You can now download our free guideline in German, “Gerecht gestalten: Chancengleichheit und Bildungsgerechtigkeit für Kulturakteur:innen und Kulturnutzer:innen mit Behinderung in und durch Maßnahmen der Kulturförderung”. This guideline contains an abundance of concrete starting points and ideas on how to create equal opportunities for applicants and cultural audiences with disabilities through changes to funding guidelines and concepts. It is the result of our participatory project United Inclusion.
How can arts and cultural funding effectively promote the artistic activity and participation of cultural practitioners and audiences with disabilities? Un-Label has addressed this question in the participatory project United Inclusion from March 2021 to December 2022 in two project phases. The result is a guideline that supports funders in their implementation of inclusive policies.
In a first phase consisting of eight moderated online discussion rounds in 2021, disabled cultural workers, alongside representatives of funding bodies of the federal, state, and municipal government, as well as private foundations, formulated their needs and developed concrete ideas for the implementation of equitably designed cultural funding for cultural workers and audiences with disabilities. The report “Disabled artists in the mainstream: a new cultural agenda for Europe”, which was produced by the European Disability Arts Cluster network in March 2020, served as a point of reference. The results were summarised in a document that can be downloaded free of charge.
The second phase of the project (2022) focused on the dissemination of the results. Once again, staff members of funding programmes and cultural workers with disabilities were brought together. In a series of online events, which were preceded by many preliminary discussions with, among others, representatives of the film, theater and music sectors, foundational knowledge was communicated and new knowledge was gathered.
Topics included:
– The concrete implementation of barrier-free application procedures (including application forms, information on websites and counselling)
– Accessibility: structuring, planning and implementation
– Aesthetics and style (Aesthetics of Access)
– Governmental assistance services for cultural workers with disabilities
In addition, representatives of the British Council and the Arts Council England gave suggestions on how funding concepts in Germany can be newly focused based on the funding procedures that have been tried and tested for many years in Great Britain in order to sustainably and proactively support applicants and cultural audiences with disabilities.
More than 300 representatives of funding programmes and other interested parties took part in the events. The result is a guideline that can be downloaded free of charge. The guideline offers representatives of arts and cultural organizations a structured procedure for the identification and implementation of action steps.
We would like to thank all the dialogue partners, speakers at the training sessions and all participants who participated in the creation of the guideline in the spirit of United Inclusion.
We hope you enjoy reading and implementing the guidelines!
We look forward to your feedback.
Your Un-Label Team
