Background

The law that applies to self-employed workers in artistic professions is extremely complex. In addition, several legal regulations do not or insufficiently take into account the typical ways of working in the independent performing arts. The administrative burden and amount of legal uncertainty for freelancers is therefore often considerable.

The project “Background” collected and pooled available legal knowledge, prepareed it in a way that is generally easy to understand and made it publicly available. On the multimedia platform “Campus Freie Darstellende Künste” (Independent Performing Arts Campus), information on the basics of self-employed work as well as advice from experts on the law, taxes, the artists’ social security fund (KSK) and insurance is available for everyone.  

“Background” pursued three main aims: pooling knowledge, sharing knowledge and preserving knowledge.

1. Pooling knowledge. In the summer of 2021, four workshops on taxes, the KSK, the law and insurance were carried out. Facilitated by Christian Grüner, Alexa Jünkering, Jens Kesseler and Sonja Laaser, the workshops were directed at the BFDK state associations and other interested parties.
2. Sharing knowledge. Decentralised practical seminars for independent performing artists were offered until October 2022. In order to reach the target group in the best way possible, the seminars were linked to festivals or independent performing arts venues. In addition, formats for educational institutions were also being developed.
3. Preserving knowledge. On the platform “Campus Freie Darstellende Künste” existing and pooled knowledge are preserved permanently and made accessible to the public. This takes the form of texts and uses graphics, videos and podcasts.