Credit: MCULT
On Thursday, the Cabinet of the Luxembourg government approved the creation and appointment of members of the non-profit association "Kultur:LX".
Following the Cabinet meeting, eleven founding members from the culture sector and representatives of the state formed the new Kultur:LX association, with a view to prefiguring the public establishment of the same name.
For years, a Luxembourg “Arts Council” has been under discussion in the cultural sector. The idea gained ground and was registered among the flagship measures of the cultural development plan (Kulturentwécklungsplang) 2018-28. In 2018, the creation of a structure of this type was endorsed by the government programme.
Today, Luxembourg has its own structure for the dissemination and influence of Luxembourg culture in the Grand Duchy and abroad. Building on many efforts and experiences in this field, the association will house the missions of music:LX, Reading Luxembourg and Focuna, among others.
The idea is to make assistance to the cultural sector as a whole more transparent, more professional and more structured. Kultur:LX will have the tasks of supporting tours and exhibitions abroad, promoting literary translations and disseminating dramaturgical creation, as well as strengthening Luxembourg's participation in major cultural events abroad. Exchange programmes and residencies will help maintain cultural relations and dialogue with other cultures.
Upstream of their exportation, particular emphasis will be placed on developing the careers of artists and creatives, in collaboration with the country's cultural institutions. Among the novelties, the possibility of supporting the creative industries and the allocation of long-term scholarships are planned. The association, and later the public establishment, will take care to encourage the diversity of cultural expressions, to identify new talents and to remain open to the most varied approaches to honour Luxembourg's creativity.
A new nomenclature approved within the steering committee and taken over by Kultur:LX covers the following sectors: architecture, design, applied arts and crafts; music; live show (dance, theater, street arts and circus); literature; visual and audiovisual arts (plastic arts, photography and video); and multimedia arts and digital arts.
Each cultural area will see its treatment differentiated and adapted according to existing specificities. The association will reflect this differentiation within it by the establishment of selection committees, made up of experts and personalities from different artistic fields. These committees will collectively take decisions on the aid to be allocated.
Minister of Culture Sam Tanson thanked the Steering Committee as well as all the representatives of the different cultural fields for two years of intensive preparatory work.
The founding members of Kultur:LX, selected on the recommendation of the cultural sector and the ministries concerned, are the following: Catherine Decker (president); Michel Welter (vice-president); Susanne Jaspers (treasurer); Tom Théobald (secretary); Bernard Baumgarten; Christian Biever; Iris Depoulain; Nadine Erpelding; Jérôme Konen; Michèle Walerich; Barbara Zeches.
