The ADKDW has been an indispensable part of the Cologne and international art and culture scene for 12 years. We design programmes, exhibitions and events that provide artistic impetus and enrich social discourse.
That is why we are currently experiencing a lot of encouragement and solidarity. Numerous friends and supporters of the ADKDW have sent us statements, which we are gradually publishing here in full:
Dr. Yilmaz Dziewior, Direktor Museum Ludwig:
Die Akademie der Künste der Welt ist gleichermaßen für Köln als auch für die internationale wie globale Kunst von großer Bedeutung. Sie verbindet lokale Künstler*innen mit solchen, die aus verschiedenen Kontinennten nach Köln eingeladen werden. Der hier entstehende Austausch ist von unschätzbarem Wert und großer Nachhaltigkeit. In ihrem interdisziplinären Programm und ihrer einzigartigen Struktur, bei der die über die Welt verteilten Mitglieder wichtige Impulse für das Programm geben, werden vertieft Themen in teilweise sehr experimentellen Formaten verhandelt. In unserer Stadt gibt es keinen vergleichbaren Ort, wie die Akademie der Künste der Welt, deshalb muss die Kölner Politik alles daran setzen, diese überregional viel beachtete Institution zu stärken.
Binna Choi, Member ADKDW / Curator of Hawai'i Triennial 2025:
The diversity of culture across the world is what keeps fascinating us human beings. As much there is much to (un)learn in and about the world, while it’s up to us to shape the world in the way we think and want it to be. The Akademie der Künste der Welt is such a place where we learn and find joy in our differences and imagine the world otherwise. As an art institution of unprecedented form, the Akademie der Künste der Welt is what makes Cologne stay connected to the world, part of the world and be actors for new world. We cannot loose this power merely after ten years of its becoming, that means Cologne loose a world for sure if not many more.
Madhusree Dutta, ehem. künstlerische Leitung ADKDW:
The name of the institution Akademie der Kunste der Welt was given by the Cologne City council and it was founded as a non-profit company owned by the city, in 2012. The current proposal from the city – advocating liquidation of the institution – proves that the authority took it literally that an academy of arts of the world is only a mere company, and can be founded and liquidated at the will of its owners.
But in this intervening 12 years large number of artists and thinkers from all over the globe, some as members, some others as fellows and as guest artists, have raised the stake of this ‘company’ by contributing their intellectual and creative labour, and thus have put the name of Cologne in the contemporary culture map. They agreed to be part of this exercise as the statute of the institution promised a new vision.
From the Statue of the Academy: § 2 Objectives and activities (1) As a cultural institution of a new type, the Academy reflects on and addresses the social and cultural transformation brought on by processes of globalization, migration, post-colonialism, etc. Its purpose is to promote the international, and especially non-European, contemporary arts and to enrich the cultural life of Cologne. The Academy activates the capacities of art and public discourse to highlight the potentials of an intercultural urban society. It operates as an independent platform of intellectual, aesthetic, and political engagement with questions of interculturality and global cultural production in all their dimensions. Guided by the idea that it is a steadily changing cultural and political experiment, the Academy develops and supports new forms of thinking about art and culture in the globalized world. It aims to build networks, offer hospitality and support for creative artists from all over the world, and create access to cultural and artistic practices for people who have been excluded from them for sociocultural, economic, political, or other reasons.
The Academy, with deft guidance from its members, has been continuously working on developing a model of art practices that is simultaneously pedagogical, dialogic, counter-hegemonic, speculative and also healing. Academy’s functioning is different from other conventional and mono-disciplined institutions – because it has been committed to interfaces and exchanges.
Are we to understand that the City of Cologne is now embarrassed of its own vision declared in 2012 and want to liquidate this forward-looking institution, in favour of some jaded monolithic institution? If so, who will compensate for the time and efforts of the members – around 50 eminent artists, authors, curators and thinkers from across the globe? And thereafter, who will take responsibility for the new hope for inter-culturality that Academy had developed among the various marginalized communities in the city and in the region?
Silvia Fehrmann, Leiterin Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD:
Die AdKdW ist einzigartig. Sie macht sichtbar, dass Köln eine internationale Stadt ist, sie treibt voran, dass Neues entsteht. Ihre Abwicklung würde eine traurige Leerstelle hinterlassen. Wer sonst bringt die Künste, die Wissenschaft und die Gesellschaft zum gemeinsamen Handeln?
kekahi wahi, latest Artists-in-Residence of ADKDW 2024:
As artists, filmmakers, curators, educators, and community organizers from Hawaiʻi active within local and global art discourses we express our support of the Akademie der Künste der Welt (Academy of the Arts of the World, ADKDW). Furthermore, as recent artists-in-residence at the ADKDW we can attest first hand to the positive impact that the organization has had on our creative practice as well as the ways in which we have in turn contributed positively to the art ecosystem of Cologne.
We are saddened to learn that the proposed 2025/2026 budget of the city of Cologne includes plans to discontinue funding for the ADKDW. We believe the work of the ADKDW and the numerous individuals and communities it serves is important and should continue as it helps to perpetuate cultural diversity, international appeal, and critical discourse within Cologne. It is our hope that the city will continue to provide funding for future residencies and collaborations through the ADKDW. Doing so will ensure that the arts and artists of Cologne continue to be in meaningful dialogue with those of the world. Indeed, exchange between the cultures of the world through creative expression—art, film, performance, exhibitions, workshops, panel discussions, etcetera—within community venues, institutional settings, and educational environments is vital to the health and well-being of every society.
Prof. Dr. Isabell Lorey, Professorin für Queer Studies in Künsten und Wissenschaft KHM:
Ich bin seit sechs Jahren, seitdem ich in Köln an der Kunsthochschule für Medien unterrichte, im Gespräch und in Kooperation mit den verschiedenen Direktor*innen der ADKDW: Madhusree Dutta, Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz und Ala Younis. Die unterschiedlichen Kooperationen waren für die KHM immer ausgesprochen bereichernd. Die ADKDW ist eine der wichtigsten, innovativsten und wegweisendsten Kunstinstitutionen in Köln. Durch ihr internationales Künstler*innen-Programm bringt die Akademie herausragende Persönlichkeiten nach Köln, die quer durch die Stadt wirken. Das Postcolonial -Studies Programm und die damit verbundenen diskursiven Veranstaltungen von Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz haben nicht nur bis nach Berlin die zeitgenössischen Debatten um Kunst und Philosophie bereichert und fruchtbar belebt. Der Name und die Aktivitäten der Akademie sind weit über Deutschland und Europa hinaus bekannt und prägen die Internationale Wahrnehmung von Köln. Köln hat kaum eine zweite Kunstinstitution, die die Stadt mit solch herausragenden diskursiven Veranstaltungen bereichert. Ich höre mit großem Entsetzen, dass die Stadt Köln darüber nachdenket, die Gelder der ADKDW zu streichen. Ich kann nur dazu anhalten, diese Überlegungen nicht Realität werden zu lassen. Die Arbeit der ADKDW muss weitergehen.
Nanna Heidenreich, Member ADKDW
From the very beginning, the academy has thrived on the involvement of its members. Unlike the usual advisory boards, these members do not have a purely representative function. They shape the academy with their projects and discussions, in terms of both content and structure. As a result the ADKDW is always very specifically grounded, or local – in Cologne, in North Rhine-Westphalia, in Germany – and global, committed to an internationalism that accompanies, informs and permeates all its processes. What allows us members to participate and contribute – testing formats, researching topics, playing through constellations, putting art in practice – is the ADKDW’s openness: The academy extends invitations. I for one am very grateful for the ones I have received.
Prof. Ute Hörner, KHM / Prof. Mathias Antlfinger, Rektor der Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln:
Die Akademie der Künste der Welt ist für uns als Künstler*innen ein unverzichtbarer Ort, an dem wichtige Diskurse in einer offenen und inklusiven Form geführt werden. Auch unsere Studierenden schätzen die ADKDW genau aus diesem Grund. Eine Institution, die sich dezidiert mit gesellschaftlichen Themen wie Migration, Rassismus und den Folgen des Kolonialismus auseinandersetzt nicht weiter zu fördern, wäre ein katastrophales Zeichen – nicht nur für Köln.
Yvan Herve Butera, Artists-in-Residence ADKDW: 2023
As an alumnus of the ADKDW's Participatory Residency Program in 2023, I witnessed firsthand the transformative power of the ADKDW. It provided me with a platform to explore my art and curatorial skills as an artist, curator and theater director while fostering meaningful connections with an international community of creatives. ADKDW is more than an institution,it is a vital space where cultural innovation, social diversity, and global dialogue converge. Its presence significantly enhances Cologne's reputation as a vibrant, inclusive, and forward-thinking city. Discontinuing its work would not only silence countless underrepresented voices but also diminish the city's international cultural appeal and social fabric.
Sabine Keller, Kulturprogramm Feuerwache:
Die Akademie der Künste der Welt gehört für mich fest zur Kölner Kulturszene. Sie bringt Kulturschaffende aus aller Welt zusammen und sorgt dafür, dass Köln vielfältig und offen bleibt. Ohne sie würde Köln eine wichtige Anlaufstelle für internationalen Austausch und innovative Kunstprojekte verlieren.
donna Kukama, Professor of Contemporary Art / Global South, KHM:
ADKDW is unique in NRW as the only institution dedicated to amplifying global voices while fostering a cross-cultural exchange with local artists. It has offered our students invaluable access to voices from the Global South that would otherwise remain out of reach. Its loss would harm Cologne’s cultural diversity and limit vital global perspectives for students, artists, and audiences in the region.
Adriana Schneider Alcure, Member ADKDW:
The Akademie der Künste der Welt is a crossroads of ways of life, experiences, perspectives, worldviews and, why not, cosmopoetics. This crossroads institution is a place (also a non-place) of continuous movement for the encounter between people. The political-aesthetic project of the AdKdW is to create territorialities in Cologne, while at the same time being deterritorialized by the presence of its members who, in turn, territorialize themselves in Cologne, and so on. This concept of an institution is, in fact, sophisticated and bold. Even though its governance model is complex, also because it does not fear dissent, it has simultaneously carried out transversal projects of local-international relevance and scope. It should be noted that the commissioning of projects by the AdKdW is never a one-way street; on the contrary, its members bring assets from their own institutions and networks in their countries of origin. We do not work for events, but rather for the continuity, duration and legacy of projects. We have already experienced moments in the history of Nation-States in which budgets for the arts and culture were cut in order to militarize societies. And we know where this will lead. The terrible surprise is that we are in 2024, and the option is still the economy of fear and war. And even local politics are surrendering to warlords.
Prof. Dr. Nina Möntmann, Kunsttheorie, Universität zu Köln:
Die Akademie der Künste der Welt hat seit Ihrem Entstehen ein Profil entwickelt, was mit hochrangigen Ausstellungen und diskursiven Formaten einen Raum geschaffen hat, in dem lokale Teilhabe auf ein Programm mit internationalem Rang trifft. Diversität ist hier nicht nur ein Schlagwort, was in der Bürokratie einer Institution eingefroren wird, sondern gelebter künstlerischer, akademischer und sozialer Austausch, in Köln wie auch in globalen Netzwerken. Wenn demokratische Räume wackeln und die Formen gesellschaftlichen Miteinanders zunehmend gewaltsam werden, muss die Stadt Köln alles tun, um diesen Ort zu unterstützen und zu erhalten.
Anna Bromley, Künstlerisch-wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin KHM:
Mit der geplanten Kürzung von 100% wird ein Raum angegriffen, dessen weit über NRW bekanntes künstlerisch-dialogisches Programm über Jahre mit Zuwendungen der Stadt Köln aufgebaut wurde. Ich fordere den Rat der Stadt auf, die Liquidierung der ADKW wie anderer sozial relevanter Initiativen zu stoppen!
Michael Mayer, KOMPAKT Schallplatten:
Seit 2021 findet monatlich das musikbezogene Diskussionsformat „Learning to Listen“ als Kooperation zwischen Kompakt und der ADKDW im Kompakt Plattenladen statt. Das neuronale Netz des Kölner Kulturlebens hat durch diese Veranstaltung völlig neue, wertvolle Verknüpfungen erfahren.
Ekaterina Degot, ehem. künstlerische Leitung ADKDW:
The Academy of the Art of the World Cologne is a unique institution, and as its former artistic director, I am deeply troubled by proposed cuts to its funding that would put its existence to an end. Today, the racism, xenophobia, and totalitarianism of the past seem to be returning as part of a larger shift in politics. Cologne needs the Academy of the Arts of the World, which can and should be a beacon of diversity, pluralism, and democracy. To give it up means giving in to today’s worst tendencies.
David Riff, ehem. Member ADKDW:
I was deeply saddened and worried to hear about the impending closure of the Academy of the Arts of the World in Cologne. Its disappearance will close off an important space for cultural exchange and diversity and a crucial international venue for Cologne’s huge cultural potential.
I had the honor of being a member of the Academy in its early days and helped to define its content and programming for several years. Together with the Academy’s amazingly hard-working team, we built a sustainable structure for an eye-level institution that could hold challenging debates and foster new artworks impossible in larger and more “official” spaces.
Cologne, like any German city, faces troubled and complex histories of racism, antisemitism, and violence against minorities. To address these today in open spaces for debate remains paramount and to close the Academy is a huge strategic mistake, impoverishing Cologne and destroying its democratic culture and values.
Daniel Loick, philosopher and associate professor at the University of Amsterdam:
Es ist einfach: Ohne Kunst und Diskurs keine Demokratie. Künstlerische Institutionen sollten daher nicht ihre Existenz vor staatlichen Autoritäten rechtfertigen müssen. Sondern im Gegenteil: Diese Autoritäten sind es, die sich immer wieder fragen lassen müssen, ob sie zur Förderung des freien Diskurses und des künstlerischen Austauschs genug getan haben. Die ADKDW erhalten, ihren Etat verzehnfachen!
We are writing to express our support for Academie der Künste der Welt. Together we have been involved in ADKDW programming and highly impressed with its impact. This institution has been an invaluable resource to students in North Rhineland-Westphalia as the principle body to promote and showcase both local and international artists representing the Global South. The institution fosters cooperation and creativity in the valuable arts scene of Cologne in particular. Without it, the city and the region, and especially university students in the region, would be greatly disadvantaged in developing an accurate global perspective on t contemporary art.
