The German Government Is Offering $3 Billion to Struggling Arts Event Organizers as the Country Plans Its Reopening
Germany has served as a model country in its arts funding over the past year.
German culture minister Monika Grütters. Photo by Günther Ortmann/ullstein bild via Getty Images.
The German government will create a special €2.5 billion ($3 billion) fund to support cultural events as the country begins to plan its reopening after more than a full calendar year of closures.
The money is being made available to concert halls, theaters, cinemas, and other cultural venues throughout the country. It is intended to help event organizers move on with their plans despite reduced profits because of visitor restrictions. Currently, only open-air cinema and theater events are allowed to take place.
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It brings the total of emergency aid for culture supplied by the government to €2 billion.
February 4, 2021
Monika Grütters, minister of state for culture and the media. Photo: Carsten Koall/picture alliance via Getty Images.
The German government has agreed to dole out another billion euros to boost its cultural industry, which has been under lock and key since last fall.
On Thursday, February 4, the culture ministry held a press conference in the currently shuttered Martin-Gropius-Bau museum to announce a second injection of money into the arts. Museums like the Gropius Bau have been closed since November 1; commercial art galleries followed suit the following month as the country worked to beat back rising infection rates.
February 04, 2021 at 1:00pm
The German Ministry of Culture has announced $1.2 billion in aid to the country’s cultural sector, which has been on lockdown since last fall owing to the continuing Covid-19 crisis and is expected to remain so through at least February 14. The aid package represents part two of the “Neustart Kultur” (New Start Culture) program, initiated this past July with a $1.2 billion bailout.
“The second culture [$1.2] billion sends a sign of hope and encouragement to the cultural scene that has been struck in its vital nerve,” said Minister of Culture Monika Grütters in a statement, noting that she expected the infusion to set an example internationally. Grütters had originally lobbied for $1.8 billion in aid. Artnet News pointed out that the announced amount is not exceptional for a European country, with the UK putting together a cultural bailout package of $2.1 billion in July and France injecting $2.4 billion into the secto