Now, like in other MUS-E® countries, schools across Germany are closed, which currently means a – hopefully – temporary break. MUS-E® Germany decided to support its artists in this difficult time as far as possible. The board of the association has therefore decided to continue paying their fees until further notice.

In keeping with the motto “Keep the arts alive!” we show solidarity, because only together can we master this crisis and preserve our diverse cultural landscape. For this reason, MUS-E® Germany has set up a solidarity fund to continue honoring its artists so long as we can afford it and state programs are ready to pay for them.

As we all know MUS-E® as an artistic-educational program is essentially based on the effects of the physical encounter between children and charismatic artists. In view of the current situation, our artistic projects cannot be carried out on site in the classes. In order to give the pupils access to low-threshold cultural offerings, especially in this difficult time, the creativity of our MUS-E® artists like in other MUS-E® countries have come up with something very special: Instead of going to school, some of them now come directly (digitally) to the family’s home! These online projects include visual arts, painting and percussions. We are looking forward to the further ideas of our esteemed artists! We also enjoyed all shared contributions from MUS-E® partners in Europe. We felt the cooperation and mutual support.

We also would like to introduce our new team for MUS-E® Germany to you today. As we reported in the last newsletter, Kerstin Weinberger resigned from her role as managing director in order to concentrate fully on her flourishing area of ​​responsibility in Mannheim. We are very thankful for her initiative as managing director. As MUS-E® Germany has to grow because of the size of the country and to come into a better financial balance, the board of MUS-E® Germany used this decision as an opportunity to create a completely new organizational chart with the new managing director Tom Neßmann, who is currently studying at the University of Management in Mannheim. The board is still led by Werner Schmitt, who will also take on important organizational and team-building tasks during the transition period. Kateryna Poltavets, who has already worked successfully with Kerstin Weinberger, will assist Tom Neßmann. Jutta Obrowski is responsible for the national program management and cooperation in the international MUS-E® network. Maximilian Braun is still responsible for editing and member support. We look forward to future productive cooperation.

Finally, great news from Saxony-Anhalt: We are pleased that we will start our first school in the Eastern part of Germany in August. With the “Bach city” of Köthen, MUS-E® Germany is gaining a historic location of great cultural and currently also socio-political importance. We are full of anticipation for the fruits of this new collaboration and can hardly wait for the start of the new school year in Köthen.