City of Zurich strengthens the independent scene
The city of Zurich wants to provide more support for the independent cultural scene in future. The awarding of work years will be upgraded as a funding instrument, and four additional studios abroad are also planned. Support in the form of low-cost workspaces in the city of Zurich is also to be expanded.
On the one hand, in addition to the current eleven work years, four more will be awarded in the areas of serious music, literature, visual arts and jazz/rock/pop. On the other hand, the work year grants will increase from CHF 42,000 to CHF 48,000 each.
In addition to the existing studios in New York, Genoa, Paris, Kunming and Cairo, the city is creating further studios in Hamburg and Berlin, and is planning new studios in Istanbul and San Francisco.
Since September 2012 and until at least the end of 2017, around 1000 square meters of work and storage space has been available for interim use in the Migros operations center in Herdern. These are being allocated in collaboration with the Zurich University of the Arts.
In future, production and rehearsal rooms are to be rented exclusively to professional cultural practitioners whose place of residence and tax domicile has been the city of Zurich for at least two years.
A maximum stay of five years now applies to subsidized studios - including in the Rote Fabrik spaces, whose contracts expire in 2018 at the latest. At the end of 2012, twenty tenants of the Rote Fabrik had a useful life of more than 23 years.
