BETREFF: LINZ VERENDET - OHNE FREIE KULTUR! Offener Brief der Freien Szene an die Stadt Linz

Linz, 17.10.2011

Dear Deputy Mayor Dr. Watzl,
ladies and gentlemen,

It's crisis time again! This time, the effects of the financial crisis have also reached Austria, in Linz in the form of the swap affair. As a result, initial cuts have been made to the city's budget and more are to be feared. But we are not paying for this crisis!

We know from many
Sunday speeches and addresses that culture makes its contribution to social development Sunday speeches and addresses. However, when the budgets are drawn up on Monday, the lofty
Words seem to be quickly forgotten, because the independent scene in Linz is suffering from an extreme budget shortage. Not just since the recent crisis, but since 2004, the budget allocated to the independent scene has been stagnating. The independent scene's share of the total cultural budget is currently around 2.7%, and in absolute figures, the more than fifty cultural initiatives and hundreds of artists have to share 1.2 million euros. At a time when Linz is flourishing culturally - new cultural initiatives are being founded almost every month, whose initiators are enriching life in this city with a great deal of energy and commitment!

The hope that after the Capital of Culture year there would be significant improvements in the financial resources of the independent cultural scene in Linz in terms of sustainability has unfortunately been dashed. Only the city's own cultural institutions have shown and continue to show a sustained willingness to invest, but it should not be forgotten that the nourishing ground for new artists and young cultural workers is not so much the large venues, but rather a diverse local cultural scene and that culture for all does not just mean the fireworks at the end of the Klangwolke, but rather finds its expression in self-determined work in independent cultural initiatives.

Whether it is the young, award-winning cultural initiative junQ.at, whose already small subsidy of €1,500 has been cut to €1,000, or the multi-award-winning action group € Social Impact, whose subsidy of €8.000 was cut by more than 50%, the Linzer KAPU, which can no longer afford its magazine Kapuzine simply because of inflationary cost increases, or the end of the scene magazine spotZ, they are all representative of the precarious financial situation of the independent scene in Linz. The fields of music, video, dance, theater and new media in particular have developed rapidly in recent years, but the many young initiatives and artists have not been promised adequate funding

The discrepancy in the development of the cultural budget over the last four years is obvious. The overall cultural budget has increased by more than 50% during this time, while the budget of the independent scene has developed below the inflation threshold;

Furthermore, it is incomprehensible why some cultural associations only receive approvals or rejections in late summer, eight months after submitting their funding applications. As a result, the cultural initiatives have no planning security, have to pay immense interest claims to the banks and take high financial risks as private individuals. Furthermore, the cancellation of funding programs such as CD funding without consultation with those affected is a slap in the face for all those cultural workers and musicians who give the city of music Linz its identity.

This cannot go on! We are therefore calling for immediate measures to safeguard the independent scene in order to remedy the worst financial bottlenecks mentioned above. In the medium term, by 2015 at the latest, we demand a step-by-step increase in the share of the independent scene to 5% of the cultural budget, or in absolute figures to at least 2.3 million euros. Furthermore, we are calling for the administration to be obliged to process funding applications within 3 months and for 3-year funding to be paid out regardless of the previous year's accounts

We are ready for talks and ask you for a joint negotiation date with
Representatives of the independent scene in Linz.
This statement is supported by numerous initiatives, as well as by many individuals
of which we list some examples here:

Initiatives