The nominees of the 14th European Cultural Award

Festival Out Of The Box - withebox Kultur gGmbH
"Out of the Box" is a music festival that presents spectacular international productions and plays at venues all around the city. Two central social themes will guide the concept: sustainability in an urban environment plus digitisation. The fascination lies in carving out in both themes the immediate, the archaic and the emotional with the claim: Move out of the ordinary - get under the skin.

#strangethingschallenge - Historisches Museum der Pfalz
In museum depots there are not only highly valuable exhibits but also all kinds of strange stuff. In January 2019, the Historical Museum of Rhineland-Palatinate placed five curious objects from its own collection on Instagram and invited other museums to do the same: The response was overwhelming. Within the framework of #strangethingschallenge, more than 700 entries can now be found on Instagram. Meanwhile, museums and other cultural institutions from all over Europe have also taken part.

STEGREIF.orchester
They "liberated" Beethoven. They "liberated” Schubert as well. Now it is Johannes Brahms' turn. The weekly journal DIE ZEIT wrote: "It would be absurd to deny these virtuosos musical and interpretative stylistic awareness. On the contrary: they are redefining it." In this way the STEGREIF.orchestra opens up completely new ways of approaching classical music for the audience spiced with jazz, world music and techno. The ensemble plays neither with notes nor with a conductor - the resulting freedom creates space for improvisation and movement. The concert hall, the auditorium, the stands, everything in the concert hall becomes a stage. The 30 professional musicians liberate, so to speak, the avant-garde spark inherent in Brahms' 133-year-old music.

Dr. Gabriele Minz (Managing Director Young Euro Classic)
Gabriele Minz: The graduate economist and psychologist has been a cultural manager since the end of the 1990s. With "Young Euro Classic", she created a life's work: the international youth orchestra festival has been a great success for 20 years, with large numbers of visitors and always new up-and-coming orchestras. In keeping with her idea, 6500 music lovers sang Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" as a commitment to Europe within this year's anniversary programme. Gabriele Minz is also involved in cultural exchange worldwide. She sees herself as a bridge builder who above all brings young people from different countries together to let them get to know each other better in a cultural way. She has already been successful with many sustainable projects and now she (once again) turns her attention to China, linking Richard Wagner's "Ring" with the Beijing Opera.

Hedwig Fijen (Founding Director Manifesta)

Hedwig Fijen studied history and art history at the University of Amsterdam. She has been founding director of Manifesta, the European Biennale for Contemporary Art, since its founding in Rotterdam in 1993. Under her direction, Manifesta has grown into the fourth largest Biennale in the world. During this period she has considerably expanded Manifesta's activities through theoretical and pedagogical projects such as the Manifesta Journal, Manifesta Publications and Manifesta Coffee Breaks. Hedwig Fijen is in charge of all aspects of the Manifesta organisation, including the choice of venues, thematic content and curatorial selection. She is also responsible for the final implementation of the curators' concept. Before her time at Manifesta, Fijen worked as a curator in the Dutch Fine Arts Bureau and in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, Cuba and many other countries.

Tourist Authority South Moravia
South Moravia with its capital Brno is one of the most attractive regions in the Czech Republic. Thanks to its ideal location in the heart of Europe, it attracts more and more visitors. This authentic area with vineyards and wine cellars is rich in natural treasures, monuments, beautiful castles and palaces, still very lively folklore traditions, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with many cycle paths and sports facilities. No wonder that many famous artists and scientists preferred to live and work here.

Krefelder Perspektivwechsel - City Krefeld, City Marketing
In its capacity as an "urban curator", the joint initiative "Krefelder Perspektivwechsel" (Krefeld Change of Perspective) takes a new look at city marketing and the city brand with the aim of networking and activating people and, together with them, assuming responsibility for urban development and cultural diversity. Within eight years, cultural formats will be used every other year to focus on a brand core, a specific aspect of urban identity and to shed light on this identity from every conceivable perspective, thus providing the impetus for identification and participation.

City Bad Oldesloe
In Bad Oldesloe, a north German town in the medium-centre category, cultural professionals, politicians and administration staff have been pursuing an extraordinarily intensive cultural development for over ten years, from which the cultural brand KuB has emerged.  It comprises the 3,000 square metre new building of the cultural centre. The well-staffed cultural sector of the town promotes actively the cultural scene, organises events and advances cultural development in a multi-perspective way.

Kulturraffinerie K714" - Monheimer Kulturwerke GmbH
Monheimer Kulturwerke GmbH is the still young 100% subsidiary of the town of Monheim on the river Rhine, which acts as an impetus for culture, tourism and folklore in town development. Coupled with the town's objectives, the Kulturwerke promote and combine local structures, involve citizens in the planning process and bridge the gap between day-to-day, social and advanced culture. With the conversion of the local historic barrel-filling hall into the "Kulturraffinerie K714" multi-functional building, the Monheimer Kulturwerke are creating a space for identification and a representation site for the town's model of the diverse municipal society.

Monopol - Magazin für Kunst und Leben
Since 2004, Monopol has been setting standards for the German and international art business: every month, the magazine captivates with its witty staging of current topics of the creative and lifestyle elite and inspires its readers with its generous appearance and award-winning visual language. As a seismograph that detects trends, discovers new artists, and sets buying impulses, Monopol is the leading medium for collectors of contemporary art and forms the interface for all those who love contemporary art, work with it, and also use it commercially. Monopol is published by Res Publica Verlags GmbH, which also publishes the magazine Cicero.