Wider Sense GmbH is a consulting firm that supports companies, foundations and the public sector with customized research & analysis, strategic planning and implementation to effectively drive social change. Since 2019, Wider Sense has successfully advised more than 100 clients, including Stiftung Mercator, the Siemens Stiftung, the Allianz Kulturstiftung, the European Cultural Foundation, the DIPF I Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education and the Kulturstiftung der Länder.
Our Focus
As part of the Artistic Interventions in Cultural Education project, Wider Sense GmbH will develop and implement strategies and formats that will enable the qualified training and certification offerings to be transferred to other locations. Of particular interest are regional locations participating in Stiftung Mercator’s Kreativpotentiale program. The main target groups are universities and state academies where arts practitioners and cultural producers are educated. Also to be identified are institutions that are interested in adopting the qualified training program developed by the University of Hildesheim and in setting up a comparable certification offering.
Historian and education scholar Ulrike Sommer has served as managing director of Wider Sense TraFo gGmbH since 2020. Among other things, Wider Sense TraFo is involved in Stiftung Mercator’s project Kreativpotentiale im Dialog (Creative Potentials in Dialogue), supports and advises participating regions in anchoring cultural education in the school system. Prior to this, she was managing director of RuhrFutur, a collaboration of leading institutions working to improve the quality of education in the Ruhr region, and for many years held leading positions in various governmental departments for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Thanassis Kalaitzis is a certified systemic coach (DGSF) and project manager responsible for the Kreativpotentiale im Dialog project at Wider Sense TraFo gGmbH. He has been active in project development and implementation of cultural education projects for over ten years, including with Kulturagenten für kreative Schulen and Literaturwerkstatt Berlin.