Field work

Anyone who brings up a cultural issue usually gets it back in pieces: the governance at one place, subsidies at another, and a curatorial assignment from the next expert. But the parts are interconnected. That’s why I start with the field itself and map out what lies beneath it through conversations and workshops: the history of the place, the people who are part of it, and the unwritten rules that have kept a collaboration together for years. Only when I understand that undercurrent can I view and tackle the assignment as a whole.

Teamwork

Most cultural issues cannot be solved from a single perspective. I bring together parties with often opposing interests: a municipality, a collection, a divided cultural field and the city around it. There I look for what connects them despite everything. This is how ownership grows among the people who have to move on. When specialized knowledge is needed, I bring it in. In fact, a task plays out on three levels simultaneously: the content, the practice and the people. I can easily and quickly switch between these levels. The goal is to leave a clear division of roles, governance that works and agreements that stand the test of time.

Form and foundation

An empty building that needs to become a museum, a master plan that awaits implementation or a cultural landscape that needs to look in the same direction; the assignment determines what I deliver: a business case, a program framework, a vision document, or my commitment as a facilitator to getting the organization on its own feet. The form changes, the foundation remains in the form of choices that the stakeholders adopt, and an organization that they can carry.