JenaCulture Plant Manager Jonas Zipf goes to Hamburg

The city of Jena and its own company JenaKultur with its more than 200 permanent employees and several hundred freelancers regret the departure of their cultural director and head of JenaKultur. Jonas Zipf can look back on six successful years of his work - in Jena and far beyond - despite the recent tense situation for the development of art and culture due to the pandemic:

Two cultural development plans for Jena = two grant agreements for JenaKultur

During his time in office as plant manager, he was able to conclude two groundbreaking subsidy agreements with the city (initially for the years 2017 to 2020 and most recently for the years 2022 to 2024), which represent a relevant budget increase for cultural funding in Jena as a whole.

For the same period, the city of Jena has him to thank for two cultural development plans that received nationwide attention - first for the years 2017 to 2020 with the first mission statement for Jena's cultural development, then building on this for the years 2021 to 2024 with a target operationalization within five thematic dimensions:

Successfully implemented future concepts for the library and philharmonic orchestra, among others

As part of these cultural development plans, Jonas Zipf was responsible for the implementation of numerous structural change processes, such as the reprofiling of the Ernst Abbe Library, including a new building with a construction investment of 37 million euros, or the future concept of the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra, including achieving the status of an orchestra of excellence and the founding of a dual orchestra academy.

In addition to the successful acquisition of more than 10 million euros in third-party funding for specific projects, Jonas Zipf also worked on renewing and improving the revenue prospects for Jena's culture. The introduction of the so-called "culture ticket" for Jena students, for example, falls within his term of office.

Independent cultural work, project work and the visibility of Jena

In his capacity as Head of the Department of Culture and against the background of his previous career in the independent theater scene, it was a particular pleasure for him to closely accompany the development of the Theaterhaus Jena and to set sustainable impulses in the field of the independent scene and socioculture, for example through the introduction of a guideline for cultural funding in Jena, including the first nationwide and to this day only municipal innovation funding, or the initiation of the interim use agency BLANK and the "reCOVer Foundation for Sustainable Consumption".

The networking projects that took place under his aegis attracted national and international attention, such as the BEWEGTES LAND project along the train line between Jena and Naumburg, which was organized jointly with the Kunstfest and the Bauhaus University Weimar to mark the change in the ICE timetable, or the 72 HOURS URBAN ACTION district project carried out in Jena-Lobeda to mark the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus. With discursive-artistic formats such as VON GESPENSTERN UND GETEILTEN HIMMELN on the occasion of Karl Marx's 200th birthday or THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION, he has succeeded in intensifying cooperation between the university and the city's cultural scene. Most recently, it was cultural memorial projects such as the Thuringia-wide installation of a decentralized memorial in honour of Eduard Rosenthal or the nationwide network project KEIN SCHLUSSSTRICH! for the cultural reappraisal of the NSU complex, which succeeded in establishing Jena's reputation as a city of culture beyond the region.

His impact in terms of Jena's visibility also extended well beyond his role as director: he proactively supported the establishment of the German Optical Museum Foundation on behalf of the city, campaigned in his role as President of the Thuringian Cultural Council for the formation of political will, including a state law for music and youth art schools, and played a steering role in the newly initiated discussion process on the development of the municipal museums, in particular an art museum for/in Jena.

Jonas Zipf bids farewell with the following words:

Many people knew that I would be moving on at some point. The fact that it is now happening so quickly and that I am already changing jobs and cities this summer is due to an opportunity that has presented itself to me at short notice, which I want to seize.

At the same time, the list in this press release shows that it does not depend on him alone whether the developments started during his term of office can continue:

I am certain that the management team of JenaKultur, with two additional directors and the completely new management of the institutions over the last six years, but above all on the basis of the passionate employees of JenaKultur, is so strongly positioned that it will be possible to continue to successfully implement the developments that have been initiated.

Jena's Lord Mayor Thomas Nitzsche commented :

We would like to thank Jonas Zipf for his extraordinary commitment. Through his work, he has significantly shaped the development of culture in Jena. We wish him all the best for his future career.