The Independent: Germans turning 18 in 2023 will be offered a voucher worth €200 (£175) to spend on their choice of cultural experience.
The “Kulturpass” has been put in place to encourage the 750,000 people who will celebrate their 18th birthday next year to experience live culture.
The scheme is anticipated to provide a financial boost to the arts scene, following the hit caused by several pandemic lockdowns.
5 comments:
This initiative is truly exciting. This is the kind of tangible action that will bring more young people into the world of live performance and other types of culture. Instead of older generations just complaining that young audiences are dwindling, they need to address the root of why these young people are not coming to performances. Most notably, it’s that young people are at a financial disadvantage and simply don’t have the funds to spend hundreds of dollars on tickets to shows - especially if they have never gotten into live performance before, it may seem irresponsible to spend that much money on a show that they have no idea if they will enjoy. Removing this financial barrier is a massive step towards allowing young folks to dip their toes into this sphere and possibly become enchanted with live performance. I’m curious as to how the vouchers are distributed and if there is equal access to getting the vouchers.
I like that, as a result of the website wanting me to register in order to read it, my comment will be longer than the portion of the article that I was able to read.
Still though, I think that I have enough of the gist from the title to at least give my thoughts.
This is a really good idea that should really be the norm. How do we very literally incentivize people to go and engage in art and culture? I think paying for it for them is a great way to do this. I remember when I was in undergrad it was really easy to convince friends that weren't interested in theatre to come see shows when their student ID gave them such large discounts at places such as Centerstage and Everyman theatre in Baltimore. But once I started to accumulate more friends that were outside of the realm of student discounts it became far more difficult to convince those friends to come out.
Engagement with the arts is a good thing, and I think that people in general are exposed to cheap and easy forms of entertainment far more than they should in comparison to art that really asks you to engage with it on a personal level.
This is a super cool initiative! The arts can be and often are prohibitively expensive for young people, and this initiative will both help people both experience these different aspects of culture and help the cultural institutions and organizations thrive. This kind of financial help to the arts organizations in the area will also help them recover from the devastating blow that the pandemic dealt to art institutions as a whole. I know that CMU has a bunch of discounts/free entry to museums and other places through our student IDs that have been super useful to us as we’ve started to explore Pittsburgh and the arts scene around the city. I really think that initiatives like this are really, really great, and I hope that as time goes on, more governments and organizations adopt this initiative - I think it’s really important that art is accessible for everyone, and this initiative would help begin to bridge that gap for 18 year olds specifically.
This was a really interesting read. I really love the idea of a sort of cultural passport, but I had no idea it was a thing in so many European countries. I think that it's a great move to help support local businesses, help the youth see that sort of culture that they might otherwise not have the money for, and to support the Arts, all of which are things I love to see happen. I wish that the United States would launch a similar program. I think that programs like these always help youth find a place that does art for them. It encourages companies to look at that group of people, who aren't always where art is focused, and create art that is really meant for, and resonating with, them. However, I think that we have a lot of steps that we need to take to give our citizens more basic rights and support before we'll get to a place where something like this would be possible. But I hope that one day this exists here too.
I love this initiative. I think this is a great way for germany to breath life into their cultural experiences. It is also a great way to get the youth of today involved. Access is a big reason many people do not pursue the arts. By breaking down one barrier of access and encouraging youth to go be a part of a cultural experience, it encourages them to see the arts in a different way. I wish the USA had an initiative such as this, however our country does not value arts even though they are highly consumed. Initiatives like this give me hope that new generations will have a better appreciation and involvement in the arts. Arts and culture are what makes life worth living, so why do we sabotage the joy in life by only emphasizing productivity, capitalism, security, and science. I hope this initiative grows and prospers.
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