Our Dates

Foundation of the International New Patrons Society

In Europe and beyond, citizen-commissioned art has become a broad movement since the 1990s that continues to grow, generating more and more voices, commissions, and formats. Seven national organizations representing close to 100 mediators of the New Patrons network in their respective countries now have joined forces and founded the Societé Internationale des Nouveaux Commanditaires – the International New Patrons Society.

Thus, the international New Patrons network is taking a significant step forward in consolidating the engagement, experience and knowledge of its actors and strengthening the model for citizen-commissioned art internationally. Founding countries are Belgium, Cameroon, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. The association is headed by Alexander Koch, member of the German Gesellschaft für Kunst und Mediation im Bürgerauftrag e. V., as its President.

The Société Internationale des Nouveaux Commanditaires will manage the copyright of the New Patrons protocol and the responsibility that goes with it. It will take up and advise initiatives worldwide that want to apply the protocol – and with it the idea of art on a civic commission. It also combines interests and actions that are vivid within the communities concerned, makes activities of the international network publicly accessible and represents their interests in politics and in public.

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On the weekend of 10 & 11 September, the premiere of "In C - Marler Partitur" by Sasha Waltz will take place in Marl.
With this piece by the internationally renowned artist, Marl will be the setting for a unique experiment in which an entire city is involved in a choreography and thus experiences itself as a community across all borders and barriers.
Over 120 dancers and audience members will form a procession and move in a spiral towards the city centre. The movement begins on Saturday, 10 September at 13:00 at the Scharoun School in Marl Westfalenstraße and ends with a joint performance by all participants, including amateurs as well as dancers from Sasha Waltz & Guests, on Sunday, 11 September at 17:00 at the Forum in Marl. 

For more information on locations, participants and how you can…

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Marl dances: For over two weeks, citizens of Marl had the opportunity to approach the choreography of "In C" based on the composition by Terry Riley in workshops with tutors from the company Sasha Waltz & Guests. Interested audience members were able to see the first results in an open rehearsal before the whole of Marl is invited to dance in September.

Photos: Florian Wagner

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Mariana Castillo Deball will develop a work for Friedland. The starting point will be the hiking trails and the treasures of the villages that the clients of Friedland have already collected. The first visits and walks have already taken place.

The artist explores ideologically constructed conditions under which artefacts appear in today's culture. To do this, she gathers information from various disciplines such as archaeology and science. Through research and collaboration, she creates works that emerge from the collision and recombination of these different languages.

Mariana Castillo Deball lives and works in Berlin and Mexico City. Her work has been shown at MUAC Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico City, 2021), Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen (Siegen, 2021), Modern Art…

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With Jakub Szczęsny, the people of Züsedom developed a bench which, in bright signal orange, places unmissable meeting points in the village landscape, can be used by every age group and, in its design, also offers the younger generation an opportunity to meet. The Züsedom bench. 

On 22 and 23 July, four charity auctions will be held at Broellin Castle to finance the new village benches in Züsedom.
More than 150 objects from the former Erich Kühl secondary school and the stock of the Züsedom countrywomen will be put up for auction.
Bid for a piece of history and support the production of our Züsedom commission!

Visit the auction website here: auktion.neueauftraggeber.de

Auction 1 : Friday 22 July 2022 15:30:00 - DDR teaching aids (focus on technology & audio)
Auction 2 : Friday 22…

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From 14 to 29 May, the new patrons of Steinhöfel told stories, designed, planned and built. Together with Constructlab, the Kistenflitzer was created - a mobile meeting point that is now available to the twelve villages of the community as a mobile cinema, rolling cocktail bar, church on wheels and much more.

A project within the framework of pilot funding by the Federal Cultural Foundation. The realisation is supported by the Fonds Soziokultur, the Fondation de France and the Brandenburgischer Kunstverein Potsdam.

Photo: Victoria Tomaschko

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The question of how technological developments influence our everyday and community life has occupied Simon Denny (*1982, Auckland, New Zealand) for many years. For the New Patrons of Beeskow, he is designing a sculpture series that makes information accessible and visible in the public space and at the same time promotes the community of citizens in this very space and beyond. 

Themes of personal identity and integrity are addressed, as are social debates about data protection and the use of human experience as a raw material.

Photo: Simon Denny visiting Beeskow Photo: Victoria Tomaschko

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It took a few years - but in March, the first project of the New Patrons on the African continent was inaugurated in Cameroon! It all started in 2014, together with the Goethe-Institut Cameroon. The Baka pygmy community in the country's southern rainforest had declared their urgent desire to deal with the fundamental changes in their culture and way of life, and they took the initiative and commissioned a cultural project, which mediator Germain Loumpet has been accompanying and mediating with great patience and passion ever since.

More info on the project can be found here, among other places: www.goethe.de/ins/cm/de/ueb/prn/lbaka.html

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Thursday, 18.11.2021, 2–5pm (in German)

An online event for planners and decisionmakers at the municipal and state levels and everyone interested in civic participation and decision-making processes.

We want to exchange ideas with you about how the New Patrons model offers unconventional insights into community processes and guidance on how to address even complex issues without intimidating would-be local activists. We throw open the door to our workshop and look forward to learning about your perspectives on and suggestions for what we do. We hope to launch a dialogue on how we can engage people in new conversations and on the key role that culture and art play for an innovative practice grappling with societal concerns.

What?
We introduce you to a unique approach to civic…

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Saturday, 4.9.2021, beginning: 2 pm

Presentation of the artistic concept to the public with welcome addresses from Dr. Reinhard Kubat, District Administrator of Waldeck-Frankenberg and Ljubica Nikolic, University of Göttingen.

Meeting place: Dorfgemeinschaftshaus (Village community center), Torweg 8, 35110 Ellershausen, coordinates: 51°04'46.9"N 8°53'34.9"E

The unusual art project commissioned by the Waldeck-Frankenberg Water Initiative makes visible the threat to water as a resource and commits the people of the region in a movement to protect water as the source of all life.

The citizen-commissioners and the artists will present their initiative to the public together. In a subsequent performance, exemplary first marks will be set, whose signal effect gives expression to the fleeting…

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The Gesellschaft der Neuen Auftraggeber has won the Zukunftspreis KULTURGESTALTEN award in the “initiative and network projects” category. The award, which honors forward-thinking cultural policy initiatives and is sponsored by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, was presented yesterday.

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