Art bears within it the potential to cast off the old, conceive of the new, and recontextualise the familiar. At the same time, however, arts and cultural institutions as well as arts universities are facing criticism to the effect that they stabilise existing power relations and elites.

It was a milestone in the development of the Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology—but also of the mdw—when the stage of the Joseph Haydn-Saal came alive with a celebration of musical diversity on 24 May.

The goal of a truly diverse university is a lofty one. Making people fully aware of deep-seated patterns of thought and action as well as structural discrimination and both inclusionary and exclusionary criteria (in contexts such as entrance exams), calling these into question, and opening up new perspectives—all this and more plays a central role where diversity is concerned.

For several years now, an integrative music group for young adults with and without disabilities has been making music at the mdw.

After two years of intensive work, our university’s Diversity Strategy is finished. How diversity can be compatible with the idea of entrance exams, what concrete measures have now been planned, and just what good all this will do our institution are explained by Rector Ulrike Sych and Vice Rector Gerda Müller in the following interview.