09/10 Season

Berlin Cultural Axis

Given that Bayer Schering Pharma, with a headcount of over 5,000, is the largest industrial employer in Berlin, Bayer Arts & Culture has been stepping up its activities in the city since 2007.

Over the next few years we intend to establish a Leverkusen/Berlin cultural axis which we hope will benefit the people of both cities. Developing a workable and sustainable concept for this axis, involving all four sections of Bayer Arts & Culture, is among the most important and exciting challenges we are now addressing.

Zoom image

We are aiming for a concept that is international in scope and at the same time offers support to highly talented young artists. It is therefore only natural that it should be linked to our stART project.

Our partners in Berlin will be five prestigious and internationally recognized cultural institutions: the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Renaissance Theatre, roc berlin (radio orchestra and choirs), the Martin Gropius Building and the House of World Cultures.

The 2009/10 season will see the first results of our cooperation with the Renaissance Theatre and the Ernst Busch Academy in the form of two plays which will be premiered in Leverkusen and then performed in Berlin too.

Internationality is also the keynote of our continuing cooperation with the House of World Cultures. In 2009, Bayer Arts & Culture is helping to fund the restoration of the Henry Moore sculpture in front of this splendid building and is also sponsoring the “Spirit of the Haus” project celebrating the institution’s 20th anniversary. As from 2010, Bayer Arts & Culture will be a partner in an exhibition project entitled Labor Berlin (Berlin laboratory), which will focus on young artists from different countries who work in the German capital. These exhibitions will also be held in Leverkusen.

In 2009 Bayer Arts & Culture will also be involved in the “Klangkulturen” (sound cultures) project set up by roc berlin, our partner in the music section.

In cooperation with the Martin Gropius Building, Bayer Arts & Culture will bring the highly successful Robert Lebeck exhibition from Berlin to Leverkusen during the 2010/11 season. This will be followed up in 2011/12 by another exciting project, when the Bayer Collection will be on view in the historic setting of the Martin Gropius Building.

We will be reporting in more detail on our partners in the Leverkusen/Berlin cultural axis in the five issues of our new magazine “KUNSTstoff” which will be published during the season.