Studio Office - Information and Statements

The studio rental programme has existed for over 30 years and has grown during this time - it has also changed. It is now integrated into the cooperation with Kulturraum gGmbH, which takes on the organisational tasks for the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion in cooperation with the Atelierbüro and the Raumbüro Freie Szene of the Coalition of the Independent Scene.

The studio programme is the most important funding for visual artists in Berlin. Expanding it further - but often enough also simply defending it - is the central concern of the studio commissioners for Berlin - Julia Brodauf and Lennart Siebert have been part of the team since 2024. Here we present our current projects and statements.

Please compare our press releases

Unfortunately, not all of the linked information is available in English. We are endeavoring to make up for this. 

‘We urge politicians to take responsibility for all artists who use studios with a binding funding commitment and to guarantee the legally secure preservation of workspaces! In addition, a reorganisation and reliable planning for the further development of the space infrastructure for the visual arts must be tackled together.’
Julia Brodauf and Lennart Siebert, studio representatives 

The full statement:

12.12.2024 | Statement by the studio commissioners: The cuts continue to jeopardise the future of visual artists in Berlin - kulturwerk

Meanwhile, the subsidised studios are creating what Berlin stands for: great art

Many thanks to all (over twohundred!) artists who provided us with the material for this purpose in such an uncomplicated and prompt manner. We will upload the pictures one by one.

Larger view: Studios in the workspace programme - kulturwerk

October and November 2024: All of Berlin is groaning under the budget freeze. Commissions that will cost the city money in 2025 may not be awarded. This is just one of the measures taken by SenFin that are currently causing the workspace program to stagnate - and threatening a third of the visual arts studios.

You can find the details - also machine-readable - in this PDF. (in German)

Location map of the studio buildings in the workspace program
The locations are color-coded as follows:

• Black: locations that are currently being lost
• Red: locations that are acutely threatened (2025) 
• Yellow: locations whose contracts are due to expire (2029)
• Green: locations that are secured for the long term and locations that are secured for the longer term until 2033
  The current lockdown mentality poses a threat to the studio stock, particularly in inner-city areas.  

As part of the registration for the newsletter, the studio office continuously collects current data from studio seekers on an annual basis. In spring 2023, an additional survey was sent out in which around 16% of Berlin artists took part. These results paint a dramatic picture of the working situation of Berlin's artists - 63% currently do not have their own studio, and the number of studios rented on the open market exceeds the number of spaces created within the rental program by a factor of seven in the period 2017 - 2023.

The survey results including the questionnaire can be found in this PDF:

Basisdaten_Bedarfserhebung_Ateliersituation_2023_neu.pdf (bbk-kulturwerk.de)

After the fall of the Wall, the professional association of visual artists (bbk berlin) established the first systematic studio support in Berlin — and in Germany as a whole. The protests of artists at the beginning of the ’90s led to: the creation of a non-profit studio office that advised artists in all administrative and political infrastructure matters, built up and administered transparent and fair allocation structures for publicly funded studio spaces, and an immediate program of rentals.