CONNECT - Art in Progress

The project CONNECT - Art in Progress aims to empower artists, groups of artists with disabilities and established art institutions in their efforts to collaborate. It follows the idea that to improve improve participation and equity for artists with disabilities on a nationwide scale, a further opening of the institutions of public cultural life for such participants is needed as well as better access to existing and new training and funding opportunities. Within the framework of CONNECT, three artistic interventions will be developed and realised in 2019 and 2020 in Saxony, Lower Saxony and Hamburg that explore new forms of collaboration among participants. Contributors from dance, theatre, visual arts, and music, cultural agencies or ministries of culture as well as groups of artists and artists with disabilities will come together to collaborate in their development and implementation.

CONNECT builds on the structural framework programme ART+ (external link, opens in a new window) (German) and aims to transfer the participatory model developed there to other cultural institutions in other federal states. A national summit is planned to bring participating agencies, institutions, and artists together and enable the sharing of experiences on a wide scale. The event will also feature proven best practice examples from Germany and other countries and will further show how barriers between artists and established cultural institutions can be reduced and replication encouraged.