INITIAL SITUATION

In North Rhine-Westphalia, in addition to a number of professional pop culture actors, there are also a large number of voluntary initiatives and associations that significantly shape and shape pop culture work and thus make a major contribution to the preservation and diversity of the NRW pop landscape.

But under what conditions do these initiatives actually work? How does the volunteer work work? What conditions help the initiatives in their work? Where do they encounter obstacles? Where might structural, financial or content-related support be needed? And to what extent do the requirements and needs differ between different regions in North Rhine-Westphalia?

In order to gain well-founded insights into these issues, the PopBoard NRW launched the “Pop vor Ort” project in fall 2023 to strengthen and network cultural spaces and live initiatives.

THE PROJECT

The project essentially consists of collaborations between the PopBoard NRW and various voluntary live initiatives from different regions of NRW. As part of these collaborations, a live event in the form of a concert takes place at the location of the cooperating initiative. The concerts are combined with a supporting program, for example a panel, workshop or discussion round.

In addition to networking and strengthening the live initiatives, the PopBoard NRW would also like to use the collaborations in particular to gain insights into the structures, success factors and difficulties of pop culture work in the respective areas. These findings can then be used to formulate specific policy recommendations and follow-up projects to strengthen cultural spaces.

At the same time, PopBoard NRW’s “Pop vor Ort” project aims to promote the diversity of pop culture in NRW and sensitize pop culture stakeholders to diversity, awareness and accessibility.