NRW CULTURE Secretariat
The NRW KULTURsekretariat is a public intercommunal culture promotion initiative of the big cities and a landscape association in North Rhine-Westphalia . It was founded in 1974 and is based in Wuppertal .
Profile and structure
As a municipal institution, the NRWKS organizes and promotes innovative projects, festivals and program series in the fields of theater, music, visual arts, literature and dance together with a large number of partners and cultural institutions. In addition, he is committed to transcultural projects and cultural education.
Since 2014, the focus has been on the fields of “international issues” and “digital culture”.
As an internal and external dialogue partner, the NRWKS stimulates cultural-political processes and discourses within the network and expands cultural competence through meetings and conferences on current and relevant topics.
As part of its international activities, the NRWKS coordinates and controls the "International Visitor Program" in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia . Journalists, curators, artists, cultural mediators and politicians from all over the world have been traveling with him to NRW since 2009 in order to jointly build sustainable networks and, if possible, develop eligible collaborations.
financing
The cultural secretariat is partially financed by the municipalities (current annual contribution: approx. 19,000 euros). It receives its project funds mainly from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, often also from other public and private partners. A total of around 2.3 million euros will be available from 2012 including the funds for international cultural work.
Working method
The cultural secretariat consists of a team of permanent and freelance employees who organize and coordinate the program work in close cooperation with the individual cultural partners, accompanied by selection committees, advisory boards and juries. The work of the cultural secretariat is controlled by the committees of the working committee and the general assembly. In addition, there is a regular program committee at the working level of the member cities. Funding is given in accordance with the program structure approved by the General Assembly.
- Acting Chair: Christiane Zangs, Head of Culture for the City of Neuss
- Deputy Chairman: Jörg Stüdemann, Head of Cultural Affairs for the City of Dortmund
- Director: Christian Esch (since April 2004)