Grüne on culture and media

The Greens want to broaden the culture of remembrance in North Rhine-Westphalia and systematically examine colonial history and its consequences. They also want to strengthen multilingualism, human rights education and the representation of people with an immigrant background.

The Greens want NRW to look closely at colonial history. Colonial history means: European countries once ruled other countries. There should be a plan for this. The history of immigration should also get more attention. People with an immigrant background should have more say.

The Greens plan a concept that examines historical responsibility in NRW and brings the topic into schools, cultural institutions and neighborhoods. Economic ties that persist to this day are to be included. The DoMiD documentation center is to keep receiving support, and migration history is to be strengthened as part of the state's history. The Greens also want to promote multilingualism, expand human rights education and give more funding to organizations of people with an immigrant background. Their representation in public institutions is to be advanced.

The Greens want to raise the state's arts funding substantially, including for the independent scene and community arts. The cultural sector should be able to recover after the Covid crisis. Municipalities are also to be strengthened financially for this purpose.

The Greens want to spend more money on culture. The money should also go to independent artists and small arts groups. Culture should recover from the Covid crisis. Cities and towns should also have more money for culture.

As long as the effects of the pandemic last, special funding programs are to continue. Cities, towns and counties are to be strengthened financially because they pay for much of local culture. In the medium term, the party wants to review the state's funding structures and make them crisis-proof, drawing on the experience of the Covid period. Federal, state and local administrations are to cooperate better on arts funding.

The Greens want arts funding to also aim at the social security of artists. They plan a minimum fee at public theaters and want to continue the state's grant programs for now. The platform cites low, irregular incomes and inadequate retirement provision as the reason.

Many artists earn little and not regularly. The Greens want to protect them better. Public theaters should pay a minimum fee. The state should keep paying grants until the pandemic ends.

According to the platform, funding should not be based only on the results of artistic work. The state's grant programs are to continue until the end of the pandemic. After that, the party wants to evaluate which elements can become a permanent part of arts funding. The minimum fee is to apply to solo employees at public theaters, both performers and staff behind the scenes.

The Greens want to preserve cultural spaces across North Rhine-Westphalia and create new ones. This includes affordable production spaces and workshops, temporary use of vacant buildings and protecting clubs from displacement. State-owned buildings and land are also to be opened up for this.

Culture needs space. The Greens want to create rooms for art and culture. Empty buildings should be usable for culture. Artists should get low-cost workshops. Clubs should not be pushed out.

Municipalities that want to allow temporary cultural use of vacant buildings are to receive help, for example with insurance costs. The state wants to co-fund real-world labs in municipalities. Flexible workshops are to be created based on the Werkkunsthaus NRW concept and a Berlin model. NRW.URBAN and the state's building and real estate agency are to be required to cooperate with municipalities. Noise rules are to be adjusted to balance residents' interests and cultural venues, and the recognition of clubs as cultural sites is to be implemented in state law.

The Greens want to expand arts education for children and teenagers and make access to culture socially fair. They want to pilot a culture pass for young people and advance model projects such as a culture ticket or free admission for school classes. Arts subjects in schools are to be strengthened.

Children and teenagers should find it easier to enjoy culture. The Greens want to test a culture pass for young people. School classes should go to theaters, museums and concerts more often. Music and art should matter more in school.

Existing programs such as JeKits, Kulturrucksack NRW and Kultur und Schule are to be developed further. Funding programs are to have less red tape and fewer barriers. Visits to theaters, museums and concerts are to become a fixed part of arts education in schools. Cooperation between the independent scene and public cultural institutions is to receive more funding. The platform names France as the model for the culture pass.

The Greens want to keep alive the memory of the victims of National Socialism and continue funding memorial sites. They argue that few eyewitnesses remain and that many families have no personal link to Nazi history. They reject calls to draw a line under remembrance.

The Greens want to remember the victims of the Nazi era. Memorial sites should keep getting money. Only a few eyewitnesses are still alive. So remembrance should stay tangible for everyone. Victims of far-right violence after 1945 should also be remembered.

The party says it is open to making further places of remembrance accessible and equipping them with programs. This should also commemorate victims of right-wing extremism in the postwar period. The Stalag 326 memorial in Schloß Holte-Stukenbrock is to be expanded and developed further. The Greens want to oppose forces that seek to end remembrance.

The Greens want to strengthen heritage protection in North Rhine-Westphalia and preserve the role of the specialist offices at the regional associations. They oppose the state government's planned heritage protection law, which in their view weakens the protection of listed buildings. At the same time, climate-friendly construction is to be reconciled with heritage protection.

The Greens want to protect historic monuments better. Experts in the heritage offices should keep their say. The Greens oppose the state government's planned law. Heritage protection and climate-friendly building should fit together.

In the party's view, the law planned by the CDU and FDP would expose listed buildings to political and economic interests. The specialist offices for building conservation are to keep their position, as is the existing cooperation with the local heritage authorities. The party wants to work out how ecological construction and heritage protection can be combined in dialogue with professional associations and authorities.

The Greens want publicly funded cultural institutions to pay more attention to social diversity and accessibility. More women are to become artistic directors, and new leadership models are to replace the hierarchical director model. The arts sector is also to use resources more sparingly.

Cultural institutions should reflect the diversity of society. More women should run theaters. There should be new forms of leadership with less hierarchy. The arts should also work in a greener way.

Diversity is to show in programming and in the selection of artists, leaders and juries. Leadership and organizational forms beyond the classic artistic director model are to become the norm. The party wants to counter abuse of power and discrimination in cultural institutions and strengthen artists' say. Model projects for collective and participatory structures are to be funded. The Greens also support a "Green Culture Desk" advisory office and a corresponding federal fund.

The Greens commit to public broadcasting independent of the state and want to keep securing the funding of WDR (the regional public broadcaster). The broadcaster is also to evolve and reach groups it has so far struggled to address. Its boards, formats and content are to reflect society's diversity better.

The Greens support public broadcasting. WDR should keep getting enough money. It should reach more young people and people with a migration background. The media libraries of all public broadcasters should grow together.

According to the platform, public broadcasting secures independent journalism accessible to all. WDR is to receive support in reaching teenagers and people with migration experience more effectively. Its boards are to be more diverse in the future. The media libraries of the public broadcasters are to be developed into shared platforms.

The Greens want to preserve the diversity of local newspapers and radio stations so that no areas are left without independent reporting. They want to promote nonprofit journalism and strengthen local radio. Media concentration law is to cover digital media as well.

There are fewer and fewer local newspapers and radio stations. The Greens want to support these media. Nonprofit journalism should get donations more easily. Nonprofit means it does not work for profit. The rules against too much power for single media companies should be updated.

Support for local media is to be secured through a new joint media authority of the states. Citizen media associations and newsroom networks are to be able to fund themselves more easily through donations, especially where traditional local media withdraw. The party backs the two-pillar model of local radio in North Rhine-Westphalia and wants to continue the support provided by the state media authority. It supports the state media authorities' call to extend media concentration law to all relevant media types and markets.

The Greens want people of all ages to learn to use information and media competently and to recognize false reports. Against disinforming and inflammatory content, they rely on fact-checks, an expanded right of reply and criminal prosecution. WDR's multilingual programming is to grow substantially again.

False news can harm democracy. The Greens want everyone to learn to understand media well. Students in particular should be able to spot false reports. Hate speech and targeted lies should be prosecuted. WDR should again offer more programs in other languages.

The party wants to fund citizen media projects that enable students in particular to recognize false reports and check facts themselves. The state association of citizen media is to receive support. The platform points to disinformation campaigns by foreign autocratic actors and therefore also wants to look at international media. In the Greens' view, the internet and social media need more self-regulation and regulation. Security authorities are to be made aware of the issue and equipped accordingly.

The Greens want to further strengthen the film and media sector in North Rhine-Westphalia as an economic factor. Funding and networking are to be expanded, start-ups in the creative industries supported and pop culture funding established. They also back locating a German Photo Institute in the state.

North Rhine-Westphalia is an important state for film and media. The Greens want to keep supporting this industry. Founders in creative businesses should get more help. Pop culture should also get funding. A German Photo Institute should come to the state.

The sector is to be strengthened through funding and links to other, including international, funding programs. The Mediennetzwerk NRW is to be expanded, with institutions such as the GamesLab Cologne, the Mediengründerzentrum NRW and the Cologne film school playing an important role. The work of the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW is to continue receiving support. Start-up support is to grow together with universities of applied sciences and art academies. The photographic heritage is to be recorded, researched and preserved.