Kultur-Land unter?
Cultural work in rural regions
Cultural work in rural and small-town regions creates spaces for artistic exchange and cultural education, promotes social cohesion and local development. However, scarce resources and a strengthening of right-wing extremism pose challenges for culture.
How can artists, municipalities and local stakeholders work together to make their work sustainable and respond to the needs of the population?
Welcome: Manos Tsangaris, President of the Akademie der Künste
With Matthias Frohl, Thomas Krüger, Helge Lindh, Birgit Lohmeyer, Marion Neumann, Oliver Wolf aka Olsen, Sophia Trollmann, Christian Tschirner
Moderation: Johanna M. Keller, Head of Programming at the Akademie der Künste
Short biographies of the participants:
Matthias Frohl (born 1960 in Weißenfels/Saale) studied art education and history at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig from 1980 to 1984. He has been working as an art and history teacher in Brandenburg an der Havel since 1984. As part of his teaching activities, he was seconded to the children’s and youth art gallery “Sonnensegel” e.V. in 2007. He has been the director and managing director of this “Recognized Art School of the State of Brandenburg” since 2008.
Thomas Krüger (born 1959) has been President of the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) since 2000. His political career began in 1989 as a co-founder of the Social Democrats in the GDR (SDP), where he worked as managing director in East Berlin and as a member of the People's Chamber until 1990. In 1990, he took over the office of First Deputy Mayor of East Berlin as well as the function of City Councillor for Internal Affairs in the Magistrate and the Joint State Government. From 1991 to 1994, he was Berlin's Senator for Youth and Family, before serving as a member of the German Bundestag between 1994 and 1998.
Helge Lindh (born 1976 in Wuppertal) studied applied cultural studies, sociology, history and linguistics. He has been a member of the SPD since 1999. In 2010 and 2011, he was deputy chairman of Jusos Wuppertal. He has been the representative for political education on the SPD Wuppertal board since 2012 and was re-elected to this position in 2014 and 2016. He took over the chairmanship of the PG Migration and founded the AG Migration und Vielfalt Wuppertal in 2015, which he has chaired ever since. He has been a member of the German Bundestag and spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group on democracy since 2017. In 2021, he was appointed to the board of Herzinitiative Wuppertal. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the German Historical Museum and a deputy member of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
Birgit Lohmeyer studied educational science with a focus on deviance education and criminology, completed psychotherapeutic training and worked for years in Hamburg to help people living on the margins of society. Her first psychological thriller was published in 1998; others followed. She is a member of the Association of German Writers (VS) and PEN Germany and also works as a journalist. She teaches literary writing as a lecturer. She has lived with her husband Horst Lohmeyer on the Baltic coast of Mecklenburg in the tiny village of Jamel since 2004. In 2005, the village began to be populated by several right-wing extremist families, who now make up at least 95 % of the village population. As a method of self-protection against the aggressive intimidation and attacks by the right-wing extremists, the Lohmeyers began to organize public cultural events, such as the “Jamel rockt den Förster” festival, on their former forestry farm and are also active as speakers in political education. They have received several awards for their commitment.
Marion Neumann has been head of the Akademie der Künste's KUNSTWELTEN education programme since 2012. Previously, she was a consultant in the presidential department for the Akademie Presidents Walter Jens (writer and philologist), György Konrád (writer), Adolf Muschg (writer) and Klaus Staeck (graphic designer, publisher and poster artist) and a research assistant at the Akademie der Künste of the GDR. She studied German, English and education in Berlin and wrote her doctoral thesis on the writer Ricarda Huch.
Oliver Wolf aka Olsen (born 1975) studied Media Art at the HdK Zurich and Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona after training as a carpenter. He graduated in Media Art from Queen Mary University in London in 2018. His work has been exhibited internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions and he has given workshops and lectures in various contexts. Since 2018, he has been a founding member and board member of the non-profit art association Global Forest, based in St. Georgen in the Black Forest, where he currently lives and works. In his artistic work, Olsen primarily deals with technologies and their history(ies) as well as cultures of the digital. The installations, sculptures and objects that he designs and constructs question, among other things, how technological developments format our everyday lives and take up economic paradigms of utility.
Sophia Trollmann is a curator and art mediator. She focuses on visual art in public spaces and develops formats for cultural participation processes. As a mediator in the “New Patrons” model, she implements works of art in smaller and larger communities together with citizens' initiatives. From 2018 to 2020 she worked as a Research Assistant at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz in the field of education / mediation / visitor services. As part of Skulptur Projekte 2017, she realized numerous projects in public space as a curatorial assistant. Since 2024, she has been advising municipalities on setting up and securing cultural education networks as part of K2 consultations. She is currently co-curator of the exhibition “Tatort Paderborn 2025: Der Fluss bin ich”, an exhibition in public space along the city river Pader, which will open in June 2025.
Christian Tschirner (born 1969 in Lutherstadt) studied acting at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin, after training as an animal keeper at Leipzig Zoo. He then worked as an actor, director, author and dramaturge at the TAT in Frankfurt, Schauspiel Hannover and Schauspielhaus Hamburg, among others. From 2019 to 2022, he was head dramaturge at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin. In 2023/24 he was part of the curatorial team of the Festival OSTEN. He is a founding member of the author collective Soeren Voima and the performance group les dramaturx.
Johanna M. Keller has been Head of Programming and member of the Management Executive at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin since October 2022. Prior to that she worked for the Goethe-Institut in Syria, Lithuania, Egypt and Germany. As director of the Goethe-Institut Lithuania (2010–2015) and head of cultural programmes for the North Africa / Middle East region (2015–2018), she ran numerous interdisciplinary programmes; in 2019 she established a department for managing third-party funding at the Munich headquarters. She studied International Relations in Dresden, Florence, Berlin and Damascus.
An event in the context of the exhibition “Ein Dorf 1950–2022”.