02.09.2025 | Press release by bbk berlin: FabiK – Fund for Exhibition Fees abolished!

First Statement of bbk berlin against further cuts in Berlin’s cultural budget 2026/27 targeting the visual arts:

The bbk berlin fought for the fund in 2016 as a major achievement for Berlin. Its upcoming abolition is an unacceptable setback, as it dismantles the Berlin model for exhibition fees, even though it has been regarded as a pioneering example nationwide and internationally.

At the beginning of this year, the Senator for Culture, Sarah Wedl-Wilson, in her then role as State Secretary, still positioned herself by stating that the FabiK – Fund for Exhibition Fees 2025 had only been suspended with a budget of €650,000. The immediate consequence, however, was that artists were no longer paid for works made available for exhibitions and already suffered significant income losses in 2025. Now the fund is to be abolished entirely, meaning artists will no longer be remunerated for their exhibition participation.

Birgit Cauer, Co-Spokesperson of bbk berlin: “What cynicism lies in such a decision. The income opportunities of those who provide this city with art and cultural experiences – often low-threshold, often free of charge and supportive – are simply no longer recognized. The Berlin model for exhibition fees, a groundbreaking example for all of Germany since 2016, will not even be able to mark its 10th anniversary in January 2026 because of these funding cuts.”

Through a remuneration regulation defined by the Senate, the importance of the municipal galleries was strengthened by ensuring that professional artists received binding fees for their exhibitions. Although the draft budget allocates an additional €300,000 to the municipal galleries within the KOGA fund to compensate for the discontinued FabiK Fund of formerly €650,000, this does not guarantee that the money will actually be distributed to professional artists for their exhibition activities.

The use of the funds would not be bindingly regulated and could be distributed at the discretion of each district or cultural office. The Senate of the State of Berlin has explicitly left responsibility for setting priorities in municipal cultural work to the districts.

The danger now is that with the planned abolition of FabiK, the effective budget cut of 35% for exhibition activities of professional artists will seriously endanger the quality and relevance of the work of the municipal galleries.

Frauke Boggasch, Co-Spokesperson of bbk berlin: “The city of Berlin is currently dismantling crucial achievements in art and culture, such as exhibition remuneration, which have attracted attention nationally and internationally. Despite the very high level of debt the state has decided to take on, there is supposedly no money for art? This will come back bitterly in the future. Berlin is pitifully regressive, failing to understand where innovation and progress originate, suppressing and eliminating what defines the city and its attractiveness. What was once a magnet is now just a culture of scarcity!”

Frauke Boggasch and Birgit Cauer,
Spokespersons bbk berlin