With a grant from a state program for equal opportunity, the Equal Opportunity Office supports projects that support families, strengthen our anti-discrimination work, sensitize members of the university all issues in the areas of gender and equal opportunity and overall contribute to improving the equality of opportunity at Folkwang.
![[Translate to English:] DESIGNERINNEN* + ENTREPRENEURSHIP: LET'S TALK BUSINESS!](/fileadmin/medien/Die%20Hochschule/Antidiskriminierung-Gleichstellung/futuresque-designerinnen-entrepreneurship-1.jpg "[Translate to English:] DESIGNERINNEN* + ENTREPRENEURSHIP: LET'S TALK BUSINESS!")
Supported by the Equal Opportunitiy Office of the Folkwang University of the Arts, the symposium DESIGNERINNEN* + ENTREPRENEURSHIP: LET'S TALK BUSINESS! was organized by Prof. Marion Digel, Celina Kroder (M.A. Design Futures) and dedicated design students (M.A. Design Futures) and moderated by Karen Druebert (M.A. Art History and Design Science).
This meeting strengthened the visibility of FLINTA* in the design industry and brought their particular perspectives into focus. The symposium was an inspiring and encouraging experience not only for the FLINTA* students in the audience. They were motivated to make their way into the profession - confident, strong and with the aim of creating positive change.
In October and November 2024, the Folkwang University of the Arts offered various workshops for students on the topic of anti-discrimination. These included four workshops from the Bildungsstätte Anne Frank, which dealt with anti-Semitism, its occurrence in art and culture and possible approaches to the debate on Israel and Palestine. As part of the optional studies, there were also two workshops entitled “Collective Care Space” that focused on mental health, empowerment and experiences of discrimination, particularly among Bi_PoC (Black, indigenous, People of colour) and international students.
"Der queere* Blick" is Celina Marie Köhring's Bachelor project, in which she explores the affirmative visibility of queer* individuals with the help of illustration and experimental work with fabric.
Her project will be presented on September 28th, 2024 as part of the Folkwang Finale.
"Ungirling" by and with Meret König is a physical theatre solo in episodes. The piece is accompanied by the composer Katrin Meier. In addition, a creative, integrated audio description is created and used as an essential artistic tool from conception to performance. The piece is a series of attempts (episodes) to approach the potentials or facets of one's own girlhood and ungirlhood as a non-binary performer in order to ultimately fan out and celebrate the prism of one's own queer identity.
The premiere was on 14.03.2024 at the Pina Bausch Theater of the Folkwang UdK.
Girls' Day is a nationwide project to provide career and study guidance for girls. On this annual day of action, schoolgirls learn about professions or study subjects in which the proportion of women is below 40 percent. Companies, businesses and universities throughout Germany open their doors to female pupils on Girls' Day to introduce them to apprenticeships and study courses in IT, craft, natural sciences and technology. They can also meet female role models in leading positions in business and politics. (https://www.girls-day.de/)
The book Linguhacks / Typohacks provides an introduction to the topic of gender-sensitive language for designers and people interested in current discourses in the field of design. It is a typographical reference work with suggestions and ideas for the microtypographical handling of non-binary language forms in the German language. The book was created as a thesis by communication design student and Folkwang Prize winner Hannah Witte. It also represents a synthesis of her preoccupation with the topics of gender and design during her studies at Folkwang.
Following the restructuring of the Gender & Diversity bureau to become the Anti-Discrimination & Equal Opportunity services, the website also needed to be redesigned. For better and more intuitive readability and navigation, the Folkwang communication design student Louisa Kron was commissioned to create banners and icons for the main- and subpages. In an interview Louisa talks about her work, her preoccupation with the topic of gender and her studies at Folkwang.
The PENG collective consists of seven women musicians, all of whom are successful graduates and students of the Folkwang University of the Arts. Founded in 2016, the collective has set itself the goal of promoting the greater presence and acceptance of women in jazz and of jazz in society. The PENG Festival, which has been taking place regularly since 2016 and is partly funded by the Anti-Discrimination & Equal Opportunities department, plays an essential role in realising this goal.
"Künstlerinnen" ("Women Artists") was an interdisciplinary series of workshops, initiated by the Equal Opportunity Office in cooperation with the faculties at Folkwang. In the context of lectures, discussions or workshops the speakers reported on their careers and everyday work or opened up about a job-related topic to the students. This way, the students were given the opportunity to directly engage with artists in fields that are considered to be atypical for their gender by societal standards.