In Germany, the production of culture is overwhelmingly decentralized, i.e. financed and organized locally. Municipal, private, independent and non-profit sponsors cooperate – sometimes more, sometimes less – and affect local arts and culture programs in differing ways. Public cultural policy creates the cultural and social policy frameworks and infrastructures in which artists and cultural institutions work and interact with their audience.
Therefore, one of the major focal points of this research project is on municipal cultural administrations and their strategies as expressed in the form of funding lines and program priorities. These administrations have influence over: Funding artists and projects that want to enable the cultural participation “of all” – or at least proclaim that they do (such as in the area of so-called “interculture”); funding institutions or endeavors surrounding “intercultural” or “diversity-oriented opening”, such as “360° – Fund for New City Cultures”, which is organized by the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal Government; and finally, personnel decisions for head positions of large cultural institutions.