NEUSTART KULTUR is a billion-dollar rescue program launched by Monika Grütters, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM). The funding is intended to enable cultural institutions to “reopen their houses and resume programs in order to offer artists and creative people prospects for employment and the future.” One billion euros was approved for this purpose in the summer of 2020. In March 2021, the program was increased by another billion. That sounds like a lot of money at first. But in view of the 9 billion euros that Lufthansa alone received, 2 billion for an entire industry is rather ridiculous.
There’s no question that this is unfair, and it’s no surprise that the German government is applying double standards. And yet the comparison is somewhat misleading, since different political actors are involved here and the federal government is not responsible for aid to the cultural and creative industries.
ONE PROGRAM AND MANY QUESTIONS
In Germany, the cultural sovereignty of the federal states applies. This means that legislation and administration in the areas of education, television, broadcasting and the arts are the responsibility of the states. Thus, the responsibility for Corona’s aid to the cultural sector also lies there. That’s why, for example, there are such big differences in the aid for club culture. In Berlin, these are comparatively good, in other federal states rather meager, as Lutz Leichsenring from the Berlin Club Commission explained to us. However, this has nothing to do with NEUSTART KULTUR.
Until now, we were not quite sure how the federal rescue program actually works. That’s why we asked. In fact, exactly where NEUSTART KULTUR is actually implemented.
However, since the program uses existing funding structures from the various subsectors of culture, there is no one institution here, but rather a confusing number of institutions, depending on the subsector of culture, that have been tasked with implementing the funding. The Music Initiative is one of them. It has to manage about 12% of the funds and thus already belongs to the larger institutions.
CULTURE COMPENSATION WITH A HOOK
The head of the press and public relations team of the Initiative Musik, Michael Wallies, explains to us that NEUSTART KULTUR, in contrast to the other Corona aid programs of the federal government or the states, is not intended as a bridging aid, but – as the name suggests – it is intended to enable musicians and companies to make a new start after or under Corona. Both concrete music projects and events are supported here. For example, the subprograms are intended to subsidize events that have to take place with significantly fewer visitors or as streaming events because of the Corona restrictions. The resulting loss of income and additional costs for the implementation of hygiene concepts are then to be compensated by the additional funds from NEUSTART KULTUR, thus enabling the resumption of cultural work.
Photo by Rob Simmons on Unsplash
The funding is therefore tied to specific projects, with which musicians, club makers and organizers can apply for funding. This is about the preservation of the cultural infrastructure and in this respect also about hygiene and security concepts.
However, the subprograms have a big catch: the events must actually take place or the projects must actually be implemented so that the funds can be called up in full. If the current Corona measures do not allow this, the funds are only available for the planning measures that have been approved on a pro-rata basis. In addition, each grant is only approved for a specific period of time during which the project must be implemented. Beyond that, the entitlement to the funding expires.
PERMANENT DIALOG
On the one hand, this is due to the fact that the program was conceived in the summer of 2020 with the prospect of opening up the cultural sector, which has failed to materialize to date, apart from a few on-off twitches. On the other hand, it is also due to the fact that NEUSTART KULTUR largely uses existing funding structures, such as those of the Initiative Musik, which first had to be adapted with regard to the Corona situation. In addition to the existing funding and in dialogue with the institutions, new subprograms were set up to provide additional help to those affected in the cultural and event sector.
Since the start, these subprograms have been continuously adapted in a constant dialog between the funding institutions, the professional associations and the BKM, Michael Wallies assures us. For example, the funding approved last year originally had to be realized by summer 2021. There is now an extension until the end of the year, as most of the approved projects could not yet be implemented.
In order to better and more quickly adapt the programs to realities, new positions were created in the institutions entrusted with NEUSTART KULTUR and their committees, which were filled with professionally experienced persons from the respective sub-sector of the cultural and creative industries. Their expertise serves to improve the programs.
TOO LITTLE MONEY FOR ARTISTS
In the Music Initiative, three subprograms of NEUSTART KULTUR are implemented for the live sector. Funding is provided for music clubs, festivals and event organizers. For these programs, the Initiative Musik has approximately 115 million euros at its disposal within the framework of NEUSTART KULTUR.
The additional volume of funding for artists is much smaller. In the previous year, the Initiative Musik was provided with an additional 10 million euros. While Michael Wallies considers the funding volume for the live sector to be quite adequate – as mentioned, it is not intended to ensure the survival of the clubs, but “only” to enable them to restart – the additional funds for artist funding are simply too little. In concrete terms, this means that not all eligible applications will receive the corresponding funding.
No new structures or programs were created for the promotion of artists, but the existing ones of the Initiative Musik were used and expanded. Even before NEUSTART KULTUR, a jury was appointed to consider applications and decide which projects would receive funding. The jury represents a cross-section of the music industry; both in terms of field of activity and genre expertise. The current chairman of this jury is Oliver von Felbert, label boss of Melting Pot Music and rooted in hip-hop. We talked to him about the jury’s work. One thing quickly becomes clear. Due to the pandemic and the program of NEUSTART KULTUR, the work of the jury has changed a lot:
Chairman of the Jury Oliver von Felbert
“The responsibility we bear today as a jury is many times greater. Before Corona, musicians financed themselves through music sales, fees, GEMA and GVL. Whereby the fees paid the rent for most of them. In normal times, we supported projects that were able to realize their full potential thanks to the Initiative Musik. Today, an acceptance or rejection can be existentially decisive. This naturally influences the work of the jury. We are all from the industry ourselves and know the situation firsthand.”
In addition, the number of applications has increased enormously. Whereas before Corona the 12 members of the jury had to decide on 100 to 150 applications per round, in the last two rounds in 2020 they had a combined total of 2,300 applications on the table.
“To cope with this, the 12-member jury was enlarged to 20 members and subgroups were formed, divided by genre. Nevertheless, the workload for us as a jury is much greater. At the same time, it’s immensely motivating when you know you can help people substantially, which we currently can thanks to Neustart Kultur.”
GAMECHANGER
In order to somehow do justice to the difficult situation, the existing program was adapted. Before NEUSTART KULTUR, the Initiative Musik’s artist funding was structured in such a way that the artists or their label or publisher had to finance 60% of the project themselves. If the project was approved, the Initiative would contribute the remaining 40%. During the pandemic, however, it is completely unclear whether the project will be able to bring in any money at all because of the fallow live sector, so that the personal contribution becomes a major hurdle. To respond to this, the funding percentage was increased to 90%, which gives the funded artists* greater freedom in planning. From Oliver von Felbert’s point of view, the significant increase of the funding share from 40% to 90% is an absolute gamechanger. A typical funding project is around 20,000 euros. This means that artist and label had to co-finance it with an own contribution of 12.000 Euro before. For the same project, in the last two rounds, they only had to bring in an own contribution of 2,000 euros.
As happy as Oliver is about the increase from NEUSTART KULTUR, the money is simply not enough. Of the more than 2,000 applications in the last two rounds in 2020, only 648 could be funded.
“We had significantly more eligible projects than funds. Making the right decisions here is difficult and it hurts when you have to reject a good application because there is simply not enough money. The decisions we ultimately make are the result of close scrutiny and joint consideration based on the funding guidelines. There is no magic formula for perfect and 100% equitable distribution, in my opinion.”
For example, it can be decisive from which federal state the applicants come or in which genre they are active. If only one jazz application comes from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, it has a higher chance than one of the 100 applications for techno projects from Berlin. That sounds unfair, of course, but when funding is limited in this way, such things inevitably become relevant.
“THE MUSIC INITIATIVE IS NOT THE TAX OFFICE”.
Oliver reports after each funding round to the supervisory board of Initiative Musik, where the BKM and the other funders such as the GVL and GEMA are also represented.
“Of course I report to the supervisory board how difficult and also sad the last round was and that the funds were not enough again. Hopefully the members of the supervisory board take this information with them. That’s all we can do as a jury here.”
While the Initiative Musik and its jury do not make policy themselves, they do engage in dialogue with decision-makers* in order to constantly adapt the program to real-life circumstances. As a funding body, it provides advice and support to applicants, and Oliver recommends contacting them for initial feedback before submitting an application.
“You don’t submit an application via WhatsApp!” he says jokingly. “It’s more comparable to a business plan. That’s where it pays to ask questions in advance at Initiative Musik. Of course, they’re insanely busy at the moment. But the Initiative Musik is not the tax office, it has a mandate to help.”
SOCIETY NEEDS MUSIC
At the end of the day, despite everything, Oliver walks away from a funding round with a positive feeling because they were able to help a lot of creative people. But of course, he wishes that politicians would treat the cultural and creative industries with the same appreciation as they do Lufthansa
“We don’t have a lobby like the automotive industry, the banks or the energy industry. Ex-ministers who switch to Universal or the VUT are also rather rare. We only make music. But music is necessary for a good life and it feeds a hell of a lot of people in this country. And that is especially true for young people. And that’s where we wish to be seen and heard just as much, and to get help just as naturally and quickly.”
The 53rd funding round of the Initiative Musik is currently underway, and this time, too, the jury has five million euros at its disposal. In view of the large deficits, this is rather a drop in the bucket. But perhaps it will at least save some from having to leave the creative industry, as Jana Scheffert from the Berlin Music Commission said in an interview with us.
Leave a Reply