History of Cultural Education in Berlin

In 2006 the Council for the Arts founded the Proactive Cultural Education programme in Berlin (Offensive Kulturelle Bildung), in cooperation with numerous cultural institutions and existing projects. On the basis that art and culture are important catalysts in the processes of development and innovation, they worked with leading figures in this field to devise a path for new initiatives and reforms in cultural education. The Council for the Arts aims not to direct but to coordinate the different partners which constitute this alliance and develop with them a sustainable process.

The unique factor in this project is that the impetus came from the art industry itself, generating high expectations of the cooperation between the arts and education. Cultural institutions of all types take part, amongst them national, regional, private and freelance, initiatives big and small. At the head of this umbrella programme is Lothar Zagrosek, the lead conductor of the Konzerthaus Orchestra of Berlin, who has helped to publicize just how necessary it is to find new paths in cultural communication and to facilitate greater participation in culture.

Proactive Cultural Education in Berlin is made up of many components, discussed in a collective forum of over 140 members of schools, galleries, cultural communication, science and artistic associations, in the workshop conference of September 2006. In a collective statement they demanded a consolidated political cooperation between the education and culture departments, the formulation of a conceptual framework, the establishment of a coordinating position and the implementation of participatory artistic processes into the national curriculum.

The establishment of the Berlin Project Fund for Cultural Education in 2008 was an important step in the funding of cultural education programmes. It enables partners in art, culture and education to finance projects without endangering existing structural sponsorship from other organisations. For more information see the Berlin Project Fund for Cultural Education.