Tackling Barriers

Dear visitors to Gessnerallee, dear artists

At Gessnerallee, one focus is on accessibility and ensuring access for as many people as possible, alongside presenting a diverse and exciting programme.

In this weekly letter, we would like to introduce you to an organisation that is hugely important to our work. This is because there are now quick and straightforward answers in Zurich to questions about accessibility in the cultural sector. These can be found at ZAK – Zürich Access Kultur. Since January 2026, the organisation, funded by the City of Zurich, has been working to break down barriers in cultural institutions, at festivals and at events. The organisation was founded with the aim of establishing itself in the long term as a centre of expertise for structural accessibility within Zurich’s cultural sector. Its goal is to embed inclusion in cultural structures in a sustainable, competent and creative manner. The service is free of charge and is aimed at all art and cultural sectors.

Journalist Raffaela Angstmann spoke to the three founders of ZAK – Nina Mühlemann, Brianna Deeprose and Pauline Della Bianca – and provides an insight into their work in the form of a feature article (only in German) in the latest issue of the Gessnerallee newspaper. Here’s what this work might involve in practice: at Gessnerallee, experts from ZAK advised us on the purchase and installation of a platform lift, which enables artists with disabilities to access the stage at Stall6. In addition, ZAK offers public and in-house workshops; we, the Gessnerallee team, took part in an anti-ableism* workshop in June. Further information on ZAK: https://www.zak-verein.ch/

* The term ableism originates from the US disability rights movement. It describes the discrimination against people with disabilities, whereby people are judged by certain abilities – such as walking, seeing or socialising – and reduced to their disability (Diversity Arts Berlin).

Newspaper

Tackling Barriers

The association ZAK – Zürich Access Kultur – advises cultural institutions on how to make their events accessible to as many people as possible. Journalist Raffaela Angstmann met with the founders, Nina Mühlemann, Brianna Deeprose and Pauline Della Bianca, for an interview. Read the article (only in German)

‘The need for action is just sitting around on the ground floor’

Accessibility, heritage protection and administrative processes – the holy trinity of the impossible? How a theatre is dealing with this tension. Read the article (only in German)

Furthermore

Hiking boots, climbing trousers or a ski jacket looking for a new lease of life? On Thursday 22 October, from 6.30 pm to 9.00 pm, Mountain Wilderness’s Alpin-Flohmi is stopping off at Stall6. Here, second-hand mountaineering and outdoor equipment can be sold, discovered and passed on. More about the Alpin-Flohmi

Next up at Gessnerallee, also at Stall6: on Saturday 17 October, MOSAIK – Intercultural Programme Weeks – will be hosting ‘MOSAIK Kitchen Stories: Athens–Zurich’. Olivia Wiederkehr and Vasiliki Sifostratoudaki will be cooking the same recipe simultaneously in Zurich and Athens. A live cooking event centred on food, cultural exchange and the stories that emerge along the way. Click here to register

We wish you a lovely second half of the week and a smooth transition into autumn.

The Gessnerallee team