"Against the grain. Cultural policy in the past and present of Saxony"

Thirty years ago—on August 1, 1994—the Saxon Cultural Region Act went into effect. That same month, the Institute for Cultural Infrastructure in Saxony was founded to support the implementation of the Cultural Region Act through research and teaching. To attract the experts needed for cultural policy, Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and the Institute established the Görlitz degree programme “Culture and Management” shortly thereafter; the programme has since produced approximately 500 graduates who are successfully working around the world.

30 years of the Saxon Cultural Area Act, 30 years of the Saxon Cultural Region Act, and 27 years of the “Culture and Management Görlitz” program—we would like to celebrate these milestones with you on Friday, May 24, 2024, in Görlitz, together with our university professor Matthias Theodor Vogt, the “father” of the Act. After 27 years, he is retiring from his university position with a keynote address on the future of cultural regions in Saxony. In collaboration with the Görlitz District and the Institute for Cultural Infrastructure in Saxony, we invite you to a symposium featuring keynote presentations from academia and the professional field, as well as a panel discussion.

When: May 24, 2024, starting at 2:00 p.m.

Where: Large Lecture Hall G I 1.01 at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, Brückenstr. 1, D-02826 Görlitz

We don’t just want to celebrate and engage in introspection within Saxony; we also want to gather external perspectives on the history and present state of cultural policy so that we can reflect together on the future of cultural spaces in Saxony over the next thirty years. We have invited speakers from the Council of Europe, as well as from Tokyo, Riga, Naples, Kraków, Marburg, and, of course, Görlitz, who will present key elements of state, municipal, and artist-led cultural policy “against the grain” through short presentations and talks. Following this, we will engage in a discussion with the chair of the Culture Committee in the Saxon State Parliament, members of the Culture Senate and the Culture Convention, as well as representatives from the art scene.