TUSCH Berlin is an innovative network for Cultural Education that has been connecting schools and theaters in long-term partnerships since 1998. It promotes the active participation of young people in cultural life and advocates for diversity, inclusion, and sustainable collaboration.
TUSCH (Theater und Schulen) is an innovative network for cultural education that has been initiating, supporting, and promoting three-year partnerships between Berlin schools and theaters since 1998. Founded by Renate Breitig, the then advisor for theater and aesthetic education in the Berlin Senate Department for Education, TUSCH aims to integrate cultural education into everyday school life and familiarize young people with the diversity of theater.
The main mission of TUSCH is to promote the active and full participation of young people in the cultural life of the city and to establish theater as a natural part of everyday school life. TUSCH advocates for diversity, inclusion, equality, and a respectful, discrimination-free coexistence. The network views diversity as an opportunity and enrichment and works to reflect diversity in partnership programs and structures[2].
TUSCH aims for sustainable and continuous collaboration between schools and theaters. Through long-term partnerships and annual festival weeks, it ensures that cultural education is deeply rooted in schools. Furthermore, TUSCH promotes participatory cultural education that is independent of socio-economic conditions and creates access for all. The network also supports inclusive theater work and fosters exchange on methodological approaches and theater aesthetics[2][4].
TUSCH has expanded beyond Berlin, with follow-up projects in cities and regions such as Hamburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Frankfurt am Main, Munich, Stuttgart, Minden, and even in Warsaw with the related project TISZ. These projects are autonomously organized but oriented towards common principles and together form the TUSCH network nationwide[1][3].
