Successful premiere
On the occasion of the first Potsdam Culture Festival on September 10, numerous guests found their way to Potsdam’s center in midsummer temperatures. At the Museum Barberini alone, many visitors took part in guided tours, bike tours, yoga classes and workshops. In total, more than 20 cultural venues offered a diverse program and free admission.
The cultural festival was organized by the state capital Potsdam and the cultural actors of Potsdam’s center, PMSG Potsdam Marketing und Service GmbH in cooperation with the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation. “We are delighted with the positive response to this new format,” emphasize Christiana Arnold from the Marketing department and Dorothee Entrup from the Museum Barberini. “We’ve seen that the combination of familiar and new formats works, and we’ve also gotten a lot of ideas and suggestions on how to expand the cultural festival even further.”
The cultural festival tied in with the “Holland in Potsdam” campaign, which has been running since April in conjunction with the exhibition“Clouds and Light: Impressionism in Holland”at the Barberini Museum, has been making Dutch traces visible in Potsdam’s history and cityscape – from windmills to faience tiles, silk manufactory to castle night.
“For the first edition of the Potsdam Culture Festival, we at Museum Barberini draw a very positive conclusion. Despite the hot summer temperatures, almost 50 yogis were drawn to the Old Market Square for a joint yoga class; the cultural picnic was moved into the shade and attracted many guests there with relaxed live music; the Open Studio in the museum’s courtyard was full throughout and the offer of free admission to our exhibitions was also taken up many times. The fact that we were able to create such a wonderful late summer day for the people of Potsdam and their guests is due above all to the great commitment of the state capital of Potsdam, which was very open to the idea of the cultural festival from the very beginning and actively supported it. We would also like to thank our colleagues from the neighboring cultural institutions and the Schlösserstiftung very much for their commitment!”
MUSEUM BARBERINI
“It was a good day for the Potsdam Museum. There was great interest in the exhibitions. At least half of the guests knew what was on offer in advance; the other half ‘snowed in’ and then chose or did the full program.”
POTSDAM MUSEUM
“Overall: very positive feedback from the visitors, our team was also very enthusiastic about this new format.”
GARRISON CHURCH
“We had a lot of visitors between 2 and 5 p.m. and all offers were well used – the virtual VR tour was especially popular, but there were also 20 visitors* at the magazine tour. The theater family program was well received by the children.”
CITY AND STATE LIBRARY
“At the Lindenstraße Memorial, we were extremely pleased with the cultural festival in the center of Potsdam and the simultaneous Open Monument Day. All of the tours offered were in high demand and some were even spontaneously offered a second time. The guided tour in Dutch also met with explicit interest. The visitors themselves were consistently positive in their comments. The new special exhibition was well attended and the audio guides – free of charge on this day – in various languages were frequently used.”
LINDENSTRASSE MEMORIAL
“We draw a positive conclusion of Sunday here in Nikolai – we were well attended, but not unpleasantly overrun.”
ST. NICHOLAS CHURCH
“Villa Schöningen was very well attended, the mood of the visitors was relaxed and very interested. We got feedback from many that they became aware of Villa Schöningen and Villa Schlieffen once again, especially through the flyer from the cultural festival.”
VILLA SCHÖNINGEN
The Potsdam Culture Festival was a joint event of the state capital Potsdam and:
Fördergesellschaft für den Wiederaufbau der Garnisonkirche Potsdam e.V.
Header Image: Mathias Voelzke
Further Images: Mathias Voelzke & Steven Ritzer