Tag Archives: culture policy

Cuts Planned for Culture in Germany 2025

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Despite the fact that the budget for federal cultural funding in Germany is set to remain stable and even grow, massive cuts have been announced for the upcoming budget negotiations for 2025 in autumn. The funds of the five central funding foundations German Literature Fund – German Translators’ Fund – Performing Arts Fund-
Socioculture Fund – Music Fund – Art Fund Foundation – are to be halved. 

The Federal Humanitarian Admission Programme for Afghanistan, which came into force in 2022 and is intended to enable Afghan nationals who have been particularly exposed through their commitment to women’s and human rights or through their activities in the fields of justice, politics, media, education, culture, sport, or science and are therefore individually at risk to be able to leave for Germany, is also to be massively cut.  The programme was designed for 44,000 people to be admitted to Germany, 26,000 of whom had already arrived in October 2022. Two years later, only 533 people have been accepted into the programme. Artists make up around 20% of this. In Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, independent artistic creation is not possible. Artists are persecuted, especially women.
The government draft envisages massive cuts to the programme, making it almost impossible to continue it in a meaningful way. 

The Federal Cultural Funds have published a joint statement, while the German Cultural Council, the umbrella organisation of German cultural organisations, has appealed in its statement to Germany’s responsibility for artists in Afghanistan and called for action in the budget negotiations.

Sources (German):  Joint statement of the Federal Culture Funds,
Press release German Cultural Council 

Supporting Artists on the Frontline

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In March 2023, at the Salzburg Global Seminar session “On the Front Lines: Artists at Risk, Artists who Risk”, a global assembly of fifty artists, activists, and representatives from supporting organizations spanning forty countries united to create the Salzburg Statement on Supporting Artists on the Front Line. The session explored the intersection of contemporary art, activism, politics, law, research, technology, ethics and organizing.  The final statement urges institutions shaping social and cultural policies to create an enabling, human rights-based environment that supports artists at risk.
By the end of 2025, policymakers, funders, and international organizations are called upon to:

  1. Conduct a comprehensive study of factors inhibiting creative workers’ artistic freedom and cultural rights.
  2. Produce a detailed report on best practices for identifying, evaluating, and addressing the needs of creative workers at risk.
  3. Establish legal frameworks for Emergency Artistic Freedom visas, ensuring entry and work authorizations for creative workers at risk.
  4. Allocate resources to support the relocation and professional development of at-risk creative workers.
  5. Integrate artistic and cultural rights into international policy work, prioritizing them in state and human rights NGO agendas.
  6. Recognize artists as essential partners in addressing sustainable development, democracy, and innovation, prioritizing their collective expression and activities in the human rights field.

Sources:  Meeting report (PDF), The Salzburg Statement (PDF)