The 50th year of our foundation, also the first as a special-purpose organisation, has come to an end. 2024 has been an eventful year with much encouragement and recognition for the NRW KULTURsekretariat as an innovation agency for cities and international cultural work. On the occasion of our anniversary in September 2024, Norbert Lammert and Gerhart Baum issued urgent warnings about what has recently become increasingly apparent: Sweeping cuts to culture in many municipalities, at state and federal level. The recognisably culturally sceptical vocabulary of some political leaders (»alimentation mentality«, »lack of efficiency«), which is supposed to make the deep cuts appear as salutary measures, is worrying.

Obviously, we need to be reminded once again and more emphatically than ever that art and culture are irreplaceable as a source of inspiration and a creative space for understanding and action, especially in these times of an insecure society with postdemocratic characteristics.

The publicly financed facilitation of free art and culture pays off, as it generates more than monetary added value. It is nothing less than an investment in the intellectual infrastructure of this country. The NRW KULTURsekretariat as a powerful, culturally developing association with its co-operating cities, scenes and institutions is working towards this, both persistently and with a view to well-considered changes.

One expression of this is the annual programme 2025. After 20 years of art-rich printed brochures, for the first time we are offering you an interactive presentation of our programme, sustainably designed as digital art. We invite you to move through the visually powerful sound spaces of Cologne composer Johannes S. Sistermanns instead of browsing through analogue brochures or digitally on nrw-kultur.de. If you want to get involved, the digital space of our annual programme combines sensual experiences with brief information. However, you can also switch to our website nrw-kultur.de at any time to find more detailed information on our programmes, initiatives and funding.

With best wishes, we hope you enjoy navigating and discovering our programme.

Dr Christian Esch

Director

Dr. Christian Esch
Management / Directorate

Christina Dath
Deputy Management / Administrative Management

Imke Arends
Press and public relations

Annette Schlichter
Assistant Director

Henrike Ströh
Assistance management and administration

Omar Mohamad
Assistance administration

Dorota Zaccato
Assistance administration
 
 

IMPULSE THEATER FESTIVAL
 
Franziska Werner
Artistic Director

Armin Leoni
Production Management

Melissa Müller
Production Manager

Pascal Jung
Assistant Team and Production
 
 

INTERNATIONAL VISITORS PROGRAMME
 
Eva Lenhardt
Project Management

Carolin Ritter
Administration
 
 

FREIE MITARBEIT
 
Nassrah-Alexia Denif
Communication Impulse Theater Festival

Neil Grant
Music Cultures

Franziska Hauser / Mara Nedelcu
Dance Research NRW

Mara Kriegeskotte
Social Media Marketing Impulse Theater Festival

Susanne Lenz
Online editing

Bettina Maurer
Children's theatre of the month

Nino Petrich
Technical Director Impulse Theater Festival

Roland Quitt
NOPERAS!/FEXM

Mona Rieken
Sustainability in communal cultural work (ÖKoKom)

Celia-Maria Schmidt
Project Coordination Kulturstrolche/Collaboration International Visitors Programme

Lisa Carolin Schubert
Social Media NRWKS / NOperas! / International Visitors Programme

Joshua Wicke
Dramaturgy Impulse Theater Festival

The NRW KULTURsekretariat (NRWKS) is a public-law cultural promotion initiative of the theatre and orchestra-sponsoring cities and a regional association in North Rhine-Westphalia.
 
Together with the 20 cities and one regional association as well as other municipal, national and international cultural partners, the NRWKS initiates, promotes and organises a wide range of programmes, projects and events in the fields of theatre, music, visual arts, literature and dance, often interdisciplinary and experimental. The focus is on international and digital art and culture as well as on ecological sustainability, cultural diversity and artistic experimentation.  

The NRWKS connects actors and multipliers from many cultural fields in a cooperative, dialogue-based and participatory manner and provides impetus in cultural policy discourses.

In addition, it creates something new for the cities and the state and transfers the new topics and structures to municipal and other public organisations.

As part of its international activities, the NRWKS coordinates the »International Visitors Programme« in close cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.  The NRW Ministry of Culture also provides the NRWKS with special annual funding for the »New Music Theatre Fund«.

In 2024, the NRWKS entered its first year in its new legal form as a municipal special-purpose association and celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Permanent and freelance employees form the NRWKS team, which organises and coordinates the programme work in close cooperation with the individual cultural partners, accompanied by selection committees, advisory boards and juries. The work is steered by the Working Committee and the Association Assembly. In addition, there is a regular programme committee at the working level of the participating municipalities.
 
The NRWKS institution is financed by its partner cities, while the project funds are provided by the state of NRW, but also by foundations and other sponsors at state and federal level depending on the programme. Funding is provided within the framework of a programme adopted annually by the association meeting of the member cities. Funding by the NRWKS from the cooperation funds is only possible within the framework of its funding programmes and is only open to cultural actors in the member cities.

Association Chairwoman: Cornelia Wilkens, Münster | Deputy Association Chairwoman: Miriam Koch, Düsseldorf | Chairman of the Association Assembly: Apostolos Tsalastras, Oberhausen | Director: Dr Christian Esch.

After 20 years of art-rich printed brochures, for the first time we are offering you an interactive presentation of our programmes, sustainably designed as digital art. We invite you to move through the visually powerful sound spaces of Cologne composer Johannes S. Sistermanns instead of browsing through analogue brochures or digitally on nrw-kultur.de.

The NRWKS is also active online in many other places. Our digital communication channels are constantly being adapted in order to comprehensively map and communicate our own activities and those of our partners. As usual, you can find an overview of all NRWKS programmes and projects at nrw-kultur.de.

In addition, the online tool foerderportal.nrw-kultur.de has been available to funding recipients in the member cities for applications since 2023, enabling even more service-oriented application submission and processing.

Our websites:

nrw-kultur.de

nrw-kultur-international.de

impulsefestival.de

noperas.de

cityartists.de

kulturstrolche.de

theaterarchiv.org

Other websites of partner projects and institutions include popnrw.de, tanzweb.org, soundtrips-nrw.de, favoriten-festival.de and literarischer-sommer.eu. We also communicate via social media in order to involve those interested in culture in the dialogue and to further stimulate a lively exchange on artistic and cultural topics. We regularly use Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo in particular, as well as TikTok, Twitch, LinkedIn and others for specific projects.

FUNDING PROGRAMMES

The NRWKS awards funds to applicants within the framework of its funding programmes. The funding programmes are differentiated as follows:

CATALOGUE FUNDING

As part of the catalogue funding programme, organisers can apply for pro rata funding of the artist's fee when booking one of the groups selected in the specific catalogue. This applies to the programmes: »Children's Theatre of the Month« / »Music Cultures« / »Rehearsals«.

PROJECT FUNDING

This funding supports measures that can be assigned to these programmes in terms of content: »Digital Performance« / »Greenstage« / »Interventions in Urban Space« / »Co-operated Projects« / »Kulturstrolche« / »Culture, Diversity and Discourse«. Programme-specific requirements must be observed here, which can be found on the website for the respective programme.

CALLS FOR PROPOSALS

Funding and grants or prizes are also awarded in individual cases via calls for proposals: »CityARTists« / »Dialogue Projects of Music Cultures« / »NOperas!« / »Experimental Music Theatre Fund« / »Tanzrecherche NRW«.

PREREQUISITES FOR FUNDING

• The project takes place in at least one member city. In the case of digital projects, the applicant must be based in a member city. The project fulfils the requirements of one of the published NRWKS funding programmes.
• The project does not primarily pursue commercial purposes.
• The project or similar is open to the public.
• The project has not yet started by the time the application for funding is received by post by the NRWKS, i.e. expenditure and contracts, etc. have not yet been made and public relations measures have not yet been taken.

Please visit nrw-kultur.de for further information, particularly on programme-specific funding conditions.

APPLICATION DEADLINES AND CALLS FOR PROPOSALS

There are no application deadlines for most funding programmes. Information on any application deadlines or dates for calls for proposals can be found on the website of the respective funding programme. Current calls for proposals are published in the news section of the homepage and in the monthly newsletter.

APPLICATION

Applications are submitted digitally via the NRWKS funding portal at foerderportal.nrw-kultur.de. The funding application must contain the following information: general information about the project, a project description and a financial plan. It is essential that the project applied for is assigned to an NRWKS funding programme. Please note that incomplete applications cannot be processed. Some programmes have special requirements for the applicant, such as recommendations from the local cultural administration. Please refer to the pages of the respective funding programmes for more information. After digital submission in the funding portal, the application must be submitted by post with the original signature of an authorised representative.

ADVICE

The administrative staff will be happy to advise applicants and funding recipients. Contact should only be made by telephone during the office hours listed on the website or by email to foerderung(at)nrw-kultur.de once the basic information on the funding procedure and the respective funding programmes on nrw-kultur.de has been acknowledged. A substantive assessment will only be made once an application has been received.

FINANCIAL PLAN

A financial plan is provided in the download area of the funding portal and must be completed in full. For projects with a cost volume of more than 5,000 euros, a detailed financial plan must be attached in accordance with the template. Applications without information on public relations work can only be accepted in individual cases with special justification - for example, if it is a concept promotion or school event. As a rule, the grant recipient must provide their own contribution. The project expenditure must be covered by the income. Grant recipients are obliged to notify the NRWKS of any significant changes during the project period.

FURTHER INFORMATION

If you have any questions about funding, please first use the information provided on the Internet and in the funding portal, where you will find detailed information on the funding procedure as well as a list of all application-based programmes: foerderportal.nrw-kultur.de

My artistic practice encompasses video, sound, drawing, atmosphere, breath, single image, voice, foil, instrumental-living-hearing-seeing-space: spaces electrify me in resonance. Entering a room is already standing in the instrument. Enhanced: sound, video, photo transmitted using a video projector/audio membrane/transducer onto resonant glass, aluminium, wood, foil. Transcending spaces, making them vibrate in their material spatial boundaries using membranes. Making shop windows visually AND acoustically permeable. While seeing looking through, while hearing listening through. Example: hearing the back of a piano tone from afar in a pedestrian passageway. Is: putting sound and moving images into everyone's everyday life via shop window glass OR performing an orchestral piece without musicians. The authentic sound/image space is created in a site-specific way. But that doesn't explain the sound, the images, the spaces. Most likely my impulse: before I do something with a sound, it must have done something to me. I experience spaces sculpturally, sound as an invisible sculpture. The perceiver creates unpredictably/unrepeatably/and inconclusively. So detached from the concept, the idea, into listening/seeing/feeling. In the permanent NOW.

©Johannes S. Sistermanns

Johannes S. Sistermanns studied New Music Theatre/Composition with Mauricio Kagel at the Cologne University of Music and Dance. He realises his artistic practice in media/electroacoustics, radio art/ars acustica, new music theatre, installative sound sculpture, performance and urban environment. He has been invited to give concerts, performances and graphic notation and multi-media sound art exhibitions at the German Pavilion EXPO 2000 World Exhibition Hanover, Skulpturenmuseum Marl, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Adelaide/ Melbourne Festival, NYCEMF Festival New York, international radio stations: ABC RadioSydney, DLR HR SWR SR WDR, Kunstradio Ö1 Vienna, Yle Helsinki, RTHK Hong Kong. Worldwide scholarships, residencies, guest lectureships [Darmstadt Summer Courses, TU Darmstadt, HKB Bern, ETH Zurich, Shanghai Conservatory of Music/Nagoya University of Music / NAFA Singapore] and mentoring have taken him to India, USA, Japan, Australia, PR China, Europe. He lives temporarily in Paris, Kyoto/Tokyo, Australia. International awards include the Karl-Sczuka-Grant Prize 1997 [Radio SWR Kultur], German Sound Art Award 2008 [Radio WDR, Skulpturenmuseum Marl], winner in the Prix Presque Rien 2015 [Paris], 12. German Music Authors' Award 2020 [Gema Berlin], Grand Prix Nova 2022 Silver Award [Radio România Bucharest].

https://www.sistermanns.eu/
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_S._Sistermanns

Sources of the project photos and videos

Donaueschinger Musiktage - SWR Stuttgart
Ensemble TangoAPX - Witten NRW
Gallery 'Das Esszimmer‘ - Bonn
Main Station Darmstadt - 49. Darmstädter Ferienkurse
Sydney Conservatorium of Music - ISCM Word New Music Days
Kunsthalle Darmstadt - 43. Darmstädter Ferienkurse
Künstlerforum Bonn - BeeTHoVN2020
Art Museum - Donau-Ries
Salamanca Gallery - Hobart/Tasmanien
PSAS Art Space - Fremantle
Saarländisches Künstlerhaus - Saarbrücken
Skulpturenmuseum - Marl
TENRI - Cologne
Western Australian Museum - Perth
Yokaan Gallery - Kyoto