduced. Cultural policy issues also play hardly any role in elections. Yet art plays a central role in our society, especially in times of increasing polemics and social division – as a critical voice, as a unifying and integrative force, as a social factor, as an instrument of democratic politics. Music is also an important economic factor. The music industry in Germany generates a total gross value added of 6.6 billion euros, and around 155,900 jobs depend on the industry. The music councils from Austria, Germany and Switzerland therefore strongly advocate for the value of art and culture to be given greater recognition and recognition at all levels of society.
A key element here is musical education in and outside of school. All children and adults have a fundamental right to access music and to musical education as a central component of comprehensive personality development. Cultural education is human education and promotes social cohesion. We demand an education system that focuses on people and their individual personality with all their artistic and creative potential. Against the backdrop of migration movements, the challenges of globalization, integration, inclusion, economic and social change and new technologies such as artificial intelligence, strengthening musical education is becoming increasingly urgent.
Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly an important technological development, but it can only be a tool. Humans are and will remain sovereign. It is therefore only logical that those skills that can never be replaced by AI are strengthened in education: imagination, creativity, and critical and networked thinking. Our education system must take this into account. Instead of marginalizing creative and artistic subjects and dismantling structures, the music councils from Austria, Germany and Switzerland are calling for an expansion and upgrading of musical and cultural education.
We demand that art and culture should not be viewed solely from a financial perspective as beneficiaries and recipients of public funds, but that their value for a democratic, open and diverse society should be recognized. Cultural diversity is our capital. Promoting art, culture and cultural education is therefore not a subsidy, but rather an investment in the future of our society.
Gmunden, 24 September 2024
