network meeting 2026
Wed 17.06.26, 12:30
Probebühne RENTZEL
Rentzelstrasse 36
20146 Hamburg
(entry via Laufgraben)
in English & German spoken language
fifth network meeting
We want to come together! In challenging times, encounters and connections become all the more important: time spent together for exchange and reflection, for learning and questioning.
At this network meeting, too, we will be addressing urgent issues and challenges surrounding the role and practice of producers.
producing! free? art.
How can we continue to produce art freely under the current conditions? Or should the question be: How to actually produce art freely? Or perhaps quite differently: How do we produce art freely and in a connected way?
By exploring the three concepts of art – freedom – production and their interwoven connections, we examine the increasingly challenging conditions under which we produce art and question the agency and range for action of producers. Current cultural policy developments within Germany form only a starting point, but by no means an endpoint, for our discussions.
Through this exchange, we will gather challenges, approaches, practices, future opportunities for discussion and, potentially, cultural policy requests – from our perspectives as producers at the intersections with many actors in the landscape of the independent performing arts.
adjusted format for the big network meeting
With the fifth big network meeting, we are undergoing a change: we must remove the word big altogether. Like many associations – including the alliances supported by the bfdk under the ‘fostering connections’ programme up to and including 2025 – produktionsbande, as a decentralised network of and for producers in the independent performing arts, has also been without funding since 2026. The important KreativTransfer project run by the umbrella organisation German Dance Association, which has supported international producer meetings among other things, shares this fate.
A key part of the ethos of our previous four network meetings has been the coverage of travel and accommodation costs, the provision of an attendance allowance and meals, childcare, translation and further accessibility measures organised by produktionsbande e.V. as the organiser. Due to a lack of funding, we are unfortunately unable to offer any of this for this edition – which is also why we are deliberately not inviting you to a large event, but instead to this networking meeting in Hamburg. Nevertheless, we hope for and look forward to your participation. We will support you in finding more affordable hotels or a spare bed with a colleague in Hamburg.
The venue for the networking event, the rehearsal stage on Rentzelstraße, is equipped with a ramp and wheelchair accessible.
More information to follow.
The network meeting brings together practitioners in artistic production within the independent performing arts sector, whether at local, regional, national or international level – all colleagues are warmly invited. We understand the field of artistic production in the broadest sense and view it as a hub for numerous interconnected areas of focus and job profiles (including administrators, coordinators, production dramaturgs, production managers, producers, company managers, managers, controllers, strategists, distributors, consultants, critical companions, etc.).
By ‘actors’ in artistic production within the independent performing arts, we mean those individuals and groups who reflect on existing production processes and wish to reshape or further develop them. Against this backdrop, we view these actors primarily as those who support the production processes of artists and collectives, but who do not primarily engage in their own artistic practice.
The network meeting will be held in English and German spoken language. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide translation into the respective other language or into any other languages on this occasion. We will try to support one another with (whispered) translation so that everyone can participate as fully as possible.
We kindly ask you to confirm your attendance as firmly as possible via our online form, as we will be planning snacks and drinks based on the number of registrations, amongst other things.
Participation is free of charge; no accreditation for the Tanztriennale is required.
Note: Accreditation for the Tanztriennale entitles you to reduced hotel and ticket prices.
The 2026 network meeting is not subsidized and voluntarily organised by produktionsbande – network performing arts producers and InfoPlus/Dachverband Tanz Deutschland. Our heartfelt thanks go to the teams at the Tanztriennale, Kampnagel and the LICHTHOF Theater.