Culture in the coming legislative period
To the parliamentary group leaders and cultural policy spokespersons of the CDU, SPD, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Die Linke, Volt and FDP.
Dear Sir or Madam,
Art and culture play an important role in today’s society, including here in Wiesbaden. This is particularly true of their increasingly vital role in fostering social cohesion within an increasingly diverse society. Where better can dialogue take place between the most diverse groups and perspectives in society regarding new questions of coexistence? Existing cultural institutions and organizations provide opportunities for personal and social orientation.
In addition, many people place great hope in the appeal of art and culture—for example, in revitalizing city centers, in making the city an attractive business location, and in fostering sociocultural urban development.
We are writing to you today to highlight the most pressing cultural issues for the upcoming legislative term of the City Council.
Supplementary budget for culture
Following the announcement in February that the 2025 budget will not end with a deficit but with an unexpectedly large surplus, we would like to revisit three key cultural policy demands made by the Cultural Advisory Board that were overlooked during the budget deliberations:
- The jury’s recommendations to increase institutional grants to offset inflation and rising costs should be implemented in full.
- Project funding for culture should be restored to its original level.
- The city’s cultural expenditures must not decrease relative to its total expenditures but should increase at the same rate as the latter.
We recommend adopting a supplementary budget for this purpose.
Cultural development plan
The Cultural Development Plan is to be continuously updated during the coming legislative term. This requires, first and foremost, adequate funding allocated in the budget, which includes the consistent and binding implementation of the jury’s recommendations for grant awards.
A clear and substantively meaningful annual report on the state of culture from the Department of Culture should outline the transparency, professional foundation, and evaluation of municipal cultural funding. The KEP assigns high importance to cultural reporting through a continuous reporting system for the qualitative development of public cultural funding (see Module 2, Volume 2, p. 62ff).
The Cultural Advisory Board therefore intends to ask the Cultural Committee to include a “Report on the State of Culture in Wiesbaden” as an agenda item for the City Council at least once a year.
Major cultural projects: Status conference!
In the current cultural policy debate, there are projects that could not only be of great significance for cultural life in Wiesbaden but also have a significant long-term impact on the city budget. These include, for example, the renovation and ongoing operation of the Walhalla property, the Kulturcampus, a new location for the City Museum, the construction of a dance center for Wiesbaden, and the renovation of the State Theater. We recommend convening a public status conference in the near future at which the projects will be presented by the stakeholders involved. The aim of the event should be to develop, with public participation, an understanding of the temporal and financial scope of the projects and to work toward establishing a basis for decision-making for the City Council regarding the implementation of the projects.
artist house43
The theater requires an immediate solution for a performance venue that can be implemented in the short term. We refer to the resolution of the City Council dated May 23, 2019 (No. 0149, Resolution Point 5), which was adopted after the theater’s operators were not awarded the contract for the former Pariser Hoftheater: “The City Council (Department III/41) is tasked with supporting kuenstlerhaus43 in the search for an alternative location.” The lease for the current venue expires on August 31. There are currently no prospects.
Budget approach Cultural Advisory Board
The budget allocation for the Cultural Advisory Board’s office has been significantly reduced since its establishment. With the funds currently available, it is not possible for the board to carry out its work properly, which includes organizing events. We request that the budget allocation for the Cultural Advisory Board be restored to its original level starting with the 2027 budget, so that the board can fulfill its advisory role as defined in the bylaws adopted by the STVV. The vacant positions in the office should also be filled immediately.
Sincerely,
Dr. Helmut Müller
Chair of the Cultural Advisory Board