Twelve-year-old Max is excited. He has been going to his lessons at the local music school regularly for over four years. But today is different. Luckily, his classmate Claudia is already there. Just like Max, the 71-year-old retired policewoman decided to learn the trumpet almost five years ago. The two quickly became friends while making music, still take lessons together and learn a lot from and with each other. For today, the two have practiced especially often. In the foyer of the building, they do not turn right to the classrooms as usual but go straight ahead together into the large concert hall. The hall of the resident professional orchestra. This is exactly where Max and Claudia are today because there is a joint concert of the music school and the professional orchestra.
In this example, two institutions not only share a building, they also actively cooperate with each other. From casual meetings and experiences in the corridor to joint workshops and mediation offers, to sponsorships and this very cooperation concert in the Great Concert Hall. The possibilities are manifold and, despite the active cooperative life of many institutions, far from exhausted. Up to now, music schools in Germany have cooperated with educational partners. At the 933 public music schools, a good 13,000 cooperations take place annually (Statistical Yearbook of German Music Schools 2021). The connection to the educational landscape is obvious and, especially due to the frequent all-day care at schools and kindergartens, is an effective means of providing pupils with a qualified educational offer despite limited time capacities.
However, great synergy potentials can also be raised through cooperation with other cultural institutions; in many places, however, this is still untapped. The diverse offer of music schools is aimed at a broad group of society and therefore fits ideally with the goals of modern cultural institutions, such as low threshold, openness, and all-day revitalization. In addition to the classic synergy effects in the organizational and infrastructural areas, this kind of cooperation brings conceptual and strategic advantages for all parties. If it is well designed, the offer, user loyalty and target group of both institutions are interlinked and achieve an increased effect:
- The participants act as multipliers for both cultural institutions.
- Pupils are themselves brought closer to the professional cultural institution and bring friends, relatives, and acquaintances with them.
- Music schools benefit from the professional image of the partner institution and can draw on additional expertise for their high-quality offerings.
- Finally, synergy potentials unfold to revitalize the entire cultural landscape for enrichment at all levels.
The trend towards bringing institutions closer together is also reflected in various projects such as the Annelies Brost Musikforum Ruhr, the planned Musikcampus Münster or the concept for merging a new concert hall and the municipal music school in Braunschweig, which was recently examined by actori in a needs and potential analysis.
As a long-standing partner of cultural institutions and their sponsors, actori is happy to support you in discovering potential and developing a strategy tailored to your situation. Take advantage of your individual local situation and actively help shape the cultural landscape.
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An impulse contribution by Julius Geiger, Consulting.