Workshop: Beyond Grants & Gigs – How Cultural Production Is Funded Through Solidarity June 25, 2026

Writing grant applications, waiting for approvals or rejections, moving from one project to the next—for many cultural professionals, this is everyday life. But how can cultural work be financed without falling into precarious dependencies or remaining perpetually in “grant mode”?

In this workshop, we will explore alternative funding models beyond traditional public funding: solidarity-based contributions, public welfare funds, membership-based funding, crowdfunding with a commons-based approach, and hybrid models that combine various sources of revenue.

The focus is on practical questions: How can reliable revenue structures be established? Which models are best suited to which organizational forms? How can solidarity-based financing approaches be implemented in practice? And how can financial sustainability be ensured without compromising solidarity-based principles?

Moderators
Benedikt Stoll – Urbane Praxis e.V.
Sarah Waterfeld, Falk Lörcher – Union for Cultural Commons
Janet Merkel – TU Berlin, Institute for Urban and Regional Planning, Department of Urban and Regional Planning

Inputs
tba

Registration