Would you like one euro? You know that question from the S-Bahn and from walking around the Zeil. If the remaining coalition of the Greens, SPD, and Volt in Frankfurt’s city government succeeds in achieving its goals, in the future anyone who buys opera or theater tickets from the city’s theaters, tickets to the city’s museums, or other cultural institutions in the city could hear this question in silence. In order to advance the city’s independence scene with financial support, in addition to the government and private funds that are already flowing.
What is in the appeal to the judge will not only surprise the FDP which has just left the coalition. They wanted to push for a similarly designed euro donation to support the city’s new theater building, but did not get a majority vote at a city council meeting after a majority of the culture committee wanted to vet the application. Building donations have a long, sometimes unpleasant, but often successful cultural tradition.
However, the remaining alliances in Rome sometimes adorned themselves with what in practice were called “established houses.” However, this term alone indicates a lack of understanding of the cultural sector, even in the city of Frankfurt, so we should not be surprised if the document presents the independent scene as the guarantor of “culture in the districts”, for “new art forms” and the “low threshold” that opposes it.
The contrast is non-existent
This distinction has long since ceased to apply and that many “established” houses with unstable structures that are socio-politically desirable will produce good results, especially high-quality threshold work in urban areas, while free art is often chaotic and self-referential. They are all poor and will probably become poorer still. Therefore, it is urgent to think about and communicate future structures and priorities.
The independent situation in Frankfurt is much more complex than politicians perceive. The poor here, the “established” there: This has long been the case, as has the belief in political circles that regional cultural enterprises are at a dead end. In contrast to independent artists, their structures and goals may be periodically shaped by politics. In the best case, knowledgeable and with an assessment of what is possible in terms of the highest qualities desired in current and future conditions. But in Frankfurt, things continued. In the independent scene there are also structures that act in the name of environmentalism and low-threshold art, without asking how the success story that exists despite this negligence actually happened.
Success is not in terms of revenue or number of visitors, but in terms of artistic and social impact, broad and deep. Lack of analysis, lack of forward-looking concepts, lack of consistency in asking what can be done in the future, with one euro or a few million. The request was to “investigate and report.” Which, translated into Frankfurt, means: It took a lot of time before the answer was found. This moment should be used immediately to ask yourself how strengths can be strengthened and weaknesses can be improved. And to train yourself not to think in outdated categories.
