Bern Cultural Talks
Bern has a new mayor in Alec von Graffenried. He is considered to have a greater affinity for culture than his predecessor Tschäppat and will face Bern's creative artists as part of a new cultural dialog platform in February.
The City of Bern's cultural strategy, which was adopted by the municipal council in November 2016, names the strengthening of dialog and communication with cultural professionals and other interest groups as one of its three priorities. In this context, the City of Bern's Culture Department has developed a concept for a series of talks that will be implemented in collaboration with the Kornhausforum Bern from 2017: Four to five events will be held each year under the title "Berner Kulturgespräche im Kornhausforum".
The new cultural forum focuses on current cultural activities, cultural offerings, cultural promotion and cultural policy in the city and region of Bern. It is aimed at cultural professionals, who are offered a platform to exchange ideas and discuss issues relating to day-to-day cultural work. The series also aims to promote discussion between cultural professionals and interested members of the public, thereby contributing to cultural mediation and understanding.
The series begins at the beginning of February with an "among us": the new acting director of Konzert Theater Bern, Cihan Inan, will be talking to representatives of the independent theater scene in a closed circle. On February 20, there will be a public panel discussion with Mayor Alec von Graffenried on his understanding of culture and his initial ideas on Bern's cultural policy for the coming years. Other topics in 2017 will include the city's new practice to improve social security for cultural workers and an initial conclusion on the cultural strategy towards the end of the year.
