Friendly Reminder – Mail out with important deadlines and to-do lists for artists and cultural practitioners by Sparx

Migros Culture Percentage Sparx uses the «friendly reminder» to help you keep track of important deadlines and to‑dos. From budget planning and insurance to mental health, the friendly reminder regularly drops tips and reminders into your inbox and helps you get everything done on time and without stress.

Once a month, a friendly reminder is sent out. Each month is dedicated to a specific topic. The friendly reminder shares different tips, points out important tasks, and offers additional support.

Important: Only those who have registered will receive the friendly reminder!

What does this tool consist of?

Regular email updates with tips and tricks

 

Why is this tool needed?

To explain complex topics such as tax or finance in a simple and straightforward way.

 

What can this tool do?

It provides an overview and offers further support to artists and cultural practitioners with administrative and organisational tasks.

 

Who is this tool for?

Artists and cultural practitioners who wish to professionalise themselves.

Impressum

Authorship:
Migros Culture Percentage Sparx

Contact:
Lilli Megerle, lilli.megerle@mgb.ch

 

Published 15.5.2026

Open art+care Zooms: Online format for discussion and thematic input (DE/EN/FR)

The Open art+care Zooms are an open, moderated online format for the personal exchange of experiences relating to artistic work and care responsibilities. They take place monthly and are open to all interested people without registration. The German- or English-language Open art+care Zoom takes place on the first Monday of each month, and the French-language Zoom on the first Wednesday of the month.

The dates are published on the art+care website in the agenda; the Zoom link is shared in advance via the Signal group and the art+care newsletter.

Important:
The Open art+care Zooms are not recorded and their content is not published.

The focus is on exchange, mutual support and the joint development of strategies for combining care responsibilities and artistic practice. The discussions in a small, protected setting are intended as an important contribution to necessary changes in the cultural sector.

What does this tool consist of?

  • Monthly, moderated Zoom discussion rounds (openly accessible via access link)
  • Publication of dates and access links via the Signal group or newsletter
  • Sometimes with brief thematic input at the beginning of the Zoom session
  • Duration: 1 to 1.5 hours

What can this tool do?

  • Exchange experiences and provide mutual relief (the feeling of not being alone)
  • Jointly develop strategies for combining artistic activity and care responsibilities
  • Build alliances and networks and strengthen the care discourse in art and culture

Why is this tool needed?

Many people in the arts and culture sector experience overload, guilt, pressure to justify themselves and the feeling of constantly lagging behind. The format creates a safe space to share these experiences and develop empowering alliances, solution strategies and energy for change.

Who is this tool for?

The format is open to anyone who is interested. It is aimed in particular at people in the arts and culture sector who have care responsibilities or are interested in care, solidarity-based practices and structural change in the cultural sector.

Concept & moderation:
art+care core team
contact@artandcare.org
artandcare.org

For Zoom link & updates:

art+care Newsletter

Signal group art+care Cosmos

published 23.03.2026

From thread to needle – building sustainable governance

This video follows the strategic retreat conducted by Costumières & Cie in 2025 with the support of Migros Culture Percentage m2act. It documents a key moment of collective reflection in which the board reviewed how the association operates and contemplated its values and future needs. This video provides a testimony of this crucial moment for the organisation and a way of sharing it with the public.

What does this tool consist of?

This tool is a documentary video showing what happened before and after the retreat in the words of those involved. It outlines the collective process that led to the drawing-up of Costumières & Cie’s charter and working conditions

What’s the purpose of this tool?

The processes of collective reflection, governance and organisational transformation are rarely captured. This video reveals how a brief but intensive period of time can have a profoundly transformative impact on a group if properly supported. It shows how – in a cohesive environment where people listen to each other – unexpected collective collaboration can be achieved – at both human and structural level.

What can this tool do?

The video allows its audience to share in a real-life experience of group work, inspires other associations or cultural groups and puts the tools produced by Costumières & Cie in context. It helps people understand the human, political and professional issues involved in the cultural sector.

Whom is this tool designed for?

This tool is aimed at Costumières & Cie members, cultural associations, institutions, partners, funding providers and anyone interested in issues related to collective governance, working conditions and structural organisation in the arts sector.

Additional toolbox by Costumières & Cie

Working conditions for the costume industry

Impressum

Film director: Erika Irmler
Costumières & Cie – video produced as part of the retreat in 2025 supported by the Migros Culture Percentage’s m2act

Contact: info@costumieres-et-cie.ch

www.costumieres-et-cie.ch

 

Published 19.03.2026

art+care Newsletter – Visibility of current topics and activities of the community

The art+care newsletter is a collaborative publication format that brings visibility to topics, actors, and activities within the community. It is published monthly and serves as a curatorial tool for the network, bringing together discourses on care, art, and solidarity practices and offering different perspectives. This format provides a publicly accessible platform for networks, projects, and resources.

Most of the content shared in the newsletter comes from the multilingual Signal groups of the art+care community, where all chat members can contribute.

The tool shows that a newsletter can be used not only as an information channel but also as a participatory knowledge archive. Such a newsletter can support communities in continuously promoting visibility, exchange, and networking.

Newsletter subscription

What does this tool consist of?

Updates on art+care activities and current contributions from the entire community (called art+care Cosmos)

Why is this tool needed?

Strengthening the care discourse and interdisciplinary exchange in art and culture

What can this tool do?

Creating visibility and knowledge transfer

Who is this tool for?

A newsletter for anyone interested in contributions and formats related to the topic of art and care work

Concept & editing:
art+care core team

Content:
Contributions from members of the Signal groups (art+care Cosmos)

Contact:
contact@artandcare.org

Website:
artandcare.org

Newsletter registration

Signal Group (art+care Cosmos)

Published 05.03.2026

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

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!

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

Facebook

Instagram

Illustration: Rachel Duc

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

Tatenbank

The Swiss-wide central action platform for a more sustainable cultural sphere

The Tatenbank is a project by Vert le Futur, the association for sustainable culture and events.  The platform gathers knowledge from the cultural sector on sustainably producing and organising cultural events. The content of the Tatenbank is researched and curated by an interdisciplinary team of people at the intersection of culture and sustainability, with creative artists, authors, software developers, communication specialists, graphic designers and networking artists continuously building up and further developing it.

What is the Tatenbank made up of?

The Tatenbank offers condensed knowledge checked by experts, specific aids and tools and inspiring examples of sustainable work in all areas of cultural creation:

  • Administration
  • Equipment
  • Purchasing
  • Gastronomy
  • Infrastructure
  • Communication
  • Curation
  • Artistic content

Tags

#tatenbank
#vertlefutur
#tools
#inspiration
#ideas
#examples
#sustainableculture

What does the Tatenbank offer?

  • Information: The Tatenbank is a source of knowledge, inspiration and orientation.
  • Community: Creative artists can use the Tatenbank to obtain low-threshold access to expertise and a network of experts. They can learn how to go about their activities in a resource-conserving, sustainable way.
  • Participation: Users can get involved and share their own «deeds» in the area of sustainable cultural creation. The Tatenbank is therefore continuously updated with experiences from the community.

Why is the Tatenbank important?

To ensure that sustainability does not get swept under the table in the world of culture, it is important to have useful aids, knowledge and in particular good examples at our disposal.

It takes time to collect and study this information, and to draw the right conclusions from it.

The Vert le Futur association aims to close this gap with the Tatenbank.

Who is the Tatenbank aimed at?

The Tatenbank is aimed at creative artists from all genres who want to work towards sustainable culture in their respective areas of work and impact.

All content is available in German and French.

Impressum

Vert le Futur
vertlefutur.ch

Contact details
tatenbank@vertlefutur.ch

Values of Solidarity

A mediation game for team-building and cultural co-creation

«Values of Solidarity» is a workshop tool that is both a game and a mediation tool for teams that are just beginning their collaboration. Using cards, participants can describe which values are important to them and learn which values drive their partners. This enables members of a project or work group to get to know one another better and share values, experiences and needs that would perhaps otherwise not be shared. The discussions that arise during the game promote collaborative communication and create a framework for supporting and lasting collaboration that reflects the participants’ cultural, intellectual and emotional diversity.

What does this tool offer?

«Values of Solidarity» is a set of cards in English. The game contains two types of cards:

«Value» cards contain descriptions of values that may be important for creating a framework of solidarity and collaboration:

  • Honesty
  • Motivation
  • Respect
  • Health
  • etc.

«Conflict» cards contain fictional scenarios to be overcome in which poor communication and cultural differences lead to tension and conflict.

Tags

#community
#care
#values
#solidarity
#collaboration
#fairpractice
#nonviolentcommunication
#reshapenetwork
#valuesofsolidarity

Why is this set of cards important?

Conflicts may arise in work groups and collaborative relationships when members have very different values or some people do not recognise others’ rights.

During the game, teams are presented with fictional conflict situations and team members have the chance to formulate their own values.

The aim is for each team to formulate their own value frameworks. This promotes solidarity within the group.

Who is this tool aimed at?

The tool has been developed especially for teams that are just beginning their collaboration. In particular, it is aimed at project teams working in the areas of art and culture, but is also relevant for other sectors.

What can be achieved with this set of cards?

«Values of Solidarity» offers inspiration and the opportunity to reflect on how a team wants to overcome possible conflicts.

The game places participants in conflict situations together. This enables them to identify the often hidden and obscure mechanisms causing tension and difficulties. At the same time, participants can identify the methods needed to relieve tensions, especially when different backgrounds merge.

This game has the potential to raise awareness of solidarity and the practical and operational framework it offers for collaboration.

Download

More information can be found on the Reshape Network website:

The Gamified Workshop Toolkit: Values of Solidarity

Download extract

Ordering a set of cards

The set of cards can be ordered from RESO – Dance Network Switzerland for CHF 15 plus delivery costs.

Send an email to RESO if interested: info@reso.ch

Impressum

2020, RESHAPE Network

reshape.network

Created by Anikó Rácz, Doreen Toutikian and Dorota Ogrodzka in consultation with Konrad Gadzina.

Developed as part of RESHAPE project «Solidarische Ökonomien» («Solidarity-based economies»), involving Ouafa Belgacem, Ekmel Ertan, Harald Geisler, Anastasya Kizilova, Dorota Ogrodzka, Anikó Rácz, Laure de Selys and Doreen Toutikian under the management of Nike Jonah.

The new edition of «Values of Solidarity» in 2022 was financed by Reso – Dance Network Switzerland and m2act, the funding and network project of the Migros Culture Percentage.