Artists in Urban Space: Urban Development for the Common Good Based on the Example of the Montagstiftung

Together with its partners, the Montag Stiftung Urbane Räume develops its own projects in line with the foundation group’s mission statement: acting and shaping with social responsibility. Creating opportunities where there are too few of them – that is the aim of this collaborative neighbourhood development. The community-oriented projects are developed according to the initial capital principle. The foundation invests in vacant buildings and sites and develops new usage concepts together with the residents of the district that meet local needs. ‘We want to create places where people can come together, learn from one another and shape their own future. We firmly believe that only where people think, decide and take action together it is possible to create something that benefits everyone.’

As part of the Recht auf Stadt network, we on the board of the Professional Association of Visual Artists are asking ourselves what Hamburg could learn from this. Clarissa Herbst (SPD) and Sylvia Henze from the association Ateliers für die Kunst e.V. will report on their experiences in this context. Dr Michael Ziehl will take a look at current social developments. According to him, we need open spaces, where diversity is experienced positively, and inspiring visions of the future for liveable cities in order to counter the shift to the right and strengthen democracy at a local level:

‘Artists could make important contributions to a community-oriented urban development on many levels. At the same time, artists also need good working conditions in this context. In Hamburg, we lack suitable instruments to ensure urban development that is oriented towards the common good in the sense of these urban spaces and to develop similar models. How can we achieve something similar in Hamburg? What needs to be done? Who needs to take action? And what does politics actually say about it?’