According to the draft budget plan for 2026 and 2027, which has been adopted by the Berlin Senate and submitted to the House of Representatives, the Exhibition Remuneration Fund for Visual Artists (FABiK) is to be abolished. FABiK was introduced in Berlin in 2016. It regulated the remuneration of visual artists for making artworks available for exhibitions in municipal galleries. The fund is regarded as a model for the Federal Republic of Germany with regard to exhibition fees. In the 2024 budget (subsection 8 in chapter 0810, title 68577), it was allocated €650,000, but in 2025 it was suspended entirely. Now it is not to be reinstated.
Instead, the Fund for Municipal Galleries (KOGA Fund, in budget line 2708) is to be increased by €300,000, to a total of €650,000.
What does this reallocation of resources mean for visual artists in Berlin and for the 37 municipal galleries?
– The overall funds made available by the Senate for the galleries will in effect be cut by 35%. The only possible response from the galleries will be to reduce their programs and offerings: fewer exhibitions, fewer participating artists, fewer events, fewer educational activities. In short, both the quality and quantity of cultural programming are at risk across the city.
– With the elimination of the Exhibition Remuneration Fund (FABiK), the guideline that made artist remuneration for the provision of artworks binding for all districts no longer applies. What remains is only the “Recommendation for Minimum Fees, Exhibition Fees, and Reading Fees” issued by the State (most recently updated in December 2023) – but with no obligation to implement it. Since most municipal gallery budgets leave no financial leeway, remuneration of artists will once again, as before 2016, become a matter of negotiation.
In at least 160 exhibitions per year, the fund provided around 1,400 visual artists in the 37 municipal galleries with fixed fees. These payments represent a vital part of their artistic income, helping, for example, to secure their membership in the Artists’ Social Insurance Fund and serving as an important acknowledgment of the social value of their work.
The municipal galleries are decentralized, citywide spaces for presenting and mediating art, attracting around 450,000 visitors annually. As public institutions run by the districts, they constitute a unique and essential cultural infrastructure. They provide continuous, free, non-commercial programming that differs from the offerings of large institutions, private galleries, or self-organized project spaces: they are local, accessible spaces of artistic production, presentation, mediation, and negotiation. As places of encounter and exchange, they are essential for social cohesion. Moreover, they serve as spaces for supporting artists, fostering experimentation, and developing new formats of presentation and mediation.
The Exhibition Remuneration Fund strengthened the recognition of the work of hundreds of visual artists through standardized fee regulations and reinforced the role of the municipal galleries. With its elimination, this recognition is fundamentally undermined. Cultural diversity and the city’s reputation will suffer lasting damage.