The Office medienwerk.nrw
Since 2013, the network has been supported by the Office medienwerk.nrw, based at HMKV Hartware MedienKunstVerein in Dortmund. As the central interface of the network, the office bundles joint activities, organizes events under the umbrella of medienwerk.nrw and enables the network to help shape cultural policy. The focal points of the office’s work include the coordination of the new funding programmes Media Art Fund (Medienkunstfonds) and Media Art Fellows (Medienkunstfellows) by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the organization of events and workshops for the scene in the region as well as the supervision of the scholarship for female media artists by the State of NRW.
Online Magazine
The digital magazine of the Office medienwerk.nrw was launched hand in hand with a new visual appearance, designed by The Laboratory of Manuel Bürger. On this platform, the Office medienwerk.nrw presents videos, essays, audio features and artistic contributions, for instance as part of the regularly published web series CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, behind the screens – behind the scenes and Revisited. These and more formats place artistic positions and developments of media art in the region as well as their current issues in a social and historical context. The content offered here shows media art exactly as it is: moving, experimental and groundbreaking.
CORE TASKS OF THE OFFICE
Networking & Cultural Policy
The Office medienwerk.nrw links and bundles the knowledge and concerns of institutions and artists in the context of media art and digital culture in NRW. At the level of cultural policy, we engage in dialogue with policy makers and administrations to promote the sustainable development of existing structures and to shape the profile of NRW as a region of media art.
Discourse & Mediation
The Office medienwerk.nrw organizes and coordinates international events around media art and digital culture – for example workshops, conferences and festivals. In this way, interdisciplinary knowledge and artistic practices can contribute to socio-political discourse, and long-term working relationships can develop. New digital formats underline the research character of media art. The office’s mediation work aims to link global issues with local urban contexts.
Funding
The joint development, publication and supervision of sustainable funding programmes for media art, which support cultural organisations in our region in their artistic practice, is one of the core tasks of the Office medienwerk.nrw. Currently, the office coordinates the new funding programmes Media Art Fund (Medienkunstfonds) and Media Art Fellows (Medienkunstfellows) by the State of NRW as well as the Scholarship for female media artists by the State of NRW.
Professional Development
The office is involved in passing on knowledge to cultural organisations and artists of the media art scene in NRW, for example on digital and hybrid forms of artistic production and presentation, in order to support the development of new ways of communicating art projects and cultural events.
The Office medienwerk.nrw is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, on whose behalf it organises coordination, professionalisation and consulting in the field of media art. The Office medienwerk.nrw is located at HMKV Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund.
History of medienwerk.nrw
