DIE BACKEREI - KULTURBACKSTUBE

Die Bäckerei - Kulturbackstube is an open house. Events, workshops, lectures and courses take place here. Collectives, associations and artists work in the studios and offices. There is a coworking space on the first floor. Also the makers of the UND magazine are based in the house. Another area of employment is called: “LEBENsmittel in der Bäckerei” - cooking, living and enjoying. One of our biggest aims is to provide a rich and inspirational cultural offer for the local audience. We organize more than 200 activities per year and try to stay as diverse as possible, providing offer to different target audiences and always keeping in mind to keep a good balance between entertaining and community bonding activities and providing an in-dept discourse in relevant social and political topics. Big focus in our house are participatory events - monthly Open Mic Sessions, Comedy Nights and Poetry Slam which normally gathers more than 200 people in the audience and is the first boost for the local artists to try out their talent on the big stage. To improve, to get inspired, to learn from each other. Many local artists have used these Bäckerei formats to establish themselves and have started their artistic careers here. Next to the rich cultural offer, the house gathers numerous initiatives, artists and cooperatives who share the same values and are interested in the working direction - community work, culture and social innovation. The house with its events and creative participants creates a symbiotic exchange and a hub, which is very important in the local context. Every year we also do numerous projects outside of the house. Last year together with 3 other associations we organized a big festival in the city center - ALLES GUTE FESTIVAL, every year we also collaborate with the City Innsbruck to find new formats to engage the local community. The bakery is a non-profit organisation. The team is organised without hierarchy - this means that everyone has equal voting rights and is responsible for their own areas of work. There is no governing body; decisions are made jointly or on one's own responsibility. The café of Die Bäckerei is a non-competitive space without compulsion to consume, an invitation as 3rd place. Our European Volunteers are always an important part of the whole house dynamic and are asked to contribute with their ideas & motivation. As there are so many creative aspects in the house, it is possible to always seek out a specific field, that fits to the each particular volunteer the best. However, mostly the volunteers join our 10 person team to support us with culture events (ideation, cooperations, concepts, care of the events) and in the field of social media - thinking about creative ways how to engage with our audience on social media platforms, as well as documenting all the in-house happenings and managing the creative content. This year die Bäckerei celebrated it's 11th birthday and for the 9 of them we have been hosting European Volunteers. Ideas behind Die Bäckerei: Die Bäckerei is a vital platform for cultural and social exchange. As a dynamic space it brings together aspects of communication, production and presentation. It is a space that does not want to narrow itself down precisely, but is created by its users and tries to make them the dynamic core of the facility. Die Bäckerei can and should be a place for experiments and an institution that can flexibly adjust itself to various purposes and needs. Die Bäckerei is possibility, stimulus and trigger. Its users become its agents, thus the facility creates new sources of creativity and has a positive effect on the city and its cultural scene. All people involved should consider themselves to be part of a whole. In the course of this process, not only individual projects shall be implemented by experiment, but the overall structure may be changed as well.