Basel Culture Prize for Kaserne director Schlewitt
Carena Schlewitt, the artistic director of Kaserne Basel, receives the 2017 Basel Culture Prize, endowed with CHF 20,000. Kaserne Basel is regarded as the most important concert hall for popular music in north-western Switzerland.
According to the canton, Carena Schlewitt "as a personality has had a unifying and integrative effect with the Kaserne Basel on the barracks site and in the city". She achieved the establishment of a nationally recognized independent theater and dance scene and the preservation of the Kaserne Basel as the most important concert hall for popular music in north-western Switzerland, as well as positioning the Basel Theatre Festival as an important international festival in Switzerland.
Carena Schlewitt, born in Leipzig, studied theater studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin and worked at the Academy of Arts in East Berlin and at Podewil as well as at the Theater der Welt festival in Berlin. She worked as a dramaturge and deputy artistic director at the Forum Freies Theater Düsseldorf and as a theater curator and deputy artistic director at the Theater Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin. In 2018, she will take over the directorship of Hellerau - European Center for the Arts Dresden.
The Basel Culture Prize will be awarded for the 45th time this year. The jury for the 2017 award is made up of Peter Bläuer, Director of Liste Art Fair Basel; Vadim Jendreyko, filmmaker and producer; Marc Krebs, Culture Editor, bz Basellandschaftliche Zeitung; Ellinor Landmann, Art and Society Editor, Radio SRF2Kultur; Felix Meyer, Director, Paul Sacher Foundation; Manuela Waeber, freelance editor, Jeannette Voirol, Head of Cultural Institutions, Department of Culture (Chair).
