Art under pressure: Graz and Munich face financial challenges!

Art under pressure: Graz and Munich face financial challenges!

The cultural scene is strongly affected by the financial consequences of pandemic, as current reports from Graz and Munich clearly show. In Graz, where the stages and theater still have difficulty getting back as before the Corona crisis, the managing director of the Bühnen Graz, Berhard Rinner explains: "We are back, on the trail of time before Corona, but we have not yet reached the level from before Corona." Despite over 100,000 visitors to the Silence Festival, there is not only a noticeable interest in rock, pop and jazz events, but also a worrying financial situation with a shortfall of around 450,000 euros. The salary increases cannot be completely compensated for what the concerned cultural workers are now concerned with, since there have so far been no clear statements from the state government on future financing issues, as orf.at reported.

similarly dramatic financial bottlenecks are also evident in Munich, where the city has to deal with a financial hole of 16 million euros in the cultural sector. A proposal to solve this problem is the introduction of a culture tax that could be raised on overnight stays in hotels. As Deutschlandfunk Kultur , this so-called cultural tax, which has already been successfully introduced in cities such as Cologne and Hamburg, is partly supportive by many cultural workers. In particular, the unpredictability of the income from this tax could be problematic for cultural funding. The director of the Munich Kammerspiele, Barbara Mundel, suggests making the culture to the mandatory task of local politics in order to ensure sustainable and reliable financing.

The discussion about the financial future of the cultural scene is thus shaped by the need to find creative and permanent solutions in order to secure the cultural diversity and offers in both cities in the long term.