Blog
In its blog, the Fonds provides in-depth insights into current developments, funding activities, goals, and projects through interviews, video statements, and talks with guests.
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„Ein Theater für alle Menschen"
© Dorothea Tuch
12 May 2026
Wolfgang Schneider hat die deutsche Kultur- und Theaterpolitik wesentlich geprägt, als Vorstandsvorsitzender zehn Jahre lang auch den Fonds Darstellende Künste. Zum Abschied beim „Fonds.Salon“ betonte er die Bedeutung der Theaterlandschaft.
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Neuer Vorstand des Fonds Darstellende Künste gewählt
© Anne John
07 May 2026
Der Fonds Darstellende Künste hat seinen Vorstand neu gewählt: Amelie Deuflhard und Anne-Cathrin Lessel wurden bestätigt, Sabine Gehm neu gewählt. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schneider wurde nach zehn Jahren feierlich verabschiedet.
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„Ich wollte immer Kunst ermöglichen“
© Heike Steinweg
04 May 2026
Wer hält den Fonds Darstellende Künste am Laufen? Eine der Personen hinter den Kulissen ist Christina Roth, Verwaltungsleiterin und stellvertretende Geschäftsführerin und seit zehn Jahren mit dafür verantwortlich, dass Abläufe funktionieren und Gelder fließen. Ein Gespräch über Corona, seine Nachwirkungen und Kulturförderung heute.
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Stadt, Land, Probe
© Rainer Schlautmann
30 Mar 2026
Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius, Anna Foerster-Baldenius und Andrea Hofmann von dem mit dem Tabori Preis 2026 ausgezeichneten Kollektiv raumlaborberlin im Gespräch mit Christine Wahl.
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And the winners are...
16 Mar 2026
The 2026 Tabori Prize from the Fonds Darstellende Künste goes to raumlaborberlin—and we extend our warmest congratulations to HELLERAU on winning the Federal Theatre Prize. The award ceremony will take place on April 17, 2026, at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
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GLOBAL VILLAGE KIDS – Art for a New Generation
26 Feb 2026
What happens when children and young people shape the world through art?
GLOBAL VILLAGE KIDS opens creative spaces — in rural regions and across the digital universe. The funding program brings together the independent performing arts and cultural education, empowering young people who have had limited access to culture.Tags
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Fond kicks off funding year 2026 – an overview
15 Jan 2026
The Fonds Darstellende Künste (Performing Arts Fund) is kicking off its 2026 funding year with new programs – but also new challenges. Steffen Klewar, program director at the Fonds, presents all of the funding programs in this video.
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Funding year 2026: Fund responds to new challenges
08 Jan 2026
Although funding for the Fonds has been stabilised in the 2026 federal budget, this cannot compensate for the consequences of the complete cancellation of nationwide projects and networks. In order to safeguard artistic work despite foreseeable deficits and structural gaps, the Fonds is making adjustments to its funding program.
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“Not appropriate”: Why cuts to the culture budget threaten the independent scene
04 Dec 2025
Funding for the independent performing arts is falling from €22 million (2024) to €8.5 million – a cut of two-thirds. Holger Bergmann warns that this jeopardizes cultural freedom and innovative strength. The Fonds is calling on the BKM to take countermeasures.
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Review: Funded Projects in 2025
© Boris Barukcic
02 Dec 2025
In our annual review, we provide an insight into the wide range of projects that were realized in 2025 in all of the funds' funding programs. The compiled image gallery presents a selection of supported productions, premieres, and events, illustrating the breadth and quality of the artistic practice that was made possible by the Fonds' funding. View now on Instagram.
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Joint appeal from the independent performing arts
01 Dec 2025
The culture and media budget allocated to the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), Minister of State Wolfram Weimer, will increase to around €2.57 billion in 2026 – yet essential structures of the independent performing arts remain unsecured.
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Art requires freedom and courage
15 Oct 2025
The Fonds managing director, Holger Bergmann, looks back on two intensive days of events, the results of the individual workshops, important insights from the panel discussions and statements: Art needs freedom and courage to face current social challenges, art needs stable funding beyond the logic of individual projects – and it needs “alliances that are bigger than ourselves.”
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Tabori Preis 2025 | Das war die Preisverleihung
15 Oct 2025
On September 25, 2025, as part of The Show Must Go On. BUNDESTREFFEN25 at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, the Tabori Prize was awarded for the 16th time—the highest national award for the independent performing arts. The 2025 Tabori Prize went to pulk fiktion. Highlights from the award ceremony can be found here.
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Black Box - White Cube: New narratives, diversity of forms, aesthetic risks or ancient blockages?
© Dorothea Tuch
13 Oct 2025
Independent performing arts create spaces for diversity, empathy, and social renewal—beyond market logic and political appropriation. Heinrich Horwitz summarizes the artists' workshop and advocates for protection, participation, and stable funding structures.
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Taking responsibility: Who represents whom and how?
© Dorothea Tuch
13 Oct 2025
Legitimacy, participation, and resources are key prerequisites—supplemented by creative competence, cooperation, and structural support. Anna Steinkamp and Helge-Björn Meyer summarized the workshop for interest groups at BUNDESTREFFEN25 as a plea for strong, agile organizations in the independent scene.
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ON HOLD. HOLD ON
© Dorothea Tuch
13 Oct 2025
Art needs freedom, trust, and reliable structures. At the end of the second day of the BUNDESTREFFEN25 event, Annemie Vanackere provided an insight into the topics and demands of the workshop for theater and festival managers.
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“Remaining effective” – self-positioning & scope for action
© Dorothea Tuch
13 Oct 2025
In times of precariousness and competition, fair conditions, open spaces, and genuine solidarity are crucial for cultural effectiveness. Felizitas Stilleke provided an insight into the topics covered in the workshops and made a plea for attitude, sustainability, and shared responsibility.
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Under Pressure
© Dorothea Tuch
06 Oct 2025
The BUNDESTREFFEN25 of the Independent Performing Arts at HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin, with its motto “The Show Must Go On,” provided an opportunity for coming together, exchanging views, taking stock, discussions and looking to the future. Impressions of the two-day event by cultural journalist Thomas Kaestle.
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Freie Darstellende Künste in Deutschland
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The big swimming pool feeling
© Christian Knieps
15 Sep 2025
The theater group pulk fiktion receives the fund's Tabori Prize 2025. Hannah Biedermann and Lisa Zehetner, the artistic directors, talk to Christine Wahl about the Tabori Prize 2025.
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