City Companions

City museums are places of urban history and identity. They provide orientation and encourage lively exchange within their cities and regions. Because of their local orientation, they are especially suited for forging contact with new target groups and helping them become more involved in civic life. In order to adequately portray the increasing complexity of everyday life and the atmosphere of our cities in the future, it is becoming more important for city museums to build networks and collaborate with partners on projects which are devoted to current issues of urban society.

The City Companions fund, initiated by the Federal Cultural Foundation, supports museums with local or regional orientation in German cities and towns of up to 250,000 inhabitants. The programme awards funding to collaborative cultural projects involving representatives of urban society whose stories and perspectives deserve a more prominent role in museums. The coordinators can apply for a maximum of 150,000 euros of funding for projects lasting for up to two years. A portion of the funding should be used to create a project management position to support the museum team.

Due to the museums’ unabated interest in establishing collaborative projects on contemporary issues, the City Companions fund has been extended until 2021 and augmented with 2.7 million euros to finance two additional rounds of funding. The last deadline for applications was in February 2018.