Senator for Culture and Social Cohesion, Visits Spandau's Hub Experimentierort "Bei-Wilhelm"

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On August 30, 2024, representatives from the collaboration between the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, the Archdiocese, the Spandau district, and Berlin Mondiale gathered at the St. Wilhelm hub.

Repurposing church spaces holds great potential for establishing the community center as a vibrant gathering place for the neighbourhood. This is an opportunity to create a model project that successfully connects tradition with innovation in an urban space. The goal is to establish this place as a long-term destination for art, culture, and social engagement, working across departments to make a valuable contribution to diversity and quality of life in Spandau and all of Berlin.

Joe Chialo,  Senator for Culture and Social Cohesion, highlighted the significance of this collaborative effort, stating: “I greatly appreciate the idea of opening church spaces to culture, especially for young people and the community. I am very interested to see how this space, particularly through the involvement of Sasha Waltz & Guests, has succeeded in creating a high-quality cultural offering for young people. This is a new and, in my opinion, extremely innovative approach that we are pursuing: with the Youth Culture Initiative program, we are enabling cultural institutions to engage beyond their own venues, across the city. This gives young people access to our publicly funded cultural offerings that they otherwise wouldn’t have. We have long understood that proximity to one’s home is key for young people’s participation in culture.”

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©Berlin Mondiale, Photo by: Diana Dingi