From market to melting pot: how Brunnenpassage builds community through street culture
Project: building community through the local street culture scene
The Purpose
Located in one of Vienna’s busiest street markets, Brunnenpassage stages around 400 events and 100 projects a year that are geared towards acclimatising newcomers to the city. Brunnenpassage is a social arts space where multiple generations and people from different backgrounds can come together within Vienna’s lively street culture. It also responds to the universal human right to freely access communal cultural opportunities, according to its founder, Caritas Wilen.
The Challenge
Recent immigrants to the city, long-term residents of Vienna’s Ottakring district, budding artists, and students can mingle alongside vendors in the Brunnenmarkt area. An international staff speaking more than a dozen languages helps to connect Brunnenmarkt visitors with members of the local community and art institutions. With around 22,000 visitors per year – the majority of whom are active members of the local cultural community – Brunnenpassage needed to maintain the feeling of a tight-knit community resource while its social benefit continues to blossom around the larger city.
The positive impact of Brunnenpassage also inspired the establishment of the Task Force for Cultural Urban Development by the City of Vienna
The Solution
Inspired by the success of the Brunnenpassage, a parallel art and culture space called the Stand 129 opened in a different Viennese outdoor market in 2014, offering cultural activities to a broad range of nationalities, age groups, and cultural and educational backgrounds.
The Impact
The positive impact of Brunnenpassage also inspired the establishment of the Task Force for Cultural Urban Development by the City of Vienna in 2015, which brings together a multi-disciplinary team of experts dedicated to broadening accessibility to Vienna’s dynamic art and culture scene by establishing cultural events outside the city centre. Brunnenpassage stands as a powerful example of a healthy cultural infrastructure’s ability to transform a commercial space into a welcoming cultural destination point.
Source: World Cities Culture Report 2022
Images Courtesy of © Getty/Canva
