FAIRSPEC

FAIRSPEC is an initiative dedicated to establishing ethical guidelines and working practices within the independent arts sector. We raise awareness, foster networks, share knowledge, and organize events and workshops focused on fair practices in the independent performing arts. In 2021, the FAIRSPEC Code was developed through a year-long collaborative process involving representatives from the German-speaking independent scene.

The Code provides guiding principles to support fair collaboration among artists, collectives, and institutions. The FAIRSPEC association has taken on the self-defined mission of sustaining the discourse on fair practices, addressing the challenges of establishing and maintaining power-sensitive and appreciative forms of cooperation, and finding constructive responses to them. Through our commitment, we see ourselves as active enablers of a real, lived fair practice within the independent arts.

Our event series FAIRCHECK (2024–2026) subjects fair practice to a hands-on and cultural-policy reality check. We design the events along the guiding principles of the Code and, with the involvement of representatives* of the independent scene and experts*, examine the applicability of Fair Practice in our professional everyday life. In doing so, we aim to identify challenges as well as successes and, in the long term, expand the FAIRSPEC Code with practical examples and guiding questions.

FAIRSPEC now offers a conversation format that generally addresses your questions regarding the implementation of Fair Practice within your working and organizational structures. You may also seek support in jointly understanding a specific situation and its tensions or conflicts, with the aim of developing a considered stance and possible next steps. The conversations are offered free of charge.

Conversation requests via email to fairspecschweiz@gmail.com