Initiated by the City of Zurich's Department of Culture and scientifically supported by the ZCCE, elements of a future-oriented funding system were developed, tested and evaluated. The aim of this three-year process was to gain insights into new processes, updated funding instruments, criteria and terminology that could inform Zurich's cultural strategy for 2024-2027.
As a participatory, multi-year Innovation Lab within the framework of cultural strategy development, the Kultur Labor Zürich 2020-2023 was a first in the field of public cultural funding in Switzerland. Against the backdrop of the impact of technological, social, cultural and ecological developments on the arts and culture sector, it examined the relevance and topicality of the existing concepts of culture and arts and the practices of cultural funding in the City of Zurich. The starting point was the question of whether the existing concept of culture and art and the selection and evaluation practices are still up to date and whether there are gaps in cultural promotion, e.g. with regard to the cultural representation of social and aesthetic diversity.
Initiated by the Department of Culture of the City of Zurich, elements of an innovative and future-oriented funding system were developed, tested and evaluated in a process lasting around three years and with a funding volume of around CHF 570,000. One aim was to incorporate the results into the city's 2024-2027 cultural strategy. The key role of the project was to critically analyse the foundations and framework conditions of cultural funding in Zurich in order to better respond to current and future challenges and opportunities in the arts and culture sector. The process was scientifically supported by Claudio Bucher, Research Fellow at the Zurich Centre for Creative Economies (ZCCE).
Kultur Labor Zürich took an interdisciplinary and participatory approach, bringing together stakeholders from different fields to address forward-looking issues. The project team included, for example, a game designer, a digital expert, a film composer and a diversity expert, as well as the heads of the visual arts and jazz, rock and pop departments. The Kulturlabor thus provided a setting in which it was possible, at least temporarily, to work on future-oriented issues across departments and with users and target groups on an equal footing, and in particular to identify fields of action and develop pilot projects, calls for proposals, procedures and priority-setting aspects. In the feedback and adjudication processes, the network was expanded on a topic-specific basis, e.g. in the area of participation by a representative of Diversity Arts Culture, the advisory centre for the development of diversity in the Berlin cultural sector.
The project used design thinking and agile working methods as an experimental field to test new prototype solutions to public sector challenges. A core team led the process, supported by the ZCCE of the ZHdK in the role of participating observer or 'critical friend'. The development of the Lab was a dynamic process, with ongoing input from the scientific monitoring. The process included the development and testing of new selection procedures and instruments, the opening up of the funding system to new art forms and, for example, the implementation of a digital participation platform.
The challenges and changes in the process concerned the organisation, processes, methods and level of cultural administration, including the implementation of agile working methods. The working method allowed for analysis and reflection on existing practices and concepts of cultural funding and provided space for experimentation, reflection and critical discussion in order to develop innovative and sustainable solutions.
Kultur Labor Zürich has produced insights and learning that are relevant for the future design of funding systems. In the priority area of cultural participation, the multi-year Laboratory project represented an exemplary participatory strategy development process, in which the cultural department developed new forms of cultural funding together with cultural practitioners and experts. For example, the Community Based pilot project transferred funding expertise to a selected community. This is linked to the interpretation of cultural concepts and understandings, and the definition and value of arts and culture as a result of pluralistic discourses in an increasingly diverse urban society.
The results of the Lab have led to an expansion and opening up of the funding system for open-disciplinary projects and digital art forms, making it possible to reach creative artists who had limited access in the existing system. New selection procedures and tools were developed and tested, and the introduction of digital participation platforms was recommended. The pilot projects enabled the creation of theme-specific, inter-agency links and networks. The Lab highlighted the importance of the arts in addressing global challenges such as climate change and provided additional impetus.
Kultur Labor Zürich 2020-2023 was an exemplary project that demonstrated new ways of promoting culture and provided impetus for the City of Zurich's cultural funding practice. It served as a model for an agile, forward-looking cultural administration and demonstrated how innovative solutions in the field of cultural funding can be developed through interdisciplinary, participatory collaboration. The results and experiences of this project can serve as a basis and inspiration for further strategic processes and innovations in cultural funding, both in Zurich and in other cities and regions that wish to explore and exploit similar challenges and opportunities in the arts and culture sector.
The final report places the project in the context of innovation labs in the public sector and cultural funding. The findings are presented under the sub-themes of funding formats, selection processes, funding criteria, fields of action, discourse and communication/outreach. In addition, the project implementation was evaluated and possible success factors for the implementation of innovation labs in the public sector were formulated.