Diversity in culture: everything is so beautifully colorful here

In the past three years, the topic of “diversity” has played an important role at German cultural institutions. That is - to put it bluntly - the decisive finding which a report of the "Initiative for cultural integration" funded with funds from the federal culture comes to. It summarizes the survey of around one hundred cultural institutions that are permanently funded by the federal government on the identity of their workforce, their audience and their program. Since this is a “complex question”, the study's interest in finding out is limited to the criteria of gender, age, physical disability and migration background. One could certainly have imagined other identity parameters, such as the currently very popular sexual orientation,but so far even the most enlightened employers are not allowed to know anything about this and are therefore not allowed to provide any information.

Does the diversity report presented yesterday with Aplomb offer any surprising findings? Yes, because apparently the diversity situation in the German cultural scene is pretty good from an identity-political point of view. Overall, significantly more women than men work in cultural institutions, contrary to the perceived reality, the proportion of female employees is above average. The number of people with disabilities and employees with a migration background is either identical or is even higher than the average percentage of the population: “In every second organization, up to 25 percent of employees are employees with a migration background,” the report states.However, migration is a broad term per se and also refers to the Italian lighting master, the Chilean archive worker or the Swiss choreographer.

Hardly any people of Turkish origin

It is noticeable that especially people with a Turkish migration background are hardly represented, although they are known to constitute the largest immigration group in Germany.

Why is that?

Olaf Zimmermann, initiator and co-author of the study, sees the “lack of real promises of advancement in the cultural sector” as a decisive reason for the low level of interest in this group.

Which is an interesting thought that would mean that German cultural institutions generally do not offer a particularly attractive working environment for young workers interested in advancement.

Speaking of young: the average employee at a cultural site surveyed is a 50-year-old woman. Under thirty-year-olds are clearly underrepresented in the German cultural scene. What mixes some water into the beautiful wine that Minister of State for Culture Grütters had put on her desk when she said goodbye.

As little as the “migration background” is useful as an enlightening description of identity, just as little does the expression “diverse” say anything about the general appearance of a house. Because a cultural institution lives not only from its employees, but above all from its audience. Surprisingly, only a little more than half of the institutions surveyed were able to provide information about its composition. Could or wanted to? When looking into their museum foyers or archive rooms, most functionaries will probably still lose their good mood for diversity. And as far as their program is concerned - the report states that institutions referred above all to their further training offers and their “diversity-appropriate language”.

At the thought that most of the cultural offerings themselves already contain the diversity of the earth and its inhabitants, that they are mostly about people or are created, who for the most part do not correspond to the average, but hurt, desperate, for the most diverse reasons, Are outcast, shy, megalomaniac or otherwise special - apparently nobody comes to such a study. For her it is really only about structural questions, the freedom of art should remain untouched, emphasizes Zimmermann. That is always said so quickly and easily, but apparently no one thinks about the pressure under which smaller institutions in particular with the indefinite and thus potentially always expandable claim to diversity are put. Certainly not a cultural policy,which wants to bask in its own progressive reputation through such demands.