Culture in Leoben

The University of Leoben and a long tradition in mining and metallurgy, and with Voestalpine in the iron and steel industry, characterise the business location of Leoben with its approximately 24,000 inhabitants. The city already offers important cultural activities, which are mainly realised at the locations of the traditional city theatre, the Live Congress, the KulturQuartier with library and museum, the music and art school and some free spaces.

Depending on the season, there are lively festival and open air activities. Although the existing offer already makes Leoben a cultural centre of the region, there are significant development options, the realisation of which is linked both to outstanding lighthouse projects and to an effective concept of supra-regional cultural public relations. Structural measures and further artistic genres and formats are also to be included in future further developments. In addition, the settlement of a new production site of the AT&S company in Leoben has resulted in a need for employees who live and work in the city and are to move in from outside.

The challenge is, on the one hand, to take into account the cultural interests of the new citizens and to make living in Leoben attractive for this group in order to attract highly qualified workers to the city, but also to make Leoben more interesting for young people in general. Overall, it is important to consider that the cultural interests of many Leoben residents have changed in recent years due to transformation processes, be it digitalisation, pandemic-related changes in behaviour, or economic crises. The public no longer uses all cultural offers as it did before the pandemic, in particular there is a lack of subscribers to classical offers. At the same time, it is important to make Leoben more visible beyond the region in terms of culture.

Method

Throughout the development process of the Leoben 2023 cultural concept, the core team held working sessions and focus groups with relevant stakeholders on topics such as cultural infrastructure, collaborations with existing highlights, original formats and flagship events, marketing and communication, as well as offerings tailored to specific target groups (children and youth, etc.). The results of these steps were incorporated into the final concept paper, which was then discussed with the municipality, stakeholders, and funding agencies.

In early 2024, the cultural concept was then presented to a broader public. Since then, EDUCULT has been supporting the city in implementing the cultural concept through monitoring sessions with municipal stakeholders, reflection meetings with cultural actors, press conferences, and policy recommendation papers.