PROSA – Projekt zur Schaffung künstlerischer Arbeitsräume (Project to Create Artistic Working Spaces)
PROSA is a project of Bündnis Freie Szene Berlin e.V. and represents the interests of the independent arts community in questions of spatial infrastructure within the scope of the alliance Kultur Räume Berlin. Kultur Räume Berlin is an alliance of multiple parties formed in 2020 with the goal of securing and creating working spaces for artists working in all disciplines within Berlin’s independent arts community.
The members of the alliance are: Berlin’s Senate Department for Culture and Europe, BIM Berliner Immobilienmanagement GmbH (BIM), Atelierbüro im Kulturwerk des bbk berlin (the Studio Office in the kulturwerk of the bbk berlin), GSE Gesellschaft für Stadtentwicklung gGmBH, Bündnis Freie Szene Berlin e.V. and Kulturraum Berlin GmbH. The alliance operates the state program for working spaces on behalf of Berlin’s Senate Department for Culture and Europe. The concerns of the independent arts community and its space needs are represented within the alliance by the PROSA team and the Atelierbüro, or Studio Office, for the visual arts. The PROSA team also works closely with Tanzbüro.
The PROSA team works to create new working spaces for all artistic disciplines that suit their respective needs. In doing so, it regularly discusses the content and concept of the work with the Speaker’s Circle of the Coalition of the Independent Arts and reports to the community at large during the quarterly plenums. In addition, the PROSA team maintains regular dialogue with the associations representing the visual arts, performing arts, literature, music, project spaces and dance as well as with interdisciplinary artists.
What Are the Tasks of the PROSA Team?
The PROSA team handles tasks in the areas of advisement, conceptualization and coordination.
Advisement
The PROSA team
– Ensures the exchange of communication between Kultur Räume Berlin and Berlin’s independent arts community.
– Functions as a contact for all working space topics of the independent arts community and has developed an interdisciplinary advisement program for all issues related to spaces.
– Is the central point of contact for funding opportunities for spaces as well as those seeking help to help themselves.
– Supports and advises its partners in the alliance in the conceptualization and realization of procedures for allocating spaces.
– Works as a mediator and idea provider for the preservation of working spaces and advises in contentious matters.
Conceptualization
The PROSA team
– Identifies the qualities of spaces for artistic work as well as the necessary conditions for the development and creating of working and production spaces.
– Formulates minimum standards for the spatial infrastructure for artistic work and develops needs-oriented and innovative ground plans for the improvement of spatial qualities.
– Conceives and develops new working spaces, space concepts and feasibility studies for locations in Berlin together with other partners in the alliance.
– Develops interdisciplinary usage and operator concepts, including for largescale projects of citywide significance.
– Develops suggestions for the improvement of Berlin’s funding system for the preservation expansion of spaces for artistic work.
Coordination
The PROSA team
– Engages itself for better conditions for self-organized, non-profit-oriented parties who secure and create spaces for the independent arts community and concentrates on hybrid forms of usage as well as solidary forms of space and urban development.
– Conceives and coordinates the needs assessment of the independent arts community together with the partners of the alliance and the associations of the independent arts community and, in doing so, discovers the visions, ideas, plans, initiatives and sketches that exist for working spaces and their production conditions in the independent arts community.
– Provides support during the acquisition of spaces and the communication with public and private developers.
– Supports the partners in the alliance with the documentation and presentation of locations that are currently being used or that are at risk.
– Supports the establishment and expansion of the digital platform for the presentation of processes, offers and allocation of working spaces.
The PROSA Team
Sonja Augart studied dance and choreography and works internationally as an artist, dramaturge and curator. She has curated for the Frascati Theater in Amsterdam, among others. Her artistic works span a spectrum from choreographic stage pieces to site-specific performances such as “Choreographier Dich Pfad” for the festival AUSUFERN of Uferstudios in Wedding.
Since 2013, Sonja Augart has been living and working in Berlin, where, in addition to her artistic activities, she has also been involved in cultural politics as a board member of ZTB e.V. for the interests of Berlin’s independent dance scene. For the Berlin workspace program she worked as a space coordinator for the dance section. Sonja Augart joined the PROSA team in September 2022 and is responsible for the “Operative Koordinationsstelle Freie Szene”.
Anabel Hogefeld studied cultural studies & aesthetic practice as well as cultural education in Hildesheim. During her studies she worked for “Junge Akteur*innen” at Theater Bremen and for the production “Situation Rooms” by the artist collective Rimini Protokoll. In 2016, she was part of the management of the independent theater group Türkisch-Deutsches-Theater in Hildesheim. In addition to her experience in theater, she also gained expertise in program work at the Goethe-Institut New York and was a longtime employee in the NDR online editorial department in Hanover. Most recently, she worked as a marketing and social media staff member at Sophiensaele Berlin.
She currently works as a freelance cultural and educational mediator. She has been supporting the PROSA team as an “assistant” since July 2022.
Matthias Mayer has been working internationally as a visual artist and exhibition organizer since the early 1990s. He has received several prizes, project funding and scholarships. In 2003 he founded the project space “Spor Klübü” in Berlin-Wedding. One focus of his artistic work is the interaction between music and visual art. In 2012 he founded the music project “Sporty Jesus” together with Jens Christian Madsen.
In addition to his artistic and curatorial work, Matthias Mayer has been intensively involved in the interests of artists* in the independent scene in associations, initiatives, committees and associations, including: Netzwerk freier Berliner Projekträume- und initiativen e.V., Kolonie Wedding e.V., Koalition der freien Szene, Pioniergremium Haus der Statistik, Atelierbeirat kulturwerk des bbk berlin.
From the end of 2016 to 2018 he was space coordinator for the network of free Berlin project spaces and initiatives within the framework of the Berlin workspace program. In 2019 he was part of the team of the free scene that organized the space campaign. He joined the PROSA team at the beginning of 2021, where he has been responsible for the “Operative Koordinationsstelle Raumbündnis” since July 2022.
Contact
PROSA c/o Kulturraum Berlin GmbH
Spandauer Damm 19
14059 Berlin
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The association Bündnis Freie Szene Berlin e.V. is the entity formally responsible for the PROSA project and manages the two positions. The positions are financed by Berlin’s Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
Partners in the Alliance Kultur Räume Berlin
Atelierbüro
The Atelierbüro im kulturwerk des bbk berlin, the Studio Office for the visual arts, is the central point of contact for all visual artists living in Berlin who are on the search for a studio, regardless of whether they are member of the association bbk or not. It provides advice for those searching for studios as well as support for the preservation of existing studios. It regularly organizes the calls for applications and the allocation of subsidized, publicly funding artist studios and studio apartments within the scope of the Berlin state program for working spaces.
Berliner Immobilienmanagement GmbH (BIM)
BIM is responsible for a wide variety of state-owned real estate as the real estate services provider for the state of Berlin. Its tasks include the rental, management and renovation of real estate, the sale of state-owned real estate as well as the management of the real estate-related special funds (SILB and SODA) of the state of Berlin.
Gesellschaft für Stadtentwicklung gGmbH (GSE)
Since 1998, as per a decision by the Senate of the state of Berlin, GSE has been charged with acquiring and securing spaces under non-profit conditions. Due to a trust agreement in 1995 with the state of Berlin, GSE has the expanded task of forming trust assets. It is intended to acquire, administrate, manage and rent out complete pieces of real estate in order to be able to offer long-term residential and commercial spaces to its target groups.
Kulturraum Berlin GmbH
Kulturraum Berlin GmbH is a subsidiary of the public Stiftung für Kulturelle Weiterbildung und Kulturberatung (Foundation for Cultural Further Education and Cultural Advisement) and was founded in April 2020 to operate the Berlin state program for working spaces of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe in cooperation with representatives from the administration, real estate sector and the independent arts community.
The state program for working spaces is financed via multiple budget line items of Berlin’s Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
Berlin’s Senate Department for Culture and Europe
An important funding focus for Berlin’s Senate Department for Culture and Europe is the acquisition, development and provision of working spaces for Berlin’s artists. For this purpose, the Senate Department has established a state program for working spaces. These tasks were taken over by Kultur Räume berlin in 2021.