Culture for everyone

"The Idea is so easy and clear, coherent and logical", says Antonia Illich, "that I was surprised not to find a culture box in the Ruhr area in 2010." The communications scientist got to know the culture box concept in Marburg. It's based on the food pantry principle: Free spaces from cultural events are distributed to people who otherwise cannot afford a visit.

Since September 2010, three board members and 18 voluntary contributors have been working from their office at the Kunsthaus in Essen to give tickets to registered culture guests - people with low income such as Hartz IV recipients (social welfare benefits; translator's note), families, BAföG recipients (student loan; translator's note), the elderly and people that are supported by the food pantry. "It is really important to us that our guests can save face. That's why at least two tickets are distributed through the box office or through guest lists. This ensures that our guests are not subjected to the inconvenience to have to explain their difficult situation."

Culture guests below the poverty line: the unemployed, the elderly, children, the self-employed, single parents

Antonia Illich gives away tickets to the most diverse types of guests: "We are looking at the entire bandwidth - in an age group of 20 to 70 years. Those can be culture-affine seniors who have consumed culture their entire life but cannot afford it any more in old age due to low income. We also have children, single parents and formerly self-employed people on file who didn't have the opportunity to take respective precautions. We have people who only care about movies or pop concerts for example. We can send them to a Lichtburg premiere from time to time."

Registration is usually done via (social) institutions that the guests are already in touch with. In Essen, they are the AIDS federation, the emergency overnight accomodation for young people Raum 58 and the Caritas.

2,000 tickets from 41 culture partners

Since 2010, the culture box has distributed 2,000 tickets and has 800 guests on file. 41 cultural partners provide tickets that won't sell, such as Bahnhof Langendreer, Bergbau-Museum Bochum, domicil Dortmund, Essener Volksbühne, Volkwang Music School, Zollverein or Konzerthaus Dortmund. "Every event has some free space in the end. This means that event organisers do not sell less tickets because of us, says Antonia Illich.

The culture box Ruhr offers tickets to its guests beyond the borders of the Ruhr area, e.g. in Cologne. So far, it is the first culture box in the state of Northrhine-Westphalia. Originally founded in Marburg, culture boxes have become established, 20 are currently being founded in places such as Düsseldorf or Wuppertal.

56 per cent of guests did not have access to culture prior to the culture box

"In theory, you don't really need us", explains Antonia Illich. "You could visit a free event every day in the Ruhr area. Yet only very few people are informed about it - those, who are interested in it anyway. What we do is to get people interested, to make them an offer that they would not recognise otherwise." According to a study about the culture box in Berlin, 56 per cent of guests did not have access to cultural events prior to the culture box.

Administrative costs, printed materials, flat rates - despite the work of 18 members, the culture box needs funds from the Mercator foundation, Lions Westfalen Ruhr and RWE.

"I underestimated how much work it is", says Antonia Illich, "but I find it essential that everyone has access to cultural offerings. We can see how important culture is as an element that provides structure to their lives. People are really happy. Those are great shared moments."

On its website, the culture box welcomes additional supporters as voluntary worker, event host, social institution or sponsor.