The study trip of the students of the University of Applied Pedagogy (HSAP) to Chicago on the topic of “Social Work with Children and Adolescents in the United States of America” had the goal to find out how social work is organized there and to compare this with the German form. Especially the topic “racism” should be considered there. In the run-up to the trip, some things had to be organized. This included not only booking the flights and accommodation, but also securing the financing of the trip as well as working out various program points on site. In order to be able to look at a broad picture of social work, we arranged appointments with very different institutions: the German Chamber of Commerce in Chicago, the Jane Addams Hull House Museum, Dominican University, the German International School Chicago and Whitney M. Young Magnet High School.

As the staff of the Chamber of Commerce told us: “It is difficult to draw a real comparison between two systems with such different principles! It is almost impossible not to make one system look better than the other and not to evaluate it, especially if you grew up in one of the two systems and can never understand the other to the same extent. With the study trip we got exciting insights into this other system and were invited to reflect on ours. The trip was a personal enrichment, but especially for our professional understanding.

Source: From the project report

Hunter Shaw Fine Art presented the second iteration of Klammern aus denen Blätter Spriessen, an exhibition with works by Colleen Hargaden, Filip Kostic, Yein Lee, Andrew Rutherdale and Jonas Schoeneberg. The exhibition was a collaboration between HSFA and Berlin-based independent space Scherben, who hosted the first iteration in April 2022.

Klammern aus denen Blätter sprießen assembled a group of artists who have independently sought to investigate different strains and subcultures of escapism, found in DIY maker movements, mysticism, gaming culture, biotechnology, virtual reality and the extension of bodily formations through social and scientific techniques. Showing in this ensemble for the first time, Colleen Hargaden, Filip Kostic, Yein Lee, Andrew Rutherdale and Jonas Schoeneberg ventured out of their studios in Berlin, Los Angeles, Montreal and Vienna to open up their practices to mutual encounters, allowing their perspectives and interests to intersect, converge and enter into conversation with one another. Together they offered conceptual variables to understand situations excluded from normative notions of the real. Like the seemingly irreal scenario of “brackets, from which leaves sprout” (Klammern aus denen Blätter sprießen), alternate patterns and cognitive abilities emerged from which to think anew the escape button commonly associated with configurations of virtual reality. If one of these pathways was projected in spacetime, it would read: “Once you’ve made a gateway of brackets, slipping into the embrace between them, you unlock the control console and peer into its memory slot. There. Expect a beautiful but unreal setting.”

B-LA CONNECT is an initiative to promote the cooperation and connection between the two sister cities’ creative communities.

In June 2019, 20 art spaces from Los Angeles exhibited in 22 art spaces from Berlin. The interdisciplinary program included art exhibitions, film screenings, performances, talks, and more. This July, 2022, the Berlin art spaces travel to LA for a return visit with staggered openings throughout the city in 22 different art spaces, including a film night at the Goethe-Institut LA, and a performance evening on the rooftop of The Bendix Building.

B-LA CONNECT sees itself as an international cultural exchange at a grass roots level. It brings together members of different art spheres and scenes from both cities. New opportunities for interacting and connecting with each other are created and extended locally and transnationally. Promoting positive globality, B–LA CONNECT seeks to advance the cultural partnership between Berlin and Los Angeles.

B-LA CONNECT wants to celebrate urban diversity and stand against reactionary forces. Berlin and Los Angeles share the urban self-image of being a place of cultural diversity and individual freedom. In light of the rising authoritarian and regressive currents worldwide the two cities stand for a liberal and cosmopolitan openness towards the world. The goal of B-LA CONNECT is to build bridges where others erect walls.

The Checkpoint Charlie Foundation is very happy to have supported this project, exactly where W.E.B. Du Bois studied for three semesters at the university named after Friedrich-Wilhelm at that time. This comes almost two years after a “Berlin Memorial Plaque” for the civil rights activist was unveiled at 130 Oranienstrasse, his former place of residence.

“William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, one of the leading figures in twentieth-century sociology, history, journalism, literature and civil rights activism, studied at what is now Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in the years 1892-1894. His stay in Berlin and his studies with German economists, sociologists, and historians proved very influential in his thinking. Du Bois became the author of such seminal works as The Souls of Black Folk (1903), was the editor of The Crisis (1920-1934), and the co-founder of both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, 1909) as well as the Fifth Pan-African Congress (1945). In 1958, Humboldt-Universität awarded him an honorary doctorate.

For over twenty years, the American Studies Program has honored Du Bois’s legacy at Humboldt-Universität through two lecture series: the W. E. B. Du Bois Lectures and the Distinguished W. E. B. Du Bois Lectures. Until now, there has been no visible tribute to him on the university grounds. We are proud to announce that a plaque had been installed on the main building’s ground floor (next to the entrance to the Orbis Humboldtianus). Du Bois is the first U.S.-American and the first person of color to be honored by Humboldt-Universität; he is also the first person to be honored as a former student.”

Source:https://www.angl.hu-berlin.de/department/duboismemorial

Photo: (c) Philipp Plum, HU Berlin.

„By Ear” is another intriguing project with a Berlin and Los Angeles connection that the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation has supported. This exhibition was a collaborative project by Berlin and Los Angeles / New York artists and opened in galleries in both Berlin (“Axel Obiger – Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst“) and Los Angeles (“Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles“). Although the exhibition is no longer running, you can still get an impression at https://www.axelobiger.com/by-ear-berlin…. Connecting citizens through art is an important part of being sister cities!

We are very pleased to announce that the experimental short film “The Purple Video”, funded by the Foundation, was rebroadcasted and streamed in 2022: It aired on “BronxNet Community Television” as part of “Women History Month 2022” and was additionally streamed worldwide on “BronxNet” on the same day. Both “Bronx TV” and “Bronx NET” are supported by the “New York City Department of Cultural Affairs”.

2020/2021, the short film by Berlin-based film artist Halina Kliem debuted at the “Florida Film Festival”, and was shown at the “Brooklyn Film Festival”, the “London Short Film Festival” and the “San Francisco International Festival of Short Film”.

After 2020 and in summer 2021 the annual Grossmont project had to be cancelled because of Corona but it went ahead once again in winter 2021/2022 with student Joseph Morales being awarded the scholarship, which consisted of 2 weeks of language school and 2 weeks of practical course as well as accommodation with a host family. ALSTOM in Berlin/Hennigsdorf, for its part, provided him with an excellently supervised internship, gaining insights into production, planning and development. Above all, Joseph was able to experience the importance of his field of study (mechanical engineering) in practice through the development of trains for Stockholm.

Photo: Joseph Morales with his ALSTOM supervisor Marcel Kippel

From Berlin to the world – this is the core idea of this project: The author, a citizen of Berlin for 35 years, used this concept to form the basis of his questioning. His activity has been promoted here as well as in the USA so it can be made accessible to an international, i.e. American, audience through a translation of “Seismography” outside of the German-speaking world.

Some of Jörn Jacob Rohwer’s most notable conversations here are those with centenarian composer Elliott Carter, publicist Susan Sontag, neurologist Oliver Sacks, multimedia artist Yoko Ono, director Robert Wilson, soprano Grace Bumbry, writer Edmund White, and playwright Arthur Miller.

Foundation project in cooperation with the Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association (BUSMVA)
After last year’s program unfortunately had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, this year it was a special honor and pleasure for us to have welcomed such wonderful people back in Berlin. First and foremost, special thanks to our program partner BUSMVA for the excellent cooperation!
12 former American military personnel who served in Berlin between 1945 and 1994 returned to experience how Berlin has changed for a week. They visited their former places of work and held discussions with students at Berlin schools. This program has been organized since 2008.

MERYL MEISLER I NEW YORK PARADISE LOST was the title of the exhibition at Fotogalerie Friedrichshain, which fortunately could take place from October 15 – November 26, 2021, despite Corona. FOTOGALERIE Friedrichshain presented the first European solo exhibition by Meryl Meisler. The New York-based photographer and longtime art teacher in Bushwick, Brooklyn traveled to Berlin for the first time on the occasion of her 70th birthday, thanks to support from the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation. Her work from the 1970s and 1980s draws a sharp contrast between the difficult social conditions on the streets of Brooklyn and the glamorous, excessive nightlife of the disco era. The image material were selected from the artist’s three photo books “A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick”, “Purgatory & Paradise: SASSY ’70s Suburbia & The City” and “New York PARADISE LOST: Bushwick Era Disco”. The supporting program included a three-day workshop for young people from the Kurt Schwitters School, followed by a presentation in the photo gallery, and a public panel discussion with Berlin art teachers and cultural professionals.