IKMW performs empirical research in the areas of arts, media and education. The scope of research ranges from visitor and user research across arts market research in national and international contexts to feasibility studies for projects and arts infrastructure, business sector analysis as well as research on trend in media/media cultures. Specifically this includes studies at the intersection of arts, technology, organization development and cultural communication/education (see TADE 21). Selected studies are published continuously.

Publications from the work of the IKMW

Klaus Siebenhaar, Achim Müller (eds.): Timehouse: Where are we NOW? Booklet for the exhibition at the Löwenpalais Berlin. Berlin 2023.

Klaus Siebenhaar, Achim Müller: Real time Extended reality Applications and Languages to Innovate creative industries‘ Narratives – Impact Study and Policy Recommendations. Berlin 2022.

Klaus Siebenhaar: Schlesinger-Affäre: So schafft man sich selbst ab. Berliner Morgenpost online, updated 15.08.2022.

Klaus Siebenhaar: Cosmos Beuys. Art – World View – documenta. Berlin 2022.

Klaus Siebenhaar: Traum von der Teilhabe. Was Kulturinstitutionen zur Erhöhung ihrer
Reichweite leisten können – und was nicht. In: Museumsjournal, Issue 3/22.

Klaus Siebenhaar: documenta. Die Geschichte der Weltkunstausstellung. Berlin 2022.

Klaus Siebenhaar: Kosmos Beuys. Kunst – Weltbild – documenta. Peking/Berlin 2021.

Achim Müller, Klaus Siebenhaar: Kassel, seine städtischen Museen und ihr Publikum. Eine vergleichende Besucherstudie, Berlin 2020.

Klaus Siebenhaar, Achim Müller: Unternehmerische Kulturförderung in Deutschland, Berlin 2019.

Klaus Siebenhaar, Achim Müller: Opernsänger mit Zukunft! Karriereaussichten für Nachwuchssänger im deutschen Kulturbetrieb – Analysen, Erfahrungen, Empfehlungen, Gütersloh 2019.

Gunnar Bender, Ralf Herbrich, Klaus Siebenhaar (Hrsg.): Mit Optimismus in die Zukunft sehen. Künstliche Intelligenz – Chancen und Rahmenbedingungen. Berlin 2018.

Klaus Siebenhaar, Achim Müller: Bildung für die Praxis. Studiengänge für die Berliner Musikwirtschaft, Berlin 2018.

Achim Müller, Klaus Siebenhaar: European Theatre and the Public. Development, Orientations and Evidence, Berlin 2016.

Klaus Siebenhaar: Auftrag Publikum. Der Hochkulturbetrieb zwischen Audience Development und Ereignisästhetik, Berlin 2015.

Like few other art event the documenta fifteen is dividing the public: A very critical, sometimes scandal-evoking media public is facing a public of visitors „on site“ in Kassel that is rather characterised by curiosity, openness and an exploratory mindset.

Commissioned and supported by the „Bürgerbündnis documenta fifteen“ (Citizens‘ Alliance documenta fifteen), this setup was incentive enough for the IKMW to give the visitors‘ and citizens‘ voices a possibility to express themselves through interviews, reports and essayistic text on a curated website.  In the course of the last weeks of documenta and in the months to come they will for the first time grow into a work-in.progress „citizens‘ book.

Publication from research project of IKMW on perspectives for a digilog theatre practice

In Autumn 2022 results from the research project „Double Live“ will be published at B&S Siebenhaar Verlag+Medien. The book will merge the findings from qualitative interviews with numerous key players in the theater sector of German-speaking countries on the impact and coping strategies during and after the COVID-19 pandemic with exiting studies and data and submit it to an in-depth analysis.

Specific focus will be put on recommendations and best-practice examples for „digilog“ strategies and formats, complementing the still viable analog pratice of theater with state-of-the-art and sustainable digital and hybrid formats – ranging from programming and education through communication and distribution to organization development, competence buildung and necessary technical infrastructure.

IKMW shows relevance for city society and region in most comprehensive study on municipal museums

From March 2019 to January 2020 the IKMW together with the Museum of Natural History and the City Museum Kassel questioned the visitors of these two museums in the most comprehensive visitor survey on municipal museums in Germany to date. 3.721 completed surveys give a detailed image of the audience structure, its visiting behavior, expectations and satisfaction with the museums.

The results show that the population of Kassel and the surrounding region is perfectly represented in the museums‘ audiences. The two museums – among the 10% most successful museums of their type in Germany according to their visitor numbers – are „museums for everyone“.

Large shares of young visitors, wide reach, also beyond the region, and very high levels of satisfaction – the indicators give hope that the two museums will continue to motivate the population of the city and the region in all its diversity to get in touch with natural and city history.

The study „Kassel, seine städtischen Museen und ihr Publikum. Eine vergleichende Besucherstudie“ can be purchased at retailers oder directly at B&S Siebenhaar Verlag.

This is the press information on the publication.

Presentation of new study by IKMW and the Kulturkreis der Deutschen Wirtschaft e.V.

Along with the comprehensive public financing of art and culture, private funding also contributes to maintaining and expanding of the cultural infrastructure in Germany that is exemplary in its quantitity and quality. Enterprises and entrepreneurs stand in a long tradition of philanthropic engagement and are conscious about their societal responsibility while doing so. How is the status quo of the practice of funding, its motives, concepts and strategies in a changing cultural and societal surrounding marked by transformations? Which topics, with cultural sectors are preferred by private funding of art and culture? Which societal requirements or deficits and problems are enterprises answering to?

After its first study on corporate funding of culture more than ten years ago the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft im BDI e. V. (Association of Arts and Culture of the German Economy at the Federation of German Industries e. V.) together with the authors Klaus Siebenhaar and Achim Müller from the Institute for Arts and Media Industries Berlin provide answers to these questions. To do so enterprises in Germany from all sectors have once again been surveyed. Along with quantitative and qualitative surveys this second study for the first time includes an analysis of applications to the Deutschen Kulturförderpreis (Art Sponsorship Award). Beyond this another the focus of the analysis lies with overarching recommendations for the future practice of funding arts and culture.

The study has been presented by Dr. Franziska Nentwig, Managing Head Kulturkreis together with Klaus Siebenhaar and Achim Müller, IKMW, in the Haus der Deutschen Wirtschaft in Berlin on October 22, 2019.

Frederik Hanssen writes about the study in the Tagesspiegel.

Hans Böhringer gives an insight into it in the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung .

The book can be ordered at B&S Siebenhaar Verlag+Medien among other sources.