Public sector backs AI skills hub for arts and culture workforce
A German state plans an office to run an AI competence network for arts and culture, with training and collaboration to raise skills across the sector.
A German state plans an office to run an AI competence network for arts and culture, with training and collaboration to raise skills across the sector.
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A regional ministry in North Rhine-Westphalia will procure an office to run a competence network on artificial intelligence in arts and culture. The hub will provide continuing education and bring artists and cultural workers together to collaborate on practical uses of AI. The tender to create an AI in Arts and Culture Office was published in October 2025 by the Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.
The contract covers the establishment and operation of an office for a competence network focused on AI in arts and culture. According to the notice, the office will deliver continuing education offers and foster collaboration among artists and cultural workers across North Rhine-Westphalia.
While the scope signals a broad brief — skills development and network coordination — key commercial details are not included in the notice. Information such as budget, contract duration, delivery model, and performance metrics is not specified.
The emphasis on a competence network suggests a practical focus. The office is expected to convene practitioners, share know-how, and support the sector’s adoption of AI tools in ways that respect creative processes and rights. In short, it is a skills-and-collaboration infrastructure for a diverse workforce.
The initiative sits within a wider pattern of public bodies in the region using procurement to build AI capability. In December 2023, Stadt Gelsenkirchen sought the establishment and operation of an AI application centre for municipal solutions, aiming to translate research into tools for public administration and municipal companies. That effort reflects demand for hands-on support to take ideas into use.
In September 2024, Landesbetrieb Information und Technik NRW published a tender for AI services and solutions to enhance productivity and address the skilled workforce shortage in the state administration. The focus on training, development and support speaks to the same drivers at work in the cultural field: skills, safe adoption, and efficiency.
Beyond NRW, public support architectures for the creative economy are also evolving. In June 2024, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action sought a contractor to operate the Competence Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries in Berlin, covering project management, innovation transfer, networking, events and analysis. The new NRW office’s emphasis on collaboration fits neatly into this multi-level landscape.
Across Europe, public buyers are investing in knowledge transfer and the infrastructure that underpins it. In June 2023, the University of Stuttgart tendered for the establishment of regional and supra-regional knowledge transfer on AI and the transformation of work as part of the “Future Centres” initiative. The brief covered a knowledge pool, participatory events and a project map for SMEs — a practical template for the sharing of methods and examples that the arts-and-culture office in NRW can draw on.
Higher education providers are also equipping cultural disciplines with compute and tooling. In February 2025, Universität für Weiterbildung Krems began procurement of a GPU cluster for arts and cultural studies to train and apply machine-learning models within a digital humanities project. This kind of investment supports experimentation and teaching, and complements outreach work like NRW’s planned continuing education offers.
Sector-specific needs are emerging too. In September 2025, the cultural authority in Castilla y León launched a project to develop AI for cultural heritage management systems, including a scalable data platform under the Knowledge Heritage Network. As cultural institutions digitise collections and workflows, competence centres that blend training with peer learning can help ensure tools are chosen and used well.
The NRW move to commission an office mirrors how other administrations structure AI support. In October 2024, the Community of Madrid sought specialised technical assistance for its AI Technical Office to help deliver strategies and projects that raise adoption. Dedicated offices can concentrate expertise, coordinate stakeholders and provide a single point of support.
Quality assurance and testing are also moving up the agenda. In August 2024, acatech sought partners to implement Innovation and Quality Centres focused on trustworthy, marketable AI, with planned openings in Berlin and a showroom in Kaiserslautern. These centres aim to translate testing and quality methods into practice — a useful counterpart to competence networks in culture, where questions of rights, attribution and authenticity are acute.
The regulatory context is sharpening at EU level. In October 2025, the European Commission’s AI Office launched procurement for technical assistance to monitor compliance with the AI Act, including the assessment of systemic risks in general-purpose AI models. As compliance support matures, sector hubs like NRW’s planned office can help translate obligations and good practice into workable guidance for cultural organisations and freelancers.
AI literacy is becoming part of day-to-day work across public services. NRW has already flagged productivity and skills shortages in its administration through the 2024 AI services tender. A competence network for arts and culture extends that focus into a sector where work patterns are diverse and digital capacity varies widely.
The approach — build a dedicated support office, convene a network, provide structured training — is pragmatic. It recognises that the value of AI in culture depends on people knowing when and how to use it, and on institutions being able to choose tools that fit their purpose and obligations.
The procurement is short on delivery specifics, so the next milestones to watch are scope definition and early programme design. How the office sequences its continuing education offers, and how it engages artists and cultural workers across North Rhine-Westphalia, will shape uptake.
Coordination across levels will matter. Links to regional efforts such as the Gelsenkirchen application centre and to federal initiatives in the creative economy could amplify impact. Alignment with emerging assurance approaches — from quality centres to AI Act compliance support — will help ensure the offer is not only useful but also safe and compliant.
For now, the signal is clear: public buyers are building the connective tissue — offices, networks, and training — that lets cultural workers learn, test and apply AI with confidence. The NRW office is the latest step in that trend.
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