Wir gestalten Dresden

Since 2012, Wir Gestalten Dresden has been advocating for cultural and creative professionals in Dresden. In close cooperation with local actors and the city of Dresden, the association makes the structures of the industry visible and strengthens public understanding of the performance of the cultural and creative industries in innovation processes as well as spatial and urban development.

Twelve experts serve on the association’s supervisory board as contact persons for creative professionals in the various submarkets, and the work is managed by a three-member executive board and the office team.

• Wir Gestalten Dresden represents Dresden’s cultural and creative professionals from all 12 sub-sectors.
• The members are self-employed and solo self-employed as well as companies operating in the private sector.
• We are the direct line into politics and administration and network our members with each other.
• We are match-makers and stimulate cross-innovation processes between science and business.

• We know Dresden’s creative professionals and their needs – and respond to them individually and with agility.
• During the pandemic years, we initiated various funding programs in close cooperation with the Office for Culture and Monument Protection and the Office for Economic Development of the City of Dresden:
  • Kunst trotzt Corona (2020)
  • Startnext-Matchingfonds (2020, 2021)
  • Unternehmen helfen Unternehmen (2021, 2022)
  • and were thus able to pass on 425,000 euros directly to Dresden’s creative professionals.

With our recurring formats, we connect Dresden creatives of all stripes and boost synergy effects within the 12 sub-sectors of KKW:

• Networking event undsonstso the 1st Thursday of the month
• Annual Kreativwirtschafts-Radtour in September
• Podcast Caro quetscht aus

Together we are more than the sum of the individual parts. Solo self-employed and start-ups in particular often feel “alone in the open”. We strengthen solo self-employed and connect them with colleagues within their industry. We show what is possible when professionals from all creative industries join forces. We shape Dresden.