Future concept for the TIETZ

At its meeting today, Chemnitz City Council confirmed the future concept for the TIETZ. In the concept, the cultural organisation describes a joint strategy for the city library, the Museum of Natural History, the adult education centre, the music school, the city archive and cultural management. The focal points of the institutions and the objectives of the collaboration are outlined until 2022. It is now up to the administration to analyse the individual projects in more detail, prepare concrete plans for implementation and present these separately to the city council for approval.

Under the umbrella of the "TIETZ+ - Opening Horizons" brand, the cultural centre defines itself as a place for encounters and communication, art and creativity, knowledge and information. In order to clarify its positioning and present itself as a strong cultural brand, the TIETZ is striving for a uniform image for the entire cultural centre and is planning a series of joint, cross-institutional events for people of all generations and backgrounds, including family days and cultural nights, in addition to the existing basic offerings.

The Tietz+ brand builds on the existing "Das TIETZ" brand and stands for expansion and openness. The new structures in the cultural sector will optimise internal processes and pool resources. The newly gained potential is the basis for a wide-ranging cultural programme with a strong local and regional appeal as well as international accents, for example through the research work of the Natural History Museum or the work of cultural management in the cultural forum of the EUROCITIES city network.

The foyer of the TIETZ is of particular importance in the future concept. Extensive remodelling measures are planned and the re-installation of an information point at the main entrance as a central information and control centre for visitors.

The city's cultural management team will focus in particular on developing a cultural strategy for the city of Chemnitz, revising the instruments for promoting culture, advising culture makers in the newly created Kultur.RAUM, organising the EUROCITIES Cultural Forum 2018 and further strengthening cultural education.

The city library would like to establish itself even more strongly as an inner-city place of learning and play a key role in the networking of educational programmes. In particular, cooperation with the Chemnitz Adult Education Centre is to be intensified in order to expand learning worlds digitally together. In line with current media developments, the library is planning to expand its media education programmes and extend its database offerings and online portals in order to counteract a digital divide in society. Maintaining the existing neighbourhood libraries and mobile library services are also priorities.

With its educational programme, the adult education centre is facing up to social challenges such as digitalisation, integration and inclusion as well as demographic change. The Volkshochschule supports the specialisation of professions and the development towards Economy 4.0 with further and advanced training courses. In this way, the adult education centre contributes to the employability of citizens and to securing skilled workers in Chemnitz. The adult education centre will increasingly address older people with special courses and expand its offerings for family, voluntary and professional care and nursing. With its core expertise in social and political education, the adult education centre will accompany citizens through the rapid pace of social change and provide educational and informative courses.

In the Museum of Natural History, the spectacular excavation finds made in Chemnitz since 2008 have prompted the comprehensive modernisation of the permanent exhibition. The unique selling point of the city of Chemnitz, the Pompeii of the Permian period with the Petrified Forest, will be presented in an innovative way over an area of 1,375^{square metres} . According to current plans, the new permanent exhibition will open in 2021 to mark the 180th anniversary of the birth of the museum's first director, Johann Traugott Sterzel. The museum would like to present a visually and content-wise meaningful idea and spatial concept with cost planning for the newly developed permanent exhibition as early as 2017.

The Municipal Music School is planning further refurbishment work on the building on the Kaßberg by 2022, a continuous renewal of instruments (e.g. pianos and harps) that remain stationary in the building as well as woodwind instruments for loan. There are also plans to intensify further training for teachers, group and gifted tuition. The measures are aimed at further increasing the quality of musical education in order to develop the music school into a "conservatory". Through a future cooperation with the youth welfare office, a youth music club is to be established in the old basement of the music school by 2021. The music school will also promote a welcoming culture in Chemnitz through projects for refugees in asylum centres as well as by offering lessons in traditional oriental, African and Asian instruments.

The city archive is focussing on developing an overall concept for the accommodation of the historical archive and the central archives. By 2020, there will be a need for storage space for a total of around 11,000 linear metres of files, plus 500 square metres of storage space for special cabinets and special shelving for books, maps, plans and the image archive. By the end of 2019, specialised concepts for the transfer of electronic documents to the archives are to be drawn up. The archive would also like to provide its users with modern forms of use such as online research. This also includes the digitisation of analogue archive material and the modernisation of the technical equipment in the reading room. Personnel challenges await the archive until 2024, with more than half of the current staff retiring due to age. In terms of personnel management, the focus is on filling the vacancies.

The Kulturbetrieb will inform the Culture Committee about the implementation status of the concept and apply for the financial and personnel requirements with the following budget plans, taking into account the available budget funds.

The starting point for the future concept was the City Council's decision in November 2014 (resolution B-323/2014) to establish the Kulturbetrieb der Stadt Chemnitz as a municipal department and to merge the departments of Municipal Cultural Management, Municipal Music School, Chemnitz City Library, Museum of Natural History, Chemnitz Adult Education Centre and Chemnitz City Archive into this department.