Cultural Education - intercultural dialogue
We enable individuals in our own company and beyond to be enriched by participation in the creative process. The program gives interested employees an insight into different art forms, thus fostering cultural and intercultural dialog - and also beyond the work environment. There are, for instance, regular outreach events in leading cultural institutions with curators, artists and collectors.
The Siemens Arts Program, in partnership with prestigious arts organizations and artists, also offers a unique development program for high potentials and future managers - SCENE (Siemens Cultural Empowerment for New Executives). Intensive engagement with artistic and cultural creatives and the associated development of cultural and intercultural competence is one of the keys to cultivating an innovation mindset within management.
- Studies reveal that 90% of Berlin’s artists are impacted by old-age poverty
- Artist studios and free spaces for art are steadily disappearing
- 84% of Berlin’s gallery owners and art dealers say they wouldn’t open a new gallery today
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Cultural places and a vibrant cultural scene are essential to maintaining innovative, successful urban development in Berlin. Yet, space in Berlin is getting scarcer and more expensive. How can public policymakers and the city support the drivers of culture and creativity? And what can private-sector businesses do to help maintain a city’s allure that’s extensively owed to its vibrant cultural life? These questions are currently sparking contentious debate not only in Berlin, but also in many of the world’s major cities. One forum for such dialog took place January 8 in Berlin when the Society of Friends of the Academy of Arts joined the Siemens Arts Program to host the 6th Capital Cultural Talk. Discussion centered on the banner theme of “Spaces for Culture”.
The podium panelists included artist Katharina Sieverding, the President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Hermann Parzinger, the former President of Berlin University of the Arts, Martin Rennert, and Matthias Sauerbruch of the Sauerbruch Hutton firm for architecture, urbanism and design. Among those attending in the audience were numerous Berlin artists and representatives from galleries, artists associations, and Berlin’s business world. After an almost two-hour discussion, moderator Stephan Frucht – Artistic Director of the Siemens Arts Program – summed up the demands facing public policymakers and the private sector.
Excerpt from the demands facing public policymakers, private-sector businesses, and civil society:
Berlin needs more free spaces for new as well as established artists. The city’s onward development as an urban area must allow and embrace the unregulated, the uncontrolled. There must be rights of first refusal for artists in the city center. Art also needs to sell in Berlin – so purchasing art must be incentivized by creating tax benefits. New requirements are needed for new building projects – building owners should offer 30% of the newly erected apartments at lower prices. Private-sector businesses should make studio space available at affordable prices. The dying-off of nightclubs must be prevented – the art scene and nightclubs go hand in hand, and form part of the city’s identity. Centers of arts should themselves become cities. Curating the outdoors – architecture alone cannot keep a city vibrantly alive. Museums and the creative scene must be more closely integrated with one another.
At end of the event, the Berlin artist Super Pop Boy called for society to look ahead and refocus more strongly on the future. Society should seek a place for the future, one that reflects today as well as tomorrow. He furthermore urged that art must relate to our lives today, and public policymakers should engage and devote greater attention to today’s art.
The artist Felix Stumpf added that, “Art is a yearning that doesn’t want to be controlled or commercially exploited. Art, with its energy, doesn't need these institutional thoughts."
Ute Weiss Leder of the Professional Association of Visual Artists Berlin (bbk berlin) made specific reference to the solutions her association has proposed.
Katharina Sieverding rounded out the discussion by paraphrasing the well-known saying: “Art is dead. Long live art!”
A drum roll for the versatility of music!
Kai Strobel, prize-winner of the ARD International Music Competition presented the vast spectrum of percussion music at the festive after-work concert in Munich. Afterwards, the Junge Chöre München (Munich youth choirs) were joined by the audience to share the holiday spirit by performing some well-loved seasonal songs.
Ending the year with a bang
An evening full of contrasts and surprises awaited the visitors of the afterwork concert in the auditorium of the Munich headquarters. The exceptional musician Kai Strobel (1st prize-winner of the ARD International Music Competition 2019 as well as winner of the Audience Award) presented percussion music in all its facets and showed that his instrument reveals loud and clear beats as well as nuanced and touching sounds.
Kai Strobel showcased almost all instruments percussion has to offer in his sophisticated program that covered a broad spectrum of music history. His performance included the baroque sounds of Bach's Cello Suite no. 3 (in arrangement for the vibraphone) as well as more rhythmic pieces, such as Gerassimez' Asventuras.
The second part of the concert revealed another end of the musical spectrum: as a surprise guest, the singers of the Junge Chöre München prepared a special encore full of contemplative Christmas carols for the astonished audience. The guests were actively invited to become part of the performance themselves.
New experiences lead to a new understanding of community
The audience’s enthusiasm for Kai Strobel’s performance as well as their willingness to actively take part by singing along to the youth choir, once again strengthened our conviction that creativity and culture can give new impulses and have the power to connect people. All in all, the afterwork concert was an enriching experience for the entire Siemens team - and a festive end-of-year celebration.
With the support of art experts from Siemens' cultural partners, the Siemens Arts Program offered a unique photo project for employees at the new Siemens headquarters. The colleagues at the Munich Headquarters captured images of everyday things that they hold dear and that motivate them daily. The teams then entered into a creative process of collaboration with the Siemens Arts Program.
More than 45 teams took part, and submitted over 400 photographs. A jury of experts assessed the pictures and selected the best. These are being displayed since May 2017 at the office walls of the new Siemens headquarters.
