The Cultural Advisory Board met on Tuesday, 29 April and, in addition to presenting the planned program for the World Design Capital 2026 (WDC for short) in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, dealt with the cultural development plan and its update for the coming years. In addition, some representatives of associations for city partnerships with Wiesbaden gave an exemplary insight into the part of the activities that explicitly deal with cultural exchange. The committee formulated a series of questions for the city council that they would like to have answered in order to contribute to the improvement and expansion of exchange activities. City partnerships are more important than ever in the current difficult global situation.

Following the presentation of the program for the WDC 2026 by Managing Director Carolina Romahn, the Advisory Board expressed the wish that the city would provide a larger public platform and networking for the numerous projects approved from Wiesbaden in particular.

The Cultural Development Plan, which is central to the Cultural Advisory Board and was adopted by the City Council in 2020, was evaluated at the end of 2024. The reports from the process reveal a number of fields of action that the Cultural Advisory Board is currently working on and will continue to do so, such as the visibility of cultural professionals using the example of the "Infopoints" model project, which the Advisory Board has championed and which is making good progress. The utilization of urban spaces - especially vacant ones - for culture is also a focus topic for the committee. First and foremost is the financing of development measures and, as an example, the formulated funding principles that have not been implemented since the plan was adopted. The formulation of principles only makes sense if the funding for them is included in the budget.

"Everything we agree must also be able to be implemented," notes Dr. Helmut Müller, Chairman of the committee. "That's why we need to focus in particular on the question of how we can strengthen the cultural budget despite and especially in difficult times. Because culture cannot be developed without funding." For the next meeting, the Advisory Board has agreed to take an early and forward-looking look at the city's cultural budget. The advisory board will next meet on June 3 at 6 p.m. in the town hall.

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