About: Fonds Darstellende Künste

For over 30 years, the Fonds Darstellende Künste has been one of the six federal cultural funds that support the arts and cultural landscape of the Federal Republic of Germany, with a special focus on promoting 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, contemporary circus, 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 is not only a funding body, but also sees itself as a service and consulting partner for independent artists and institutions. For this reason, the Fonds also pursues its particular aim of providing and further expanding a consultancy service that is tailored to the needs of the independent performing arts scene and is generally available to all. The Fonds provides interested applicants with multi-faceted advice, where requested, by telephone or e-mail, as well as in digital information events, on the possibilities of submitting an application within the framework of the Fonds' funding programs. More about the Fonds as a consultancy.

The Fonds provides information about realized projects and activities on an ongoing basis in its publicly accessible magazine and monthly newsletter, in order to provide a closer insight into the diverse activities of the independent performing arts.

With its discussion platforms, the Fonds facilitates the transfer of knowledge between art and society and contributes to substantive deliberations about 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 its role as a co-designer, for example through the BUNDESFORUM and other public discussion events. In its function as an intermediary, it works in close contact with artists, cultural-political actors, associations, and institutions of the performing arts to promote transparent, simplified funding regulations and grants and to strengthen art-oriented funding.