Future Foyer: Culture and Care – Practices of Caring-with
2026-05-25 How can care in artistic and cultural spaces be not only articulated as an attitude but also put into practice? These and other questions were discussed on May 19, 2026, at the Zukunftsfoyer “Culture and Care – Practices of Caring-with” held at the Theater Lüneburg.
In collaboration with Theater Lüneburg, the Leuphana Innovation Community for Art and Culture organized the third edition of the “Zukunftsfoyer”—a series of events designed to foster open dialogue between academia, artistic practice, and the general public.
The focal point of the discussion was a concept that is becoming increasingly prominent in the cultural sector yet remains elusive: care. The Zukunftsfoyer explored what care concretely means in art and cultural spaces—beyond programmatic claims and symbolic gestures. Guests from the arts and culture were invited to discuss structures, working conditions, access, and exclusion.
The title of the evening, “Caring-with,” referred to a shared concern and shaping: to relationships, interconnections, and collaboration. The event kicked off with an artistic presentation by the inclusive author collective Wortkollektiv, featuring Katja Burstorff, Anke Schwiete, and Morton Tartas. Their contributions opened up a space for experience where care did not remain abstract, but became tangible as a matter of language, perception, belonging, and collaborative artistic work.
The discussion then turned to three perspectives from curatorial practice, theater work, and cultural education: curator and author Lisa Deml, musical theater director and lecturer Kerstin Steeb, and education researcher, poet, and author Jess Tartas. Together with Prof. Dr. Boukje Cnossen, they discussed how care is understood and practiced in various cultural fields—in collaboration with artists, in educational processes, in everyday theater life, and in the design of spaces where people can experience themselves as self-effective.
A key focus of the discussion was the relationship between care, spaces, and structures. How can curatorial work become more caring? How do belonging and participation emerge without mediation becoming paternalistic? And how can artistic content and working conditions be conceived together? The discussion made it clear that care in the cultural sector is not merely a matter of individual attitude. It requires time, resources, transparent decision-making, and institutional frameworks that make these possible.
At the same time, the limits of care were also discussed. What happens when different needs clash or contradict one another? How can conflicts be managed without rushing to resolve them? These questions in particular demonstrated that caring cultural work is not conflict-free. Rather, it requires a willingness to tolerate contradictions, to make power dynamics visible, and to not only acknowledge responsibility but also to share it in practice.
The audience also contributed to the discussion with questions and their own perspectives. The central question that kept emerging was what specific changes would be needed to ensure that care does not remain merely an ideal, but becomes an everyday practice in cultural work.
The Zukunftsfoyer thus once again proved to be an open space for addressing future-oriented questions in the cultural sector. In the unique atmosphere of the theater foyer, it became clear: care in cultural institutions does not arise from individual gestures, but from relationships, structures, and shared practice—through a “caring-with.”
