Wake Up Call (english)
Planting and Cultivating Support Systems for Performing Artists
Within the framework of a European-funding program in cooperation with the ENCC - the European Network of Cultural Centres - a meeting of artists, representatives of institutes/unions and international experts on artists’ health took place in Cologne. The purpose of the discussion was to evaluate the current state of performing artists’ social, physical and psychological health within the context of professional arts structures.
Our aim was to develop recommendations for the promotion of artists’ health and to pave the way for the implementation of improved forms of support specifically for performing artists.
Professional musicians, dancers and theater professionals are engaged in fields that require constant excellence, often under precarious conditions.
The demands of work in the cultural sector are comparable to those in top-level sports. However, in Germany and elsewhere, there is a lack of comparable support systems for artists with regard to their biopsychosocial health.
The arts industries are experiencing increasing demands to legitimize their existence in society and are suffering from increased financial pressures, on individual, institutional, as well as policy levels.
Sick leave among artists due to unsuitable working conditions is increasingly common. Currently, there are not enough preventive and rehabilitative measures to meet the professional demands that artists face in their daily lives.
We perceive that the general level of knowledge about the working conditions and the mental and physical stressors in artistic industries is too low. Our aim is to build bridges in order to enter into conversation with politicians and policy makers.
For the longterm maintenance and development of the internationally renowned German cultural life, we recommend:
Strengthening artists’ abilities to be personally responsible for their health throughout all levels of training and professional engagement, from early development, through studies and into professional life (e.g. mental coaching, rehabilitation programs tailored to artists, career planning, injury and illness prevention, assistance dealing with specific stressors, etc.).
2. Creating networks of existing services, therapies, prevention offers and specialists.
3. Improvement of working conditions in cultural institutions (investment in artists as a long-term social resource).
4. Creating support systems through policy decisions that provide access to industry-specific healthcare services for arts professionals.
It is our endeavor to develop approaches and proposals for artists’ health solutions in collaborative dialogues with decision-makers, institutes, cultural representatives, musicians' and dancers' physicians, associations and politicians.
Sincerely,
Polina Babinkova: Violinist, dissident artist
Angela Büche: managing director of Stimmig-Leben, director of the working group Musikpsychologie- und Coaching der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Musikermedizin, Cellist
Rolf Emmerich: Artistic Director of the Sommerblut Cultural Festival
Stefan Englert: Managing Director of the Gürzenich Orchestra
Piet Forger: Board member of ENCC and expert for the ENCC program Closing the Gap
Sieglinde Fritzsche: Special representative for health and prophylaxis of uni.sono - German Music and Orchestra Association
Slava Gepner: Artistic Director of TanzFaktur Cologne
Tobias Isemann: Orchestra manager of the Pfalzphilharmonie Kaiserslautern, Violinist
Dr. med. Ulrike Kaltenbrunner: General practitioner, osteopath with focus on musician's medicine, singer
Elisabeth von Leliwa: music dramaturge and systemic coach
Rita Menke: Project Manager of the LJO I Office Manager of the Association for the Promotion of State Youth Ensembles NRW e.V.
Heather O'Donnell: Director of TGR The Green Room, psychologist (M.Sc.), pianist
Thomas Ritschel: Director of "uni.sono" (formerly DOV: German Orchestral Association), bassoonist
Dr. Rebekah Rota: Opera director at the Wuppertaler Bühnen
Michel Rychlinski: Managing Director of the Association for the Promotion of State Youth Ensembles NRW e.V.
Carmen Seibel: Healthy Voices - Stimmnetzwerk, mezzo-soprano
Ulrike Seybold: Managing Director of the NRW State Agency for the Performing Arts
Henrike Uylen: Assistant to the Executive Director of the Gürzenich Orchestra
Outi Elena Valanto: Project Coordinator - GreenHaven Artist Residencies, The Green Room, PhD student, dancer.
The manifesto is the result of a three-day meeting Aug. 31-Sept. 2, 2023, to explore opportunities for expanded forms of health promotion for stage performers.
