In addition to regular discussions, workshops and studio visits, a Cheers for Fears Festival or Academy has been held annually since 2014 with changing partners such as Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, Theater Oberhausen, FFT Düsseldorf, IMPULSE Festival or TanzFaktur Köln. The focus of the festivals is on the presentation and feedback of artistic works – in addition, we explore a pressing question in workshops with invited guests and in discussion formats. In 2014, for example, we asked which experimental free spaces exist at universities beyond the curricula; the following year, we looked at the role of music in works of the performing and visual arts; in 2016, we wanted to know which forms of performance play a role in theatre training at NRW universities; at the Cheersfestival 2017, we were interested in the status and understanding of political “art between reflection and action”; and in 2018, we devoted ourselves to the topic “Organise yourselves! (Working) Together in the Arts”, we addressed questions of collective creation. In 2019, as part of the Impulse Theatre Festival, we invited young artists and theatre makers to explore the fine line between empowerment and self-optimisation in theatre and the arts. In 2020, under the title “Staging Complexity. A Lab on Culture and Theatre in the Digital Age” to the Academy for Theatre and Digitalisation at the Dortmund Theatre. In 2022, students, teachers, young artists and their audience met at the Cheers for Fears Festival at the tanzhaus nrw. Under the motto of interdisciplinary exchange and teaching in the arts, installative, cinematic, scenic, dance and musical formats came into contact. In addition, the panel discussion “Together for the theatre of tomorrow – training in the performing arts” was held.