Funding & Partners

The Alliance of International Production Houses (Bündnis internationaler Produktionshäuser) is an association made up of seven of Germany’s most important institutions in the field of contemporary performing arts. These seven production houses are provided with long-term funding from their respective municipalities and federal states, and each has an assigned temporary artistic directorate. Current members are the FFT Düsseldorf, HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts (Dresden), Kampnagel (Hamburg), Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm (Frankfurt am Main), PACT Zollverein (Essen) and tanzhaus nrw (Düsseldorf). All members of the alliance are key figures and leading players in Germany’s cultural and socio-political community, and each brings their unique expertise and international perspective to the alliance’s multifaceted exchange with local artists, audience groups and urban societies. The Alliance of International Production Houses has received funded from Germany’s Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media since the 2016/17 season.

Beyond their own established programmes and practices, the seven production houses in the alliance also regularly join forces to realise unique and often multi-year artistic projects at their respective locations. These projects deal with a number of key topics that address the economic, social, cultural and ecological transformation of cities and the world in the 21st century, playfully explore the future of society, theatre, dance and art and experiment with various different scenarios of coexistence. The institutions also pool their expertise to foster the on-going development of advanced production methods in the field of performative art, all the while endeavouring to combine their already extensive local and international networks. This decentralised cooperative model makes it possible to further develop and expand established practices, such as e.g. offering artist residencies, commissioning works, co-productions and site-specific projects in ground-breaking ways. It also enables the seven production houses to collaborate in strengthening, communicating and promoting artistic positions and local contexts at both the national and international levels.

Other key areas of activity by the alliance involve organising training and professional-development programmes (academies) for representatives of the independent performing arts scene, e.g. in the fields of production, journalism, as well as mediation, participation and outreach. In the “Claiming Common Spaces” programme series developed by the alliance, artists, researchers and activists are invited once a year to a festival/conference at one of the institutions to discuss specific aspects of the above-mentioned key topics.

The Tanzplattform Rhein-Main (Dance Platform Rhine-Main) is a cooperation project between Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm and the Hessisches Staatsballett, which in turn belongs to the two state theatres in Darmstadt and Wiesbaden. This is the first time that an international production house and the dance department of two state theatres have joined forces over a longer period of time – and are contributing their creative input, ideas and experience to make dance and dance professionals in the region visible and tangible.

The programme of the Tanzplattform Rhein-Main is aimed at all people with an affinity for dance or who would like to get reacquainted with it, whether as a visitor to dance productions, or as a professional dance maker, dance teacher or facilitator or as an active amateur dancer in their free time.

The Tanzplattform Rhein-Main offers stages for dance productions – for existing and newly developing pieces, as well as for local and international dance professionals. The annual highlight is the two-week Tanzfestival Rhein-Main – in Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Offenbach and Wiesbaden.

The programme for all active amateur dancers ranges from regular dance clubs and intensive workshops to monthly training sessions in a variety of styles and techniques. The highlight of these programmes is the annual Tanztag Rhein-Main with a variety of trial classes throughout the Rhine-Main region and a roaring dance celebration in the Mousonturm.

The Tanzplattform Rhein-Main offers professional dancers daily professional training as well as counselling in dance medicine, artistic residencies and the choreographic workshop as a space in which to engage in professional exchange about their own artistic practices.

Through educational programmes, the Tanzplattform Rhein-Main brings dance into day care centres and schools, while the Dance Outreach Forum (Forum Tanzvermittlung) offers a continuous exchange platform for pedagogues, educators, artists, and teachers.

The Tanzplattform Rhein-Main, a project of Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm and Hessisches Staatsballett, is made possible by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain and supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Frankfurt am Main, the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art and the Stiftungsallianz [Aventis Foundation, Crespo Foundation, Hans Erich und Marie Elfriede Dotter-Stiftung, Dr Marschner Stiftung, ODDO BHF Stiftung, Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft Frankfurt am Main].

Even before Frankfurt's Zoogesellschaftshaus is converted into a large municipal theatre for children and young people, the “Junge Theaterwerkstatt am Zoo” (Young Theatre Workshop at the Zoo) is transforming the venue into Frankfurt's new theatre centre for children and young people.

Over the course of a year, a production house for children's and youth theatre will be created as a unique model project at Familienort Zoo. It offers continuous artistic performances and outreach opportunities for children and young people to experience and further explore how participatory, accessible, sustainable and diverse contemporary theatre for young audiences should be.

From summer 2024 to summer 2025, children and young people can experience thrilling theatre in over 20 outstanding productions by artists from the region, Germany and around the world in the large auditorium of the former Fritz-Rémond-Theater. It is the first time that such a wide range of performances has been offered in Frankfurt over an entire season.

The Junge Theaterwerkstatt am Zoo was initiated by the Department of Culture and Science and the Cultural Office of the City of Frankfurt, conceived and developed by Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, TheaterGrueneSosse and the Verein Paradiesvogel e.V. Frankfurt’s model of independent theatre for young audiences. Further cooperation partners are the Starke Stücke festival, the Tanzplattform RheinMain and The English Theatre Frankfurt.

The Junge Theaterwerkstatt am Zoo is funded by the Department of Culture and Science Frankfurt am Main and the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain.

The Frankfurt LAB is an indispensable production and performance venue for contemporary performing arts and music in the Rhine-Main region. Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm was part of the founding initiative in 2009 and is now one of the five supporting institutions together with Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, Ensemble Modern, Hessische Theaterakademie, Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst. The common goal is to combine the work of internationally renowned ensembles with the encouragement of up-and-coming artists and to bring dance, choreography, performance, theatre and music into a productive exchange. The Frankfurt LAB offers ideal conditions for this: Artists can rehearse and present their work flexibly on a 650 square metre stage and in a 226 square metre studio with good technical infrastructure and in a protected environment.

The Frankfurt LAB offers space for ground-breaking international guest performances, serves as a centre for large-scale festivals and as a basis for extraordinary cooperation and research projects at the interface of art, science and society. At the same time, it acts as a laboratory for future aesthetic developments and offers students and postgraduates of the HTA a place to work and a stage. Through its residency programmes, Frankfurt LAB actively promotes young talent and ties qualified artists to the region. The biennial F°LAB Festival for Performing Arts offers insights into the aesthetic diversity of its programme, bundling new artistic projects and world premieres in the interdisciplinary network of its institutional partner organisations, exploring contacts and constellations with institutions outside the field and seeking contact with neighbourhoods and adjacent initiatives in the district through participatory formats.

Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, Ensemble Modern, Hessische Theaterakademie, Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst are supporting organisations behind the Frankfurt LAB.

The Frankfurt LAB is funded by the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art and the City of Frankfurt am Main. The Stiftungsallianz, consisting of the Crespo Foundation, the Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft Frankfurt am Main, the Adolf und Luisa Haeuser Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege and the ODDO BHF Stiftung, supports Frankfurt LAB and its projects. The Inclusion Department of the City of Frankfurt supports measures to create accessibility. The KfW Foundation supports the international residency programme as part of "Frankfurt Moves!

Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm is a member of Theaterallianz Frankfurt (Frankfurt Theatre Alliance), an association representing the interests of theatres in Frankfurt with a permanent infrastructure and regular performance programmes. This association, which is unique in Germany, brings together municipal theatres, private theatres and the independent scene. The focus lies on the preservation, maintenance and expansion of sustainable structures that enable cultural diversity in Frankfurt. This diversity is of fundamental importance for a society capable of creating spaces of togetherness, especially in times of polarisation.

Members:

antagon theaterAKTion, Die Dramatische Bühne, Die Komödie, Die Schmiere, Frankfurter Autoren Theater, Frankfurt Lab, Freies Schauspiel Ensemble, Freies Theaterhaus, Gallustheater, Interkulturelle Bühne, Internationales Theater Frankfurt, Kammeroper Frankfurt, Kellertheater / Junge Bühne, Kinder- & Jugendtheater, Kulturhaus am Zoo, Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, Landungsbrücken Frankfurt, Neues Theater Höchst, Oper Frankfurt, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Stalburg Theater, The English Theatre Frankfurt, Theater Alte Brücke, Theater Willy Praml, theaterperipherie, Volksbühne im Großen Hirschgraben

Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm and Schauspiel Frankfurt have been working together since 2018 on a series of jointly financed and realised co-productions in which outstanding artists and collectives from Germany and around the world realise world premieres of their own works in the Bockenheimer Depot.

So far, this intensive collaboration has resulted in the productions “Out of Order” by Forced Entertainment, “Chinchilla Arschloch, waswas” by Rimini Protokoll (Helgard Haug), “Burt Turrido. An Opera” by Nature Theatre of Oklahoma and “Shout Aloud” by Yasmeen Godder Company and Dikla.

Thanks to these successful collaborations, the Bockenheimer Depot, which was converted into a theatre in the 1980s, remains a place for the substantial support of international independent theatre today.