Culture Podcast "Mission White Flamingo" reports on Third Places in Borken and Rheine

Attend events, get creative yourself, drink coffee, spend time together or alone - all this is possible at a Third Place. Five new Third Places with very different approaches are currently being created in Münsterland, all funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science NRW. For the culture podcast "Mission Weißer Flamingo", Anna-Ida Almus spoke with the founders of the "ARTandTECH.space" in Rheine and the "3rd Place Borken" about the connection between art and technology, participatory-creative urban development and much more.

"The term 'Third Place' originally comes from American sociology" explains Almus. "According to this, a Third Place is supposed to provide a balance to the First Place - the home or family, respectively - and the Second Place, work. As a centre for exchange and escape from our fast-paced everyday lives, Third Places offer a meeting place for everyone."

This is also the intention of the planned Third Places in Rheine and Borken. The ARTandTECH.space Rheine brings art and technology together and ensures that concerts, performances and exhibitions meet maker fairs and tech challenges. The "3rd place Borken" combines the music school, the Remigius library, gastronomy and cultural programme under one roof. It is planned as a new building that will establish itself as a hub in the city centre along a cultural axis.

"We want to bring people who describe themselves as not particularly tech-savvy together with those who say, 'I haven't been particularly involved with art'," explains Lorena Wolff from the Rheine Youth Art School. "These supposedly different areas can simply meet at our Third Place and really cool things can come out of it."

The "3rd Place Borken" is already putting its first ideas into practice: "To get out of pure theory, we have opened the 3ECK as a test lab. Here we are trying out the first formats such as games, eating together, reading corners and cultural events with the citizens and project partners - if Corona lets us," explains Simon Schwerhoff from the cultural office of the city of Borken.

In addition to Lorena Wolff and Simon Schwerhoff, interviewees for this ninth podcast episode include Christian Hoof from the Berufskolleg Rheine project laboratory, Jascha Wallmeier, a student at the Berufskolleg Rheine, and Simon Welsing from the Borken Music School.

In addition to the "ARTandTECH.space" in Rheine and the "3rd place Borken", the "Bürgerzentrum Schuhfabrik Ahlen e.V.", "Verve! Gemeinschaft, Kultur & Schwung für Neubeckum" in Beckum and the "Kulturhof Deitmar" in Emsdetten are also funded as part of the "Third Places - Houses for Culture and Encounter in Rural Areas" programme of the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The podcast is a project of the Münsterland e.V. Cultural Office. You can listen to it at www.muensterland.com/weisserflamingo and on the audio platforms Soundcloud, Spotify and iTunes.