Symposium 2018 – Music Institutes in Multi-Diverse Urban Societies

The topic of the sixth symposium was “Discovering cultural relations – music institutes in multi-diverse urban societies”. The idea is that the form and the activities of a cultural venue in the 21^st century should reflect their role within the urban eco-system. What exactly does this mean however?

The sixth symposium edition is keeping with the tradition of “Creating mindsets for Concert Halls” as its continuous theme, this time adding the theme of “Discovering cultural relations – music institutes in multidiverse urban societies”. Different from earlier symposiums, the focus this time is not so much on music education projects but on more general questions regarding the role music and music institutions play today. Therefore we hope to generate thought provoking questions and discussions on the future of our society and the role culture and cultural institutions play in the way we live together

Which role do these institutions play in future urban societies? Under which conditions can new, local-international culture interested audiences develop? We want to look beyond a future audience that is “older, more colourful and fewer in numbers” as a book title suggests, instead focusing on the rapid changes in public and private lives.

It is becoming more and more evident that our societies are being changed by digitalisation, globalisation, migration as well as individualisation and that these changes are impacting the ways we work and live. Old patterns are fading and with them the idea of a societal “system”, giving way to more diverse interests and lifestyles.

Multi-diverse urban societies are not only characterised by different ethnicities and biographies but also by differences between rich and poor, digital and analogous, family and single households. The thesis that in the future societies will need to balance the manifold interests of the many could actually develop into a new maxim. Diversity per se is neither a positive nor a negative category; it is not till diversity is formed into a community, maybe even developing a new social contract, that it generates an energy that reaches beyond itself and offers forming and framing societal ideas.

To date, many cultural institutions have adapted their offers to address a new audience type. However, it seems that this strategy clearly reaches its limits in a multi-diverse society and projects at times are criticised for being little more than symbolic acts since they fail to include different groups and do not mirror societal reality.

Could the term “new civil society” or maybe even “citizen society 4.0” be a promising approach? How could a new type of civil society emerge by, among other things, borrowing and learning from the arts? Or is this idea just a dream dreamt by people with an all-encompassing view and understanding of the world?

The topic is a complex one and dealing with it requires asking earnest and (self-)critical questions: “Parallel society classic? – What is the social mission of concert halls?” could be one of them. Another one could be: “When does culture unite – when does it divide?” Or: Can culture help in preventing societal crisis? Or is the term itself an obstacle?”

Other questions that need to be answered are “Are we talking about nationality, origin or about social milieus?”, “Is music a universal language and if so how can we make better use of it to reach a better understanding?”, “When does cultural education turn into value education and when into cultural hegemony? And finally we need to ask “What follows after concepts and normative postulations have been brought forward?” These are just some of the questions that will be addressed at the 2018 symposium during presentations and discussions rounds.

What characterises a multi-diverse urban society?

Urban settings today are characterised by highly diverse lifeworlds that exist simultaneously next to one another, and as a consequence questions relating to diversity in urban settings have continued to grow in importance. How will cities and their societies develop in the future and what needs to be considered in order to allow for all citizens to be part of them? What does it mean to be living in a multi-diverse city and what part does culture play? Culture understood in a wide sense and asking where culture unites people, where it separate them? And which role can cultural sites play?

Common Ground: How significant are culture experiences in different societies?

How people handle and deal with culture is anything but uniform and strongly depends on how one is socialised on both an individual and a collective level. The role culture plays in a society takes on just as many different meanings. Take a highly secularised society like Germany for instance, where cultural institutions like the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg or the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao are celebrated as the “cathedrals of the 21^st century” and, so the saying goes, are taking the place of the churches. The aura once surrounding churches now seems to be replaced by daring architecture in secular structures. At the same time the new spaces impact the way we perceive art. Would it not be more promising to think about how experiencing culture depends on the cultural milieu and society people are from? What do cultural experiences represent? Which meanings are attributed to rites and rituals?

Target-group work vs. civil society 4.0

The audience of the future will not only be older, more colourful and smaller. It will also be divided into new milieus, e.g. digital natives and analogous conservatives, in singles and families, in intellectual cosmopolitans, performers and traditionalists. In adapting to the changes resulting from a changing audience and changes in the societal structures, many institutions have developed special-interest and target-group programmes. Which experiences have theatres, museums and orchestras made? Which approaches and measures have proven successful? Where did they reach their limits? How much sense might it make to think about a new, international and cosmopolitan culture citizenship, even to think about a “cultural society contract”? In short: How do different cultural institutions deal with the challenges presented to them by international urban societies?

Social cohesion: A goal for cultural politics?

Creating and securing societal cohesion can neither be attained by completely decreeing it to cultural institutions nor by assigning it to politics alone. And yet, today cultural policy more and more finds itself in just that role due to the current situation. In May 2017 the German Kulturrat, the governing body of German cultural organisations, issued 15 theses on cultural integration and cooperation. We will be discussing how these theses might impact the work of cultural institutions and what they mean for the cultural-political landscape. Michel Abdollahi will sound both speakers out on their positions and ideas.

Parallel society classic? – On concert halls’ societal mandate

In which ways are European concert halls dealing with the current societal developments? The panelists will be asked to share their opinions and working experiences on a number of different questions: Is the music of the Central European classical tradition a special-interest program and why do new audiences constantly need to be proselytized. What does “creating cultural equal footing” mean and when is it a promise that cannot be kept? Why are concert halls programs more international than concert hall audiences? How can that be changed? Does it need to be changed? How can a concert hall be re-thought? Five general and artistic directors share their thoughts and experiences.

9:30 a.m. | Good Practices: Questioning utopia, structures & systems (ENG / GER)

• cooperation Konzerthaus Wien/Brunnenpassage, Morgenland Festival, Open Access, World Voice (British Council Music)

11:00 a.m.| Spotlights Wrap-up & discussion (ENG)

12:00 p.m.| Coffee break

12:15 p.m.| Thoughts and ideas on your way (GER)

• With Mo Asumang (Filmmaker), Muchtar Al-Ghusain (City of Würzburg), Stefan Weber (Islamic Museum)

1:30 p.m. | Lunch & closing of symposium