howlround.com: Freelance artists and cultural producers in Berlin are facing increasing challenges, such as rising rents for studio and performance spaces, as well as the rising cost of city living. Unfortunately, for them, there is an imbalance in the way government arts funding is distributed: 95 percent of the cultural budget goes towards funding big institutions—operas, theatres, and art collections—whereas the independent scene receives the remaining 5 percent for individual projects and grants.
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This article relates the idea that Berlin is in a weird shift in thought and action between the government and the independent artists of the area. It sounds to me like the funding provided by the government is being distributed in the wrong way but there is almost no one to relate this grievance to the government because the grievance comes from individuals and not a well organized front. To me, it seems obvious that those in need of the funding would be small companies or individual artists, but I guess I can understand the risk that funding them involves. I do think however, the Lederer is taking it out of proportion when he says that “the financial support of spontaneous forms of civil engagement does not work.”. I think the beginning of the article brought up a good point about how the funding doesn't have to be giving money directly to the artists, but helping out in ways that affect the artists themselves. I think the Government has started listening, but they need the guidance of those in the community to truly help them understand the need.
I have to say, the art scene in Berlin sounds pretty privileged if they’re fighting with the government about giving them more money. I may be taking it out of context, since the author of the article doesn’t give much in the way of details about the problem. It’s hard to understand the scale of the problems without knowing more about Berlin’s art scene. At one point, the author cites Knoch as explaining that he wants financial support for (I think) individual/independent actors to help float them when attendance is down. I’ve never written a grant, personally, and I have no idea what that process is like or what sorts of productions or individuals can earn grants. That said, I feel uncertain about the value of giving grants to individual artists. My hesitation may just reflect my tendency to want many people to be collaborating (and getting paid to do work), and I may be entirely misunderstanding the situation in Berlin. In any case, I think this author articulates a very interesting part of the political process: stable/ongoing vs unstable/temporary issues and communication.
Berlin is a city that has a pretty large artistic population and produces a lot of very nice work. I've only ever really been to the big institutions but I've seen the independant people once or twice. My grandfather used to work for the government in Berlin as the head of the Cultural department so I'm sure that this might have been something that he looked into as well. Independant artists should recieve more funding because they are creating new pieces that are moving the art world forward. The institutions are performing pieces that have been around forever. I'm not saying that the pieces are stagnant and unchanging, they do change with the times and so do the designs for them. I just think that the artwork of the independant artists should recieve more than five percent of the budget because their work is just as important as the work of the large institutions.
I don’t really know much about Berlin’s art scene and to be completely honest this article does not do much to help with that, although I would say I am well versed in what is wrong with the funding for the art scene. This problem of the government funding only large institutions is something that unfortunately persists in many countries and cities, especially those which are so saturated with artists. All that being said though I agree with the sentiment that the art of the independent artists is the true color of any city and what often drives and helps to develop a cultural landscape. This is also true of Seattle. While I lived there, we were always looking for the next up and coming artist because their voices felt the most relevant to what was actually happening in both the city and the world. Finding a way to increase funding and support for these voices is just as important as support to the larger institutions.
Berlin is one of my favorite cities in the world that also has one of the best arts scenes I have ever seen. This is partially due to the large amount of government subsidies that the art community receives. This article brings to the fore an interesting fact that roughly 95% of the government funding goes to the larger operas, theaters, and art collection. This makes me interested to find out what the article what using to define a smaller project? It seems that the government has wanted to try and work with the independent artist but this is an extremely difficult situation to try and solve. This is due to the fact while it’s not that hard to get the to say they want to help but because there is less of organized front to be able to have long term working relationship with those in the government that are try to help, thus most of the funding help is mostly done in the short term.
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