ON THE WRONG TRACK: BUDGET CUTBACKS AT THE HAUS DER KULTUREN DER WELT

Camaradas, rejubilai. Não estais sózinhos. O comunicado da Haus der Kulturen der Welt desta semana:

The Federal Foreign Office, which with the State Minister at the Federal Chancellery for Culture and Media provides the basic funds for programs at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, has resolved to reduce our regular funding by 20 percent. This will mean a loss of €250,000 for our 2011 program - and the forced cancellation of one of our festivals. The intended cutbacks come at very short notice. Because many contracts have already been concluded for projects over the next several years, our credibility as a contractual partner is threatened. Secure basic program funding is a precondition for attracting additional funds for specific projects. Should the announced measures go forward, not only will the €250,000 be lost, but potentially also special program funding.

This poses an unacceptable shortfall. We need every euro for the productions and projects that we promote. The Haus der Kulturen der Welt is neither a venue for prefabricated programs nor a mere station for touring events. Original cultural events are produced and important debates initiated here. Our strength in creating innovative programs is directly endangered by the cutback planned by the Foreign Office.

We are engaged in talks to find a solution to this problem. We will keep you informed as the situation develops.

We Fund!

WeFund é uma organização que se propõe angariar financiamento para espectáculos (e outros projectos de natureza criativa) recorrendo ao sistema de crowdsourcing, um pouco à semelhança do projecto Kiva. A possibilidade de se acompanhar o ponto de situação sobre a angariação, recorrendo a infografia muito simples, é apelativa e compreensível. Por si só, não é solução para nada, mas sempre é mais uma fonte de financiamento. No FT d'hoje.

Henryk Górecki

For a fund drive during the summer of 1992, KCRW, the Santa Monica College public radio station, ordered 25 copies of a newly released Nonesuch recording of Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 as a membership premium.

General Manager Ruth Seymour aired a little bit of this slow “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs,” as the Polish composer subtitled his 54-minute score for soprano and orchestra. Written in 1976, it sets texts of lamentation, including a prayer inscribed on the wall of a prisoner’s cell in a Gestapo headquarters in Poland.

Seymour told her listeners to stop what they were doing, light a candle, maybe pour a glass of wine and attend to this important minimal, modal music. Many subscribers said they pulled over to listen. Those 25 premiums were snapped up in an instant. More were ordered.

It didn’t take long for both public and independent radio stations around the country to get wind of this. And by winter, London had jumped on the Górecki bandwagon, as well. The royal family reportedly lighted candles, poured wine and listened, along with bankers chilling out and punk rockers as they came down from amphetamines. One British radio station played the symphony daily for weeks on end. Dawn Upshaw, the soprano on the recording (which also featured David Zinman conducting the London Sinfonietta), was ogled like a rock star when walking through Piccadilly Circus.

The recording, which sold more than a million copies, reached No. 6 on the U.K. top 10 pop chart and was the No. 1 classical recording in the U.S. for a full year. Hardly a week went by in 1993 without an orchestra somewhere in the world playing Górecki’s Third Symphony. The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s contribution to the Los Angeles Festival that summer was a performance of the symphony at the Hollywood Bowl.