Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa Berlin (a)live -
Berlin (a)live -
The digital stage for
art and culture
Berlin (a)live is the solidarity platform where culture is taking place during the coronavirus crisis. The platform, which we launched together with the Senate Department for Culture and Europe at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis in just five days, collects live streams from theatres, clubs and studios. Real-time broadcasts that users can enjoy from their sofa and support financially. As a digital calendar of events, Berlin (a)live is an impetus to rethink art and culture online. Stay tuned. Show solidarity.
From the idea at the kitchen table to the platform in just 5 days
The starting point was the weekend when Berlin's cultural institutions were closed. Our first impulse: How should the city's artists carry on during the coronavirus crisis? How can cultural institutions and artists continue to reach their audiences in isolation? The idea was born around the kitchen table: We need a central platform that brings everything and everyone together, a digital stage for everyone who needs their audience. A platform for solidarity, the arts and culture in the broadest sense.
The platform offers all creative artists the opportunity to overcome the lost stages, the closed houses.
Stay tuned. Show solidarity.
We then sent a concept sketch to Berlin's Senator for Culture Dr Klaus Lederer personally, who was immediately enthusiastic and got the project rolling. Five days later, Berlin (a)live was live - an incredible team effort during the pandemic, entirely from home.
With the backing of Berlin's Senator for Culture, Dr Klaus Lederer, an initial impulse became an online platform.
The diversity that breaks through on the platform is amazing! You can only take your hat off to the creativity of the artists.
Solidarity for artists
In addition to the preservation, renewal and ultimately also the digital "further education" of the cultural scene, we want to help alleviate the existential hardship of many cultural professionals. We want to show and facilitate new ways for theatres, operas and museums, as well as individual artists, to present their live events digitally via services such as YouTube and Zoom. Performance on demand in live streams - for viewers all over the world.
We see ourselves as mediators who educate and promote solidarity, including via social media, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Hence our motto: Stay tuned. Show solidarity.
Berlinalive @Night 2022
Several times a year, Berlinalive.de and Alex Berlin present nightly concerts. The music is streamed for four hours in Berlin's living rooms. Gloria Blau, KEI CAR, isoscope, Nichtseattle and Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys performed live on 01 April 2022. The event series kicked off on 09 October 2020.
"Berlinalive has stood out during this time as a great guide to the overwhelming number of streaming options."
Fête de la Musique 2020: #BerlinTunes on Berlin(alive)
This year's Fête de la Musique, the big music festival of the Berlin summer, was also streamed live via our platform. The musicians at the Fête experimented, dared to try new things, defied the crisis and social distancing - all via our digital offering.
A cultural juxtaposition of high culture and living room concerts
Berlin (a)live paints a colourful picture across all cultural sectors. We want to promote cultural diversity and enable living room ballet, Telegram crime thrillers and Wagner operas to coexist. But completely new, exciting formats are also being created, such as the Telegram edition "Twin Speaks", in which viewers can follow the investigation of a murder case via Messenger. Would anyone have thought of that before the crisis?
In these times, the streams from our own city are the cultural glue that holds us all together!
It's about rejection and renewal!
"Digital is a huge opportunity and a perfect extension, even if events are possible again as normal. So you shouldn't simply close the digital channel again and shift everything to analogue. I think many have now had their experiences or are perhaps even surprised by the ways and formats in which they can reach their audience and perhaps even increase it." Armin Berger
Berlin (a)live in the media
Thank you for the many and varied contributions about Berlin (a)live, which help to make the solidarity platform for art and culture known to an even wider audience!
Blog post by KM Kulturmanagement Network: Not a luxury, but a livelihood
Celebrating the possibilities: Interview on Berlin (a)live with Armin Berger in the Kulturfritzen blog post
Morgenpost: "We're all just driving on sight now" - Interview with Klaus Lederer
rbb: Klaus Lederer on the current state of Berlin culture
Tagesspiegel: How to experience Berlin culture from your sofa
Exberliner: Berliners help Berliners to keep culture (a)live
neues deutschland: Culture survives on the net
Tagesspiegel: Event calendar "Berlin alive" collects cultural streaming offers
tip Berlin: The Senate launches the digital culture platform Berlin(a)live
rbb-online: Berlin alive: Culture on the net
