Artist Pilots 2022: to new shores

In 2021, through the Artist Pilots project, we built a bridge between artists, media and cultural workers with different cultural and artistic backgrounds and established professionals from Berlin’s creative sector. Seven selected mentees were brought together with seven mentors from the same artistic field. The mentee-mentor duos then met several times, online and in person, to work together towards pre-determined goals. These mentoring processes have been an important experience for both mentees and mentors and most of the duos remained connected after the project’s end. 
We were also able to build a small but loyal community of transnational artists, media and cultural practitioners through our regular and free of charge online information sessions. These thematic events, led by invited experts from different areas of the Berlin arts and culture sector, but also by a coach from Förderband e.V., served as information, orientation, and networking platforms for our audience.
Furthermore, the visits to local cultural venues provided an opportunity for the selected mentees and other participants to network with local cultural professionals and institutions.

Thus, in 2021, a community of transnational artists and cultural and media practitioners has been created. We hope that this community continues to grow and we are looking forward to the next months of Artist Pilots activities.

In 2022, we will continue with our monthly, free of charge, online information sessions and will organise two networking events in selected cultural venues around topics that relate to the challenges of working in Berlin’s arts and culture sector. Most importantly, we will continue developing the Artist Pilots mentoring processes: in 2022, four (4) new mentees will be selected and paired with mentors from the same artistic field to be able to benefit from one-to-one support.