About: Fonds Darstellende Künste

As one of the six federal cultural promotion funds, the Fonds Darstellende Künste (Performing Arts Fund) has been promoting the art and cultural landscape of the Federal Republic of Germany for over 30 years, with a special focus on the promotion of the independent performing arts.

The activities of the Fonds Darstellende Künste aim to strengthen art-oriented funding and stand for the professional and targeted development of artistic concepts and projects, always in the self-commissioning of artists. Through its support, the Fonds aims to make a substantial contribution to the further development of a diverse theatre, performance and dance landscape in Germany. To this end, it focuses on all fields of work and disciplines of the independent performing arts (drama, music theatre, dance, figure and object theatre, performance, theatre for young audiences, site-specific performances, performative installations, gaming, etc.) and supports projects that have the prospect of proving themselves in a professional environment.

Funding is provided for outstanding and qualitatively demanding projects, individual projects and project concepts that deal with socially relevant issues and are exemplary for independent theatre and dance due to their specific aesthetics, exemplary experimental arrangement or special interaction with the audience.

With additional special programmes, the Fonds Darstellende Künste repeatedly takes up social challenges and topics such as diversity, digitalisation, art in rural areas and the further development of aesthetic-artistic formats. In this way, it demonstrates the artistic and social relevance of the independent performing arts and creates opportunities for qualification and further development.

In order to mitigate the consequences of the Corona pandemic, the Fonds has also initiated extensive measures within the framework of NEUSTART KULTUR to strengthen the diversity of the independent performing arts and to enable independent artists to continue their artistic work under new working conditions due to the pandemic. More on the Fonds Darstellende Künste as a sponsor.

The Fonds Darstellende Künste receives its grants for the promotion of art and culture from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

The Fonds Darstellende Künste is not only a funding agency, but also sees itself as a service and advisory partner for independent artists and institutions. For this reason, the Fonds is also pursuing its particular concern to provide and further expand an advisory service tailored to the needs of the independent performing arts scene. The Fonds Darstellende Künste provides interested applicants with multi-layered and immediate advice on request by telephone or email and on site at information events about the individual possibilities of applying within the framework of the Fonds Darstellende Künste funding programmes. More on the Fonds Darstellende Künste as an advisor.

On an ongoing basis, the Fonds Darstellende Künste provides information about realized projects and activities in its publicly accessible magazine and monthly newsletter, in order to provide a closer look at the diverse activities of the freely producing performing arts.

With its discursive platforms, the Fonds Darstellende Künste facilitates the transfer of knowledge between art and society and contributes to fundamental considerations for the future design of Germany's theater landscape. In its work, the Fonds Darstellende Künste sees itself as a partner of the independent scene and the artistic community and actively assumes the role of co-designer, e.g. through events such as the BUNDESFORUM and public symposia. In its function as a mediator, it works in close contact with artists, cultural-political actors, associations and institutions of the performing arts to promote transparent, simplified funding regulations and awards and to strengthen art-oriented funding. More about The Fund as an actor.