kültür gemma! – promote migrant art and culture production

As current studies show, the structural and systematic discrimination commonly faced by migrants when it comes to a project being taken seriously is also present in the cultural field. For this reason the programme kültür gemma! – initiated by the City of Vienna in 2012 – is attempting to create new ways in which to establish the visibility and independence of migrant cultural work.

However, kültür gemma! takes a critical position on the practices of cultural appropriation and exploitation of migrant “capital” labelled as “diversity”. It has deliberately chosen this paradoxical position and intends to show the powerful, yet not always just, relationships in the cultural field in order to open them up to the possibility of change.

This programme consists of four one-year scholarships and three fellowships at established Viennese cultural institutions: kültür gemma! offers four one-year working scholarships to migrant artists endowed with 1,000 Euros each on a monthly basis. These scholarships should help the respective artists to realize the projects detailed in their applications as well as support them in establishing themselves within the cultural scene in Vienna. The scholarship holders are accompanied by kültür gemma! throughout the year. All of their works are presented at the end of the year in a collective exhibition/performance.

kültür gemma! also offer three fellowships at Viennese cultural institutions that run at least 6 months. The aim of these fellowships (endowed with 1,400 € on a monthly basis) is to enable professional collaboration within a specific field while also making it possible to deal with a specific cultural institution from a migrant perspective.

Calls for applications are directed explicitly towards migrants without any specification of country of origin, nationality, or anything similar – in short, they apply to anyone working in the cultural field who understands himself/herself as migrant, black, or person of colour, and therefore not in the position of privileges occupied by the majority.