öKoKom

Sustainability in Communal Cultural Work

Progressive climate change, the mobility and energy transition, digitalisation and social inclusion are now recognised as major global challenges. More and more local authorities are aligning themselves with the United Nations' 2030 Agenda, which identified 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back in 2016. Municipal cultural administrations play a key role in the arts and culture, particularly in NRW. According to the Culture Finance Report 2022, they account for 71 per cent of total cultural expenditure in NRW, provide professional support and network the cultural players in their city.

The NRW KULTURsekretariat uses its interdisciplinary network to support its member cities in their sustainable development. Together with renowned partners such as the Wuppertal Institute, Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft Agenda 21 NRW and Neue Effizienz, the NRWKS is continuing its programme introduced in 2023 to promote sustainable development in municipal cultural work. The focus is on empowering cultural administration specialists to anchor the topic of sustainability in municipal cultural work and to support cultural professionals in the transformation process. The approach is primarily focussed on the ecological dimension of sustainable development, whereby the social and economic dimensions are always taken into account.

With four workshops in 2023, the initial aim was to empower and train the responsible stakeholders in the cultural departments and cultural offices of the member cities. The focus was on imparting practical knowledge from sustainability development and management. At the same time, the actors were empowered to accompany transformation processes with a cross-departmental approach.

This year, the practical implementation will continue with the support of interdisciplinary teams and experts. Formats such as the ‘Green Lunch Break’, in which experts share good practice from municipal cultural work or present useful tools, are open to all interested parties.

There are plans to set up an advisory board made up of representatives from cultural administration and cultural policy as well as experts in sustainable development from academia and practice and representatives of the partner institutions. It will support the content and strategic direction of the programme as well as its further development.

The programme was included in the Fourth State Report on the Implementation of the Federal Government's 2024 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

Grüne Mittagspause

Once a month, the NRWKS invites participants to the ‘Grüne Mittagspause’ (Green Lunch Break) programme for inspiration and exchange. The format presents best practices from the field of sustainability in municipal cultural work that can advance work with sustainability issues in municipal cultural administrations.

The online event always takes place on the first Tuesday of the month from 13:00 to 13:45. After a keynote speech, there will be an opportunity to ask questions and engage in dialogue.

Interested parties can register by emailing Mona Rieken. You will be added to the ‘Grüne Mittagspause’ mailing list and will receive the access data for the team meeting before the event. You are invited to forward the link to interested employees at your institution.

Dates and contents 2025

04.02.2025
Municipal sustainability strategy - with culture!
The city of Worms has tackled the challenges of developing a sustainability strategy for the cultural sector not only within the cultural administration and, conversely, how culture can enrich the municipal sustainability strategy. Cultural Coordinator David Maier reports on how inter-municipal cooperation in Worms has been successful and what the sustainability strategy for cultural institutions looks like - also taking into account cultural funding!

Thu, 06.03.2025
Culture as a building block of transformative environmental policy
In December 2024, Culture4Climate and the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft jointly published the policy briefing ‘Culture as a building block of transformative environmental policy’ and formulated concrete impulses for action for cultural and environmental policy. Co-author Margarethe Kreuser will present and discuss the policy briefing, particularly with a view to the Bundestag elections at the end of February. The lunch break will exceptionally take place on Thursday due to the carnival holidays!

01.04.2025
Ecological sustainability checklist for culture in Lower Saxony
Under the leadership of the Lower Saxony Foundation, the state of Lower Saxony, various local authorities and the largest foundations and regions have come together to jointly address the issue of sustainability criteria in cultural funding. The result is a checklist and a declaration by Lower Saxony's cultural sponsors. Daniela Koß from the Lower Saxony Foundation not only provides insights into the results, but also into the intra-municipal model process.

06.05.2025
Sustainable cultural community: good practice example Bavaria
Ralf Weiß from the 2N2k network presents the publication ‘Nachhaltige Kulturkommunen. Practice and perspectives of municipal cultural promotion in Bavaria’. Based on ten member cities of the Bavaria-wide network of cultural municipalities STADTKULTUR, research was carried out into how municipal cultural concepts can contribute to the promotion of sustainable urban development.

Workshop on the topic of sustainability

Together with the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the NRWKS is organising a workshop in Duisburg on 24.02.2025 as part of its ‘öKoKom’ and ‘Greenstage’ programmes. It will bring together people from the arts, culture, administration and cultural policy who are working together on measures in the field of sustainability and climate protection. One focus will be on municipal cooperation.

Find out more: Network Zero | öKoKom & Greenstage - Federal Cultural Foundation

To the conference programme