Industry supporting cultural projects

Bernd Fesel

The former Folkwang Museum has been a major venue for exhibitions in the past 30 years. The Folkwangs were an industrial family. They wanted to support industry, science and the arts and for this reason they donated their art collection to the museum. There is also Folkwang University here in Essen, emphasising the connection between art, education and industry. This new museum itself was donated by Mr Beitz, a well-known person in industry. He decided to donate this museum to the citizens of Essen, to the European Capital of Culture and through his foundation, Mr Beitz invested 50 million Euros. It is clear that creative industries, tourism and traditional industries influence each other. This investment inspired other large companies in the region to do the same thing. For example, E.On invested 20 million Euros into a museum in Duisburg. Investments in European Capital of Culture thus do not come only from public institutions and the state, which invested around 60 million Euros, but even more so from private companies. In fact, the private investments were much larger than public investments.

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Bernd Fesel

Bernd Fesel

Founder of European Centre for Creative Economy

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