In Spring 2024, the IKMW conducted a comprehensive study on Germany’s largest music school in Bochum – the inventors of the JeKits (Every Child an Instrument or Dance) program. The aim was to determine whether in accordance with the Music School’s self-image and mission it could win over the Society of Bochum in all its diversity for the music school’s offerings, how the music school’s offerings are rated by its users, and what image the music school creates as a result. Questionnaires and group discussions were used to examine three target groups that were considered particularly relevant for anchoring music in a person’s life: parents of six months- to three-years-olds, elementary school students from grades 1 to 4 participating in the JeKits lessons, and young instrumental and singing students of theMusic School Bochum aged 14 to 18.
The results confirm the great effectiveness of the approach developed at the Bochum Music School under the name JeKits, which allows all primary school pupils in Bochum to take part in specific lessons in the 1st grade, conducted by teachers from the Music School together with primary school teachers – followed by voluntary instrumental or singing lessons from the 2nd to the 4th grade. In the 1st grade, all Bochum residents in this cohort are thus reached with a tailor-made musical education offer. But even in the voluntary instrumental or singing lessons in grades 2 to 4, the proportion of people with an immigrant or non-academic background is higher than in the other user groups. At the same time, the evaluations of the work of the teachers are just as excellent as those of the Bochum Music School as a whole – across all three areas analysed.
Nevertheless challenges are also becoming clear: One desideratum is to get young people with an immigrant background and a non-academic background more interested in the music school after the offers in primary school. Starting points could be lessons on instruments from the cultures of origin, but also offers related to youth cultures such as hip hop or electronic music. In view of the success of the JeKits program, integration into the formal educational environment – the schools – would be the best way to really reach „everyone“ with these offers.
Curtains shut? Curtains up!
Lecture at Conference of the Evangelische Akademie Loccum
For two days the conference „Vorhang zu?“ („Curtains shut?“) at the Evangelische Akademie Loccum convened representatives of theatres, scientists and journalists, discussing future perspectives and roles of theatres – with a specific focus on the situation in the state of Lower Saxony. (Find the conference’s agenda to download here: Vorhang zu_Agenda)
From the research and publications of the IKMW, Klaus Siebenhaar contributed central trend in composition, behaviour and expectations of theatre audiences – together with recommendations regarding the choice of target groups, programming policies, enhancing atmosphere and visitor’s experience as well as state-of-the-art communication with the post-pandemic public. (Find the slides for the lecture to download here: Vorhang auf_Loccum_24-01-16)
City – Theatre – Public
Audience and Population Study for the Niedersächsische Staatstheater Hannover published
The Niedersächsische Staatstheater Hannover are one of the most long-standing and largest German Three-Genre-Theater houses, exemplary for artistic diversity and proximity to citizens. Not least because of this it has commissioned this study that is now available as a book.
It is the first comprehensive post-pandemic research, including both the general population and the audience encountered in the performances. It gives insight into the theatre audience’s socio-demographic profiles, residencies and motivations, but also into new orientations or preferences of former visitors.
Beyond the example of the Niedersächsische Staatstheater the research conveys valuable general data-based and contextualized findings for regaining inactive are newly acquiring abstinent target groups.
At the Niedersächsischen Staatstheater Hannover the IKMW together with several departments have already begun to develop concrete measures from the research, to prepare and accompany their implementation. The results are now at hand, the work in the theatres can begin.
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.
Art heals!
Hungarian-Chinese-German „Art Clinic“ opened in Budapest
On the weekend 13/14 May 2022 the „First Aid-Art Clinic” was opened in Budapest’s Bartok-Distrikt (11. District) as a part of the Budapest “Sprig Festival”. The art project was developed over the course of almost five months in a cooperation between the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) Beijing, the Eleven Blokk Art Foundation, Budapest, and the IKMW Berlin, a cooperation that was unconventional both organizationally and in the manner of curating. As a hybrid format with “distance curating”, diglog field research and a concrete physical realization in five real sites in Budapest, the “Art Clinic developed into a successful, very well frequented art event. At the same time it proved an exemplary creative model for international cooperation under times of the pandemic. There will be further projects of this kind in the constellation Budapest-Berlin-Beijing following this encouraging experiences and outcomes.
Building on the core idea that art heals the ten upcoming curators from China and Hungary developed a narration comprising five stations: „Show Your Wound“, „Land of Demons“, „Cross the Boarder, Ferryman“, „Wonderland Cythera“ and „Paradise: Arcadia“. A path from hurt toward eventual healing is represented and told with different artistic formats from Hungarian and Chinese artists.
New directions in familiar areas
The IKMW expands and enlarges its portfolio in the direction of academic training in the areas arts and media administration and cultural and media education. Academic training for young leaders from organizations in the arts and creative industries, summer schools for students, campus development and lecture programs are conceived and realized in cooperation with the National University of Mongolia in Ulan Bator and the Zeppelin Universität Friedrichshafen. The existing lecture obligations with the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing and the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg in Mannheim are continued, as well as the lectures of Klaus Siebenhaar as Professor at the Freie Universität Berlin.
For the new analog and digital training projects in the area of cultural and media education the IKMW enlarges its team with the internationally experienced project developer and manager Stephan Reischl. Together with Dipl. päd. Dagmar Boeck-Siebenhaar he will develop and lead this area. First programs are planned for autumn and winter 2021.
Impact and success factors of Extended Reality in Arts and Creative Industries
Impact study for EU-funded cooperation project REAL IN
IKMW will perform a mixed-method research project for the international ccoperation project REAL IN, with partners in Avignon, Barcelona, Hamburg, Milano und Marseille. The study will provide an analysis of the impact of new Extended Reality-applications in different art genres and creative industries sectors developed by interdisciplinary teams on visitors and users – together with a documentation of aesthetic, organisational/managerial and technologic success factors.
Audience Development Seminar at the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg
Online-seminar for future musicians and music business professionals
While public life gradually becomes possible again, Achim Müller has held his seminar „Audience Development“ for the course „Kulturmanagement“ of the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg in Mannhein online again on May 31 2021.
The one-day course provided basic concepts and relevant strategies of implementation both conceptually and in the form of own practical experience through group work on cases. In dem eintägigen Intensivkurs wurden Basiskonzepte. Pedagogic instruments were thus transferred to the digital sphere in order to prepare for the challenges in music business despite the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dreams come from the past, not from the future
Exhibition at Foundation Starke presents young Hungarian as first part of a bridge between Berlin and Budapest
Together with Dániel Ongjerth from the Eleven Blokk Foundation Budapest, Klaus Siebenhaar has realized the exhibition „Dreams come from the past, not from the future“, the first part of a long-term cooperation between Berlin and Budapest.
From August 30 to September 23 2018 the exhibition curated by Flóra Gadó showed young Hungarian art, addressing the tension between tradition and contemporaneity in very different positions and formats. The exhibition is looking at dreams and visions from the past to obtain a deeper understanding of the present and the future – und thereby impulses for the two European metropoles undergoing fundamental transitions.
As a second part of the cooperation there has been an international conference organized by the Night Mayor Budapest on September 27 2018, offering an exchange of experiences about development strategies at the intersection between club culture, creative industries and urban society.
Headquarter Löwenpalais
The IKMW together with B&S Siebenhaar Verlag+Medien have set up their new headquarters in the affluent Grunewald. Through the combination the broad lounge and exhibition spaces of the Starke Foundation the new location also offers manifold possibilities for events and ccoperations.
