Application phase for the Cultural Leadership Scholarship Program launched
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Hamburg, February 10, 2025 - Following a successful pilot phase in North Rhine-Westphalia, the Cultural Leadership Scholarship Program 2025 is entering its next round in Hamburg. The programme, which is run by the Institute for Cultural and Media Management, offers 15 people from the cultural sector with initial leadership responsibility an innovative further training course that is specifically designed to combine transformative leadership and social responsibility in cultural organizations. The application phase for the scholarships runs until March 16, 2025.
Cultural organizations are facing major challenges: They have to assert themselves in a changing society, modernize internal structures and at the same time assume their social responsibility. The Cultural Leadership Fellowship Program was developed to prepare people with initial leadership experience in the cultural sector for these complex challenges and to give them the tools to actively shape change.
An initial pilot project was successfully implemented in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2023-2024. It was developed in cooperation between the Institute for Cultural and Media Management (KMM) at the HfMT Hamburg and the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft e.V., funded by the Kulturstiftung der Länder and the Ministry of Culture and Science NRW. Building on this experience, the program is now being implemented in Hamburg, made possible by the support of the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media and the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S.
From May 2025 to February 2026, the 15 scholarship holders will undergo a practical curriculum consisting of face-to-face workshops, digital impulses and self-organized learning groups. The focus will be on skills such as communication, transformation design and the reflection and further development of personal attitudes. At the same time, the development of a network is promoted, which, as a "community of practice", enables continuous exchange even beyond the duration of the program. "We drew inspiration for this program from international experience," explains Prof. Dr. Martin Zierold, one of the initiators of the project: "In the UK and Scandinavia, there are programs that have been established for decades, some of which are aimed specifically at managers in cultural institutions. If you expect cultural institutions to face the challenges of our time with courage, you also need to strengthen their managers in a targeted way."
Voices of the supporters
Carsten Brosda, Senator for Culture of the City of Hamburg: "A good leadership culture is important for the future viability of our cultural institutions and strengthens them as places of social innovation. With the Cultural Leadership Scholarship Program, we want to strengthen contemporary leadership skills in the institutions in Hamburg. Cultural institutions can thus become even better places where the values of an open society are not only negotiated, but also lived."
Ansgar Wimmer, Chairman of the Board of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S.: "At our foundation location Gut Siggen, we have years of good experience with partners in programs for the development of leaders from culture, science and civil society. We are therefore very much looking forward to working with the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the Institute for Cultural and Media Management at the HfMT on the Cultural Leadership Scholarship Program for Hamburg."
Apply now!
The programme is aimed at people with their first management responsibility in cultural organizations in Hamburg. Applications are possible until March 16, 2025.
For open questions about the program and the application process, the KMM Institute offers two digital Q&A events during the application period:
- February 21, 2025 12.30 - 13.30
- March 07, 2025 09.00 - 10.00
Registration for the info events is possible via email to the program manager(marlene.troidl@hfmt-hamburg.de).
All information on the program, application and participation requirements can be found at www.leading-culture.de/bewerben.
Contact:
Institute for Culture and Media Management at the HfMT Hamburg
Wiesendamm 26
22305 Hamburg
Contact person: Marlene Troidl
Phone: 0152/59293371
Email: marlene.troidl@hfmt-hamburg.de