Confrontation instead of representation The Austrian cultural sector is facing its greatest existential crisis of the Second Republic. The conceptual foundations of Austrian cultural policy date from the 1970s and are approaching their limits due to the pandemic. This book highlights the urgency of renegotiating the relationship between the cultural sector and wider society through artists, mediators, and users. Together with several long-standing cultural observers, Michael Wimmer sets out to find a contemporary cultural policy. His goal is to ensure that art and culture are given the status in society that they deserve. Conceived as a dialogical polemic, the central aspects of a new agenda for cultural policy are negotiated in order to initiate a broader discussion of cultural policy. - On the history, present, and future of cultural policy A plea for a broad discussion of cultural policy With contributions by Sylvia Amann, Sabine Breitwieser, Veronica KaupHasler, Asl Klal, Birgit Mandel, Christoph ThunHohenstein, and others

Michael Wimmer, founder and director of the research institute EDUCULT; lecturer, speaker, author, Vienna