Germany offers a $200 culture pass to those turning 18 in an effort to promote the live arts

The Covid-19 pandemic has been hard on all entertainment industries as people were confined to their homes for months on end. Live arts took the biggest hit as social distancing became the norm and people were skeptical about engaging in crowded and enclosed spaces. However, as the world has started to heal from the effects of the pandemic, Germany is doing its part in trying to boost the industry of live arts. 

Under a new government-launched scheme, young Germans will be granted vouchers to spend on their choice of cultural activities, reports The Guardian. The €200 (approximately $208) "Kulturpass" will be accessible to all 18-year-olds. It will be used to encourage young adults to experience live culture and abandon their stay-at-home habits. Moreover, it will provide financial support to the arts sector which is still struggling to recover from the lasting impact of the lockdowns. 

Claudia Roth, Germany's culture minister, characterized the cultural passport as the "equivalent of a birthday present" for the 750,000 individuals turning 18 in 2023. With this new scheme, the country is following in the footsteps of France, Italy, and Spain, who have introduced similar programs. Recipients get two years to utilize the coupon—which finance minister Christian Lindner described as "cultural start-up capital"—on anything from theater and concert tickets to books or music. It will be handled by an app and a website that connects to a virtual marketplace of all forms of art.

The emphasis is on fostering a live culture, with theatres and music venues likely to leverage the plan to attract new audience members. This scheme will cost the government around €100 million. It focuses on smaller, typically local businesses like independent theatres and booksellers. Hence, popular online platforms like Amazon and Spotify have been excluded from the scheme. Moreover, it will have a spending limit for a single purchase so that recipients don't spend it on one expensive thing.

Roth and Lindner stated that if the plan is effective, it would be expanded and pushed out to a larger age range, maybe beginning from the age of 15. 

Earlier this year, Spain passed a similar scheme that would provide 18-year-olds with €400 (about $416) in culture vouchers to spend on the arts. The digital voucher will be valid for one year, with a $200 spending limit on live events and festivals, a $100 cap on physical products like as vinyl, and a $100 cap on digital products. These coupons cannot be used to purchase food, textbooks, or instruments, per NME.

France launched a similar initiative last year of giving a €300 (approximately $312) Culture Pass to all 18-year-olds. The pass may be used to purchase movie, museum, and theater tickets, as well as books, art materials, dancing classes, instruments, or an online subscription. While France's initiative is not actually linked to the pandemic and is an election promise made by the current president, it still is expected to have a profound effect on the recovery of the arts industry after the pandemic, per BBC.