Top Berlin Museums Denounce Slashed Arts Budget: ‘Cuts Weaken Democracy’

Four high-profile contemporary art institutions in Berlin bitterly denounced plans by the city’s Senate to dramatically slash the budget next year for arts funding, a lifeline for many museums and artists based in the German capital.

The Senate voted to cut that budget by 13 percent—around €130 million, or $136 million—in 2025. These cuts have dealt a major blow to the city’s art scene, with some institutions saying that the slashed budget will impact them not just in the short term but also in the long term.

Among those institutions is the Schinkel Pavillon, a contemporary art space that has offered acclaimed showcases to cutting-edge artists such as Anna Uddenberg, Mire Lee, and Pope.L. Last week, the Schinkel Pavillon said it expected to lose 50 percent of its funding—and that it may even be forced to close permanently as a result.

On Thursday, four other contemporary art institutions—the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, the n.b.k., the nGbK, and the Künstlerhaus Bethanien—added their voices to the mounting backlash to those cuts.

“There is a threat of essential infrastructure being dismantled and the simultaneous reduction of third-party funding at both state and federal levels,” the institutions wrote in a joint statement. “This will trigger a domino effect that will lead to a long-term impoverishment of cultural offerings in the city and further restrict access to culture regardless of income, more than ever before.”

Moreover, they said, the cuts will dramatically reshaped what can be shown in some of Berlin’s most important art spaces.

“Cuts weaken democracy,” the institutions wrote. “Culture is education, active enlightenment, and living diversity. Culture strengthens social cohesion, counters xenophobia, and is demonstrably a driving economic force. Cultural funding is directly reinvested into the city—in trades, services, and tourism.”

Some have claimed that the cuts are unmerited, given that culture funding accounts for just over 2 percent of Berlin city budget. The Berlin Museums Association said last week that this was a “painful burden” to bear for institutions, especially smaller ones that are already strapped for cash. In its statement, the association offered a view of a bleak future that included layoffs and severely curtailed programming.

Even high-ranking German politicians have scorned the Senate’s plan. Joe Chialo, Berlin’s culture senator, said that the cuts were “very drastic and brutal,” and promised to find a way to rethink the plan.