produktionsDOCK: Guide – Producing in the Swiss independent performing art scene

This guide provides practical orientation for artists and production managers in the independent performing arts scene of German-speaking Switzerland. Step by step, it guides you through the central phases of an artistic project – from the initial idea to its concrete realisation, distribution and touring. The focus is on practical information and realistic insights into the typical process of a production as it is realised in collaboration with established event organisers in German-speaking Switzerland.

What does the tool consist of?

The content is based on the current work experiences of the production managers of produktionsDOCK, a Basel office of production managers (2017-2024), and reflects practice in 2024. This guide is intended as a snapshot that offers a comprehensive insight into the working methods of the Swiss independent performing art scene, without any general claim to completeness or binding force.

It is divided into three main chapters that accompany the phases of an artistic project in a structured and practical way: conception, production, diffusion/touring.

In addition, two detailed discussions provide in-depth insights into the topics of personnel and association administration, which are important for successful project work.

Tags

#productionmanagement
#projectadministration
#productioncycle
#management
#helpforself-help
#freescene
#performingarts
#freeproducing

Who is this tool aimed at?

The guide is aimed at anyone who is active in the independent scene in German-speaking Switzerland or would like to establish themselves there: young artists and production managers who are gaining their first experience but also experienced producers who are looking for inspiration or a useful tool for promoting young talent.

DOWNLOAD DOCUMENTS:

Guide – Producing in the Swiss independent performing art scene

Excursion Personnel Administration

Excursion Association Administration

 

 

Impressum

Publisher: produktionsDOCK

Editors: Annina Birrer, Bernhard la Dous, Regula Schelling, Juliana Simonetti, Salomé Rodríguez Bär

Design: Céline Müller
Proofreading: Heike Dürscheid

The realisation of the guide was made possible by the generous support of m2act, the funding and network project of the Migros Culture Percentage for the performing arts, the Christoph Merian Foundation and the Ernst Göhner Foundation.

 

 

SPARK THE FLAME! – art+care Meet-up format to adopt

SPARK THE FLAME! is an adaptive event format by art+care that combines artistic practice and care work in an open, supportive setting. The focus is on lighting a fire together – as a collective action in physical space and as an experience of shared attention, care and community.

The format creates a accessible setting for exchange, resonance and collective presence. Participants and organisers are equally understood as actors; the act of being together becomes a collective artistic practice.

As a ready-to-use setting, SPARK THE FLAME! can be independently adapted and implemented by individuals, initiatives or institutions – from studio gardens to festivals, in a wide variety of contexts. It is not the size of the event that matters, but the quality of the encounter.

art+care provides the handout ‘How to SPARK THE FLAME!’ to anyone interested in hosting SPARK THE FLAME!

What does this tool consist of?

An adaptive, consciously simple event format with a clear, open structure: a fire (real or symbolic) forms the centrepiece, complemented by moderated exchange, optional artistic contributions and a host checklist for independent implementation. Simplicity is part of the concept.

What can this tool do?

  • Create community and spaces for resonance
  • Initiate new perspectives and collaborations
  • Make participation tangible as an artistic practice
  • Activate discourses on art and care
  • Enable inclusive, intergenerational encounters
  • People with care responsibilities

Why is this tool needed?

Care work in the arts and culture sector often remains invisible. At the same time, there is a lack of low-threshold, solidarity-based meeting places and corresponding structures.

The format focuses on bringing together people of all generations. Through joint action and being together, people who do not feel addressed by or are excluded from conventional art and culture formats due to their care situations also enter into relationships with each other.

SPARK THE FLAME! promotes participation: all those present become active contributors and are equally understood as actors in the event. Afterwards, they can explicitly identify their involvement as artistic participation (e.g. in their own artistic CV). The gathering itself becomes a collective artistic performance.

Who is this tool for?

  • Cultural creators with care responsibilities
  • Artists and cultural workers
  • Institutions, festivals, and initiatives
  • Communities that want to strengthen practices of solidarity
  • People of all generations who are interested in the topics of art and care

Published 05.03.2026

Artists Take Action

This guide supports cultural workers from all disciplines with questions about social security.

With this comprehensive knowledge database, Artists Take Action provides information on important topics such as retirement, family, stays abroad, accidents, and illnesses. It also explains which insurances are mandatory and which are optional. Regardless of how much you already know about social security, this guide—created by cultural workers for cultural workers—answers the most pressing questions.

Due to the legal content, the Artist Take Action guide is in German, French and Italian.

Who is this tool for?

Artists Take Action is aimed at all cultural workers who live and work in Switzerland.

 

What does this tool consist of?

Artists Take Action is the most comprehensive cross-disciplinary guide to social security in the cultural sector. It provides answers to specific questions about social insurance and forms of employment. For further inquiries, it facilitates contact with the respective professional association.

Why is this tool needed?

Many cultural workers receive little to no education about the basic principles of the labor market during their training. Artists Take Action helps to fill fundamental gaps regarding labor law, self-employment, social security, and insurance.

Impressum

Suisseculture Sociale

info@suisseculturesociale.ch

artists-take-action.ch

Disrupting Harm in Dance

This is an online self-directed course put together by Whistle in collaboration with multiple experts – Crip Movement Lab, The Dance Union, J Bouey, and OFEN Co-Arts – in the dance field. They offer information and tools for dancers, performers, and adjacent professionals to work together while feeling safe, connected, and empowered.

Whistle is an international platform founded by Frances Chiaverini and Robyn Doty in 2017 which aims to confront gender-based harm in dance workspaces along with other forms of discrimination and abuse. Their current offerings include resources and referrals that support a holistic support system for change-making in dance culture.

Who is this course for?

The course’s content is first and foremost for dancers.

Dancers, dance teachers, choreographers, directors, rehearsal directors and assistants, and any people working in dance administration and production might all benefit from elements of these resources.

Tags

#dance community
#faire practice
#make change
#empower
#speak up

What does this curriculum consist of?

This curriculum offers a wide range of tools, online courses, videos, talks, worksheets, workshop materials as well as all contacts of international expert contributors.

Crip Movement Lab

  • a critical methodology for practicing, teaching, and creating dance accessibly and inclusively

The Dance Union

  • Dismantling White Supremacy

J Bouey

  • Somatic Astrology for Dancers Guide

OFEN Co-Arts Platform

  • Embodying Anti-Capitalist Process
  • Levelling Hierarchy in Dance
  • Support and Universal Access
  • Speaking Up as an Act of Care

Whistle

  • Messy Talks: A Discussion Toolkit
  • Boundaries and Consent: A Worksheet
  • Working with Consent
  • When Considering Touch (for Teachers, Choreographers)
  • On publicly asking, “Who doesn’t pay?”
  • Practical Tips for Talking to a Journalist [About Your Abuse]
  • Signs of an Emotionally Abusive Choreographer
  • Providing (Self) Care
  • Writing an Impact Statement
  • When Considering Accountability
  • CARA’s Model of Accountability: A Worksheet

Why are these resources needed?

Dance culture is dysfunctional. It’s built on promoting and rewarding dance subordination and submission. It can strip dancers of their autonomy and intuition, and it can displace their own sense of value for narrow ideals of discipline, perfection, and virtuosity. There is a staggering lack of support at an institutional level for dancers experiencing abuse.

Download / Link

All resources are available in English.

disruptingdance.com

Download the Workbook as PDF

What can these resources do?

These resources can be used to help workers in institutions better support dance artists via believability, implementing private complaint processes, and building nutritive environments with wellbeing in mind.

Impressum

Whistle

disruptingdance.com

whistlewhileyouwork.art

Note: These resources are free of charge for individual dancers. If this course is being applied at an institutional level, a donation should be considered to Whistle and/or to the individual collaborators involved in the making of the course. Whistle strongly recommends finding the contributors online or in real life, checking out their respective catalogs of works – and booking and hiring them!

Perma-curatorial seeds: A series of workshops by the far° festival and factory of living arts 

The video «Planting perma-curatorial» – a series of workshops as part of the PERMA-CULTURE project – documents a participatory workshop where the principles of permaculture are experimentally applied to a cultural context, particularly to the performing arts. The experts in this field are: the far° Nyon team, Leila Chakroun, and Gregory Stauffer.

Drawing on collective intelligence and creativity, these multi-disciplinary workshops are designed to deploy in different contexts of the publication PERMA-CULTURE (work in progress). The first cycle of far° research aims to make the living arts «more alive». This series of workshops organised across Switzerland is an opportunity to exchange practices and theoretical knowledge and to learn from each other about concrete solutions.

What does this tool consist of?

This is a video tool. It offers an accessible approach to the PERMA-CULTURE concept presented by far° Nyon and its partners. It provides a visual and audio illustration of the work involved in pooling knowledge in order to share experiences within the performing arts. This tool is designed for all arts professionals.

 

Contact person

Anne-Christine Liske
liske@far-nyon.ch
+41 22 365 15 59

Impressum

A video by Matthieu Moerlen, Mr Jadis Production

With far° Nyon, Leila Chakroun and Gregory Stauffer

English subtitles by Alexandre Cracker

Supported by Migros Culture Percentage m2act, the City of Nyon, the Canton of Vaud and the Region of Nyon

 

FemaleAct Calculator

FemaleAct is an association of FINTA actors who live and work in Switzerland (FINTA stands for Women (Frauen), Intersex, Non-binary, Trans and Agender individuals). They use their professional experience to identify where structural change is needed in the performing arts and develop projects to accelerate it.

FemaleAct has developed the online tool «Kalkulator» over the last two years. It has been integrated in the FemaleAct website since December 2023. In 2024, the tool will be further developed in collaboration with the first users.

What does this tool comprise?

On the FemaleAct website, performing artists can quickly and easily calculate care costs outside regular working hours (7:00am-6:00pm).

The first version of the calculator focuses on childcare.

Tags

#care
#costs
#fair wages
#fair practice
#contracts

What does this tool do?

The calculator works out the childcare costs you will have to bear during rehearsals over and above the institutional options. The result can be downloaded as a PDF.

So you can:

  • enter into wage negotiations
  • contribute to a fair wage structure
  • raise awareness of work-life balance

Who is this tool for?

The FemaleAct calculator is available free of charge to both artists and employers.

Why is this tool important?

In performing arts projects (theatre, performance, film, etc.), work is often done outside regular working and institutional childcare hours. Artists therefore often incur additional childcare costs, which they have to bear privately.

The calculator helps to make these costs visible, enabling the additional care work to be adequately factored into cultural project budgets.

Impressum

FemaleAct association: femaleact.ch

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Illustration: Rachel Duc

Migros Pioneer Fund: From 0 to 100

The Migros Pioneer Fund‘s «From 0 to 100» toolbox helps you turn a good idea into an effective pioneering project. Social innovation rarely happens in a straight line: it requires guidance, reflection and the right tools at the right time. The toolbox combines practical instructions, tried-and-tested methods and helpful templates to guide you through your project. It helps you gain clarity, structure challenges and tackle the next steps in a targeted manner. Whether you are at the beginning, in the middle or at a turning point, the toolbox is your reliable companion.

What does this tool consist of?

The «From 0 to 100» toolbox consists of two central elements:
a guide for pioneering projects and a collection of tools, methods and templates. The content is modular in structure and can be used flexibly depending on the project phase, from the initial spark of an idea to further development or scaling.

 

Tags

#migrospionierfonds
#pionierprojekt
#von0auf100

What can this tool do?

The toolbox helps you refine your idea, make informed decisions and consciously shape the course of your project. It offers concrete support on topics such as collaboration, impact, role clarification, communication and reflection. The content is practical, tried and tested, and designed to empower you to take action.

Who is this tool for?

The «From 0 to 100» toolbox is aimed at project teams, initiatives and individuals who want to create social added value with their ideas. It is particularly suitable for pioneering projects in the early and middle stages.

Why is this tool necessary?

Social change is complex and fraught with uncertainty. Projects encounter questions, conflicting goals and obstacles along the way. The toolbox provides guidance, makes implicit knowledge accessible and helps to tackle challenges in a structured manner without losing sight of the individual character of a project.

 

 

Impressum

Authorship:
Migros Pioneer Fund

Concept & production:
Migros Pioneer Fund

Contact:
Migros Pioneer Fund

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – 4.0 International License.

Green Rider

Tasty Future encourages institutions in the Swiss cultural landscape to design their gastronomy and catering concepts in a new and sustainable way – with a focus on plant-based nutrition. The Green Rider developed by Tasty Future now enables teams to find out about environmentally friendly options for vegan catering in the backstage area, plant-based milk alternatives or plastic-free water.

The Zurich activists behind the initiative are convinced that «business as usual» is not an option in view of the climate crisis. Founded in 2021 by Daniel Hellmann and Barbara Ellenberger, the team of food activists is constantly growing.

What does this tool comprise?

The Green Rider is a template for artists and creative artists and institutions that they can easily pass on to venues. It enables environmentally friendly options to be requested, such as vegan catering, plastic-free water or sustainable materials.

Tags

#sustainability #techride r#vegan #plasticfree #greenrider #tastyfuture #wegovegan #future #climateactionnow #vegansofzürich #plantbased #cultureinzurich #localvegan #sustainablegastronomyday #sustainableculture #sustainableart #veganfood

What does this tool do?

The Green Rider is a template for artists and creative artists and institutions that they can easily pass on to venues. It enables environmentally friendly options to be requested, such as vegan catering, recommendations for vegetarian and vegan restaurants, plastic-free water or sustainable materials.

Who is this tool for?

The Green Rider is for artists, art workers and institutions and is available to everyone free of charge.

Why is this tool important?

The Green Rider is an important instrument in the performing arts to promote sustainability in an industry that is often very resource-intensive. It provides a clear framework for environmentally aware behaviour and makes it easier for artists and institutions to make environmentally friendly and more sustainable decisions.

Impressum

Ownership: Tasty Future with Soya the Cow

Website

E-Mail

Insta

 

Talking Diversity

In its communications, the Schauspielhaus Zürich takes care to use language that is sensitive towards and critical of all discrimination. Schauspielhaus employees and ensemble members have compiled a glossary of basic terms to make sure that the audience knows what certain words mean.

What does this tool comprise?

This glossary is a collection of terms with explanations. The terms presented here are explicitly not definitions. They are not set in stone for all eternity.

Some come from the US-American language region and have not yet found a German equivalent. The terms are often dependent on the local social contexts in which they are used, and their meanings shift in use.

They provide a temporary snapshot of our time, as we all know how quickly social conditions can change.

Tags

#glossary
#diversity
#inclusivelanguage #schauspielhaus.ch
#talkingdiversity

What can this glossary contribute to?

This glossary raises awareness of non-discriminatory language.

Non-discriminatory language helps us to differentiate while counteracting stereotyping and violent ascriptions of others.

It allows all individuals to speak for themselves and in their own words, embracing their personal affiliations.

Who is this tool for?

This glossary is for everyone. The terms are intended to encourage us to see language not as a constraint but a creative tool that enables us to help shape the world actively and autonomously.

Why is this glossary important?

Language is a fluid tool. It reflects social processes; sometimes, it can even drive change. By making yourself aware of discrimination and altering your speech accordingly, you can help

  • overcome centuries-old systems of power and violence that affect society as a whole,
  • avoid belittling vulnerable people and
  • give greater visibility to marginalised groups.

Marginalised people are underrepresented not only linguistically but also in the media, politics and culture, and their voices struggle to find a platform and attention.

Download

The glossary is available in German and English:

Impressum

Text references:
The texts in this glossary are taken from various sources, which we would like to name and thank: Diversity Arts Culture, diversity-arts-culture.berlin; Diversum – Verein für rassismuskritisches Denken, www.verein-diversum.ch and the glossary in Evein Obulor & Rosamag (eds.): Schwarz wird großgeschrieben, 2021. Some of the texts are original contributions to this publication.

Redaction:
Fadrina Arpagaus, Yuvviki Dioh, Miriam Ibrahim, Laura Kaufmann, Laiya Sievi

Published by: Schauspielhaus Zürich AG Zeltweg 5, 8032 Zurich

t. Standard wages and fees

Professional and industry association t. Theaterschaffen Schweiz provides as a wage and fee guide for professionals in the independent performing arts. This allows you to calculate appropriate earnings for your work and conduct transparent and comprehensible salary or fee negotiations.

t. Theaterschaffen Schweiz set up a working group for the further development of standard wages and fees. They began their work at the end of 2021. In a broad consultation process, a wide range of actors in the sector from all parts of the country were involved in tool development and in determining benchmarks.

In the process of further developing standard wages and fees, t. Theaterschaffen Schweiz encourages professionals on stage and behind the scenes, as well as interest groups, to engage more actively in the discussions on wages and fees. There is still too little talk about money, both in the independent performing arts and in culture. The t. Standard wages and fees create more transparency and aim to promote a culture of negotiation.

What does this tool offer?

At www.tpunkt.ch/richtloehne there are two newly created tools available that are tailored to the special working realities in the independent performing arts:

Tags

#negotiation
#fairwages
#money
#budget
#fairpractice
#contracts

What does this tool do?

With the t. Calculator, freelancers and self-employed persons can calculate their salary or fee for the development and rehearsal phase. New gradations such as work experience, the level of responsibility in the project and the work region are included.

The t. Budget can be used to calculate the recommended price of a performance and the amortization costs per performance.

Why is this tool important?

Professionals in the independent theatre scene, cabaret and other branches of the independent performing arts have a right to fair remuneration based on their training and professionalism.

t. offers the first national calculation tool for more transparency and negotiation culture in the entire sector.

Who is this tool for?

It serves as a guide for individual artists, theatre groups, agencies, event organisers, theatres and private and public funding bodies.

Contact

t. Theaterschaffen Schweiz
www.tpunkt.ch

info@tpunkt.ch

Impressum

Working group t. Standard wages and fees

  • Cristina Galbiati, Co-President of t. Theaterschaffen Schweiz.
  • Eric Devanthéry, Management Board member of t. Theaterschaffen Schweiz.
  • Nina Mariel Kohler, Management Board member of t. Theaterschaffen Schweiz.
  • Christophe Drag, Administrative Manager Cie Philippe Saire
  • Gabi Bernetta, Producer, Bernetta Theaterproduktionen, winner of the Swiss Theatre Award 2018
  • Anja Lauper, Agent Kunstprojekte.ch / Tourbo-music.ch
  • Judith Rohrbach, former Co-Director Kleintheater Lucerne / Since October 2023, Head of Swiss Artists’ Exchange and Deputy Head t. Theaterschaffen Schweiz).

Project management office t.

  • Chantal Hirschi, Managing Director t. Theaterschaffen Schweiz).
  • Clara Gudehus, Head of Services and Projects

Supported by m2act /Migros Culture Percentage, Swisslos Kultur Kanton Bern, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung, Federal Office of Culture