Vienna (OTS) – From state opera to cultural association: 57 initiatives and institutions cooperate in the diverse further development of the local cultural scene.
The Project Office D/Arts stands for more diversity in the cultural sector. Today, Friday, February 17, 2023 took place in Vienna fountain passage the official founding of the project office by 57 initiatives and cultural institutions from Austria. Among them are large cultural institutions such as the Vienna State Opera and the Wiener Musikvereincenter stages like that brut Vienna or the activist arts festival vienna weekculture houses like that ARGEkultur Salzburg and the fountain passagebut also small cultural association like roman svato or AfroRainbow Austria.
“Fake it till you make it” …
… has been the motto of Sheri Avraham, Zuzana Ernst and Ivana Pilićthe initiators of D/Arts. Over the past two and a half years, the three curators have developed several discourse projects and organized numerous events, for example in the Kunsthalle Viennaim Belvedere or the ArgeKultur Salzburg, where artists, artistic directors and politicians intensively discussed the topic of diversity in the cultural sector. In network meetings and training courses throughout Austria, different people from art and culture met and were encouraged by national and international experts to be more diverse in their own sphere of activity.
goal of D/Arts-Organizers: To form a sustainable structure in the form of a project office from a loose alliance of different actors in the Austrian cultural scene, which works to strengthen diversity in the cultural landscape. As of today that is “D/Arts project office for diversity and urban dialogue”. The list of the 56 founding members is itself an example of lived diversity and shows the bridges Avraham, Ernst and Pilić have been able to build in recent years.
Has the initiative been taken by the fountain passage supported by a foundation grant D/Arts now as an independent non-profit association, financed by the public sector and foundations. The aim of the project office is sustainable structural support from public cultural funds, as there has never been a contact or advice center in the Austrian cultural landscape.
Golnar Shahyar von WE:Shapeis a collaborator with D/Arts and campaigns for the rights and visibility of (post-)migrant artists: “The aim of D/Arts is not to initiate well-intentioned, isolated projects that pop up briefly and then end up in the archives. The project office is a sustainable network with a focus on diversity in the cultural sector, in which people learn from one another, unlearn, develop together and work together. In addition to an existing expert platform, advisory services are being developed for the art and culture sector.”
After the election of the six-member board, the curators Zuzana Ernst and Ivana Pilić will continue to provide advice and support D/Arts be active. “We have created a strong structure with so many institutions and built bridges in order to change the cultural landscape together and strengthened in the long term. The socio-political necessity of this effort should be beyond question in view of current forest cottages and the ubiquitous structural racism.”, says Ivana Pilić. The operational management of the project office is now in the hands of the spatial planner and cultural worker Dilan Şengül, who was the production manager before the association was officially founded D/Arts was active.
The next event is the discourse event on “Intangible Care” in the Belvedere 21a cooperation of CIVA Festival with D/Arts on Friday, February 24, 2023 there. In March takes place both the next D/Arts network meeting in Salzburg Museum as well as a further training offer for museums in the Nordic Linzer. Also find three D/Arts-events in Wiener DEPOT – Art and Discussion as well as in June das D/Arts-Festival City Beats held in Vienna.
Members of D/Arts – Project Office for Diversity and Urban Dialogue:
Afro Rainbow Austria, ARGEkultur Salzburg, ATASH contemporary dance company, Brunnenpassage, brut Wien, CineCollective, Community Arts Lab, conzeptum – designing diversity concepts – communicating practice, Decolonizing in Vienna – collective for counter-hegemonic history(s) and decolonial futures, diverCITYLAB, Dounia in Contact, Jungle Vienna, ECHOLOT, EDUCULT – thinking and acting in culture and education, FLUCC, hint.wien – Highly Intersectional Vienna, IG Fine Arts, inter-university institution science & art / University of Salzburg & Mozarteum Salzburg, class for everyone / university for applied arts Vienna, Kosmos Theater, kültür gemma!, Kulturhaus Brotfabrik, Kultursommer Wien, MAIL LING – association for the promotion of contemporary Asian art and culture, Medea Production, mica – music austria, MusicScapes – music & art projects in a social context, Musikverein – Society of Friends of Music in Vienna, Salam Oida, New Vienna Divan, Orange 94.0 – Das F reie Radio in Vienna, Austrian Music Council – umbrella organization of interest groups active in the music sector in Austria, Perilla – association for the promotion and visualization of the Asian diaspora in Austria, Physical Theater Side Effect, Queer Museum Vienna, Raw Matters, Rewaq – association for the promotion of feminist and anti-discrimination Art and culture, Romano Svato – association for transcultural communication, Schauspielhaus Wien, we love school, closing date – association for the promotion and realization of musical and artistic productions, Semmelweisklinik – Center for Arts and Culture, SOHO in Ottakring, sound:frame – Agency for contemporary curating in audovisual art & culture, SUPERAR – association for the promotion of music, theater collective Hybrid, trafo.K – Vienna office for art education and critical knowledge production, trivium, VBKÖ – association of female artists Austria, folklore museum Vienna, Waves Festival, Werk X Petersplatz, We: Shape, Vienna he State Opera, WIENER WORTSTAETTEN, Wienwoche – Festival for Art and Activism.
